Hollandse School (XX) - De Kolk in Rotterdam

Hendrik Fredrik Wegerif (1881–1939) - De Kolk in Rotterdam

- Without frame (height x width): 50 cm x 70 cm
- With frame (height x width): 63 cm x 83 cm

Hendrik Fredrik Wegerif was born on May 1, 1881, in The Hague and died on April 5, 1939. He was a Dutch painter who was mainly active in the first part of the twentieth century. During his life he lived and worked in several cities in the South Holland region, including The Hague, Schiedam, Voorburg and Rotterdam. These settings provided him with ample inspiration for the subjects that would come to dominate his body of work.

Wegerif worked in a naturalistic and impressionistic style strongly influenced by the Hague School. His paintings, often executed in oil on canvas or panel, are characterized by a brisk and substantial use of paint. With broad, decisive brushstrokes, he captured the atmosphere, light, and the Dutch sky in a lively way.

His work is thematically deeply rooted in the Dutch landscape and urban life. He had a strong preference for historical cityscapes with canals, old façades and monumental buildings, with Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and The Hague frequently serving as the setting. The dynamics of inner harbors, shipping, and moored historic vessels such as tjalks and clippers also formed a through-line in his work. In addition, he painted traditional Dutch landscapes with windmills, farmhouses, moats, and willows under wide cloudy skies.

Wegerif left behind a substantial body of atmospheric, exacting time documents that reflect the characteristic Dutch urban and waterlandscape of the pre-World War II era.