DIRK NIJLAND
Dordrecht 1881-1955 Santpoort
Farmhand – Boerenknecht
charcoal on paper, 78 x 61 cm
signed and dated lower right: DN nov 09
provenance:
the artist’s estate;
Piet Nijland, the son of the artist;
private collection, the Netherlands, a present from the above, until 2022.
exhibited:
Utrecht, Vereeniging voor de Kunst, Nobelstraat 12, 1909
Tiel, Tielsche Kunstkring, 1909/10.
This large drawing shows a Dutch worker in a monumental way. The furrowed face of the old man is depicted with such clarity that the beholder can imagine the long life of hardship he had lived to this day. The man has a gaze turned away from the viewer, creating an effect of introspection. Despite the spectacularly rendered details, this is not simply a portrait but a symbolic representation of the essence of being a peasant. Dirk Nijland exhibited the drawing with the title Boerenknecht or Farmhand. Yet, the identity of the sitter is known. Pietje was Nijland’s acquaintance and modeled for him several times. His local costume indicates the region of the town Rhoon where Nijland lived. Despite Nijland’s talent for portraiture, the artist concentrated on depicting landscape and still life for most of his career.
Dirk Nijland is an important Dutch artist during the first half of the twentieth century. He was born into a wealthy family. His career and work are defined by independence. Unlike most of his contemporaries, who had to earn a living from their profession, the artist was not influenced by the latest stylistic trends. His work can be categorized among the art movement Realism. It is modern and his compositions often transmit an atmosphere of stillness and contemplation. Nijland found inspiration for his subjects in his immediate surroundings and his compositions stand out because of their unobtrusiveness. He was an extraordinary draughtsman and had a special talent for arranging intriguing compositions.
In 1901, Nijland’s work was first presented in the Netherlands at the First International Exhibition in The Hague. This exhibition was co-organized by Jan Toorop. Nijland’s drawings were shown there alongside works by Toorop, Vincent van Gogh, James Ensor, Paul Cézanne, Eduard Vuillard and other contemporaries. Nijland’s work was positively received from the beginning.
The house Nijland grew up in was filled with avant-garde art. His father Hidde Nijland had been a very talented art collector, was good friends with the influential artist and exhibition organizer Jan Toorop and owned more than a hundred drawings by Vincent van Gogh. Supported by his father, fifteen-year-old Nijland began his career as an artist as an apprentice in of Antoon Derkinderen (1859-1925) in Laren. He continued his education at the Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid Amsterdam and the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschappen in Rotterdam. At the end of his artistic training in the Netherlands, young Nijland aspired to an international career at the center of the international avant-garde.
In the spring of 1900, Nijland left for Brussels. Toorop, the only Dutch member of the avant-garde circle Les Vingt, probably introduced him to the right people there. In Brussels, Nijland concentrated mainly on drawing. Furthermore, his interest in socialism is reflected in his work. In 1901 and 1902 he worked in Brussels and in Paris where the work of Georges Seurat and the late paintings of Vincent van Gogh are important sources of inspiration. The invitation to submit work for the La Libre Esthetique exhibition shows that he was beginning to break through as an artist in Brussels. It never came to a participation at the exhibition because Nijland was too eager to return to the Netherlands. He married Marie van der Meer de Walcheren in Belgium and, via a brief detour to Florence, returned to the Netherlands in circa 1904.
Nijland and his family settled in Rhoon a small town nearby Rotterdam in 1905. It is not far away from Dordrecht where Nijland was born. The recognizable industrialized river landscape dominated by water is frequently depicted by the artist. In 1920 the artist moved to Leiden and then three years later to Wassenaar not far from the North Sea coast. The last two years of his life the painter spent in Santpoort. He did not produce much more work there. Around 1915, contact between Nijland and Hendricus Bremmer started. Bremmer would have a relatively large influence on the development of Nijland’s career in the following years. Nijland was not dependent on financial support from the influential art critic and pedagogue. The most valuable thing Bremmer could offer Nijland was dialogue and advice. Bremmer advised the artist to concentrate more on believing that the medium of woodcut would be ideal for the purpose. Soon after, Nijland specialized in woodcuts. His prints are among the best produced in the Netherlands during this period. Bremmer references Nijland’s work in several publications. Several of Bremmer’s students acquire work by Nijland. The best known is probably Mrs. Kröller-Müller. She purchased dozens of Nijland’s paintings, drawings and prints.