Between two worlds

Kees Verwey grew up in the shadow of big names. His father was politically active and published many articles on socio-economic issues. His brother was the famous poet, critic and essayist Albert Verwey. And no less famous was another uncle: the architect HP Berlage. The family maintained warm relations with both of them. Kees Verwey knew them well. He also came into contact with several influential friends from his uncles' circles, such as the artist Richard Roland Holst.

Who were these cultural bearers? What influence did they have on the young Kees Verwey? And why did Verwey ultimately choose the rather obscure Boot as his mentor?

Kees Verwey spent the first 20 years of his life in an environment where social involvement, idealism, art and culture were central. The national luminaries in these areas came to his home. They discussed various subjects with each other, including Kees' creative development. That does not leave a boy unmoved. Did they stimulate his development?

He once said about the influence of cultural figures such as Albert Verwey, HP Berlage and his father on him:

'There were so many celebrities in my family and in my immediate environment that the multitude had a paralyzing effect on me and I was almost suffocated by the overwhelming force among which I grew up as a child'.

Kees Verwey's personality will have contributed to this. He described himself in 'Proeve van een geschreven zelfportret' as follows:

'As a boy he was tall, scared and a bit strange. He stuttered and was shunned in the family because of his apartheid. At school he was a difficult pupil. The other children bossed him around.'

But with his drawings he gained everyone's attention and respect. He received admiration especially from his mother, Jacqueline Bienfait.

Who were the celebrities in his immediate environment? And what did they mean to Kees Verwey?

Albert Verwey and Impressionism

Albert Verwey (1865-1937) was at the heart of cultural life in the Netherlands for many years. Together with Willem Kloos and Frederik van Eeden, he was one of the founders of De Nieuwe Gids: the magazine with which the Tachtigers would startle the sleepy Dutch literary world in 1885 with a powerful new sound in favor of aesthetics and emotion.

Later, Albert Verwey distanced himself from the ideals of De Nieuwe Gids and focused on the principles of community art. According to this international movement, art should play a social role. The design of public space, of home and hearth, art, clothing and utensils should contribute to a new impetus for everyone. His magazine De Beweging (1905-1919) profiled itself as the organ of community art. Contributors included HP Berlage, the statesman Troelstra and the writers PC Boutens and Van Eeden.

Kees Verwey would repeatedly stay with his uncle Albert in Noordwijk aan Zee. He was initiated by him into the work of Dutch painters. He said about it:

'When I came to his house as a boy, in Villa Nova, he would take me past all his paintings (and there were Breitners, Derkinderens, Toorops, Isaac Israels and Karsens among them) and tell me everything about them. Where they came from, who made them, etc.'

HP Berlage and community art

The other famous uncle was architect HP Berlage (1856-1934). He is considered the father of modern Dutch architecture. Berlage was an architect who managed to break away from the historical styles used in his time. He gave architecture a rational foundation. And he was therefore admired by the architects of the New Building and the Amsterdam School. He was considered a teacher and inspiration.

Berlage had in common with the later Albert Verwey that he based his work on the conviction that art had to be related to the material and social developments of his time. That is partly why Berlage was so active in the field of urban development in the Netherlands.

In his parental home in Santpoort, Kees Verwey's studio was located in an extension designed by Berlage.

Chris Verwey and the commitment

Kees' father, Chris Verwey (1866-1944), worked as chief bookkeeper and accountant at De Algemeene Maatschappij van Levensverzekering en Lijfrente, at the time the largest life insurance company in the Netherlands. But his ambitions lay elsewhere. Chris Verwey did not achieve the fame of his brother and brother-in-law. Nevertheless, he manifested himself emphatically in broad circles as a socially committed man. He was the founder, active member and leader of the Liberal Socialist Movement, which campaigned for the abolition of large-scale land ownership. He was also editor-in-chief of De Uitweg, the magazine of his party, for several years. In it he published many articles on economic issues.

Verwey settled with his family in 1908, after some wandering, on the edge of the dune area in Santpoort. At home on the wall hung works by Eduard Karsen and Willem Witsen and there were reproductions of Holbein.

Lost in my own time

Kees Verwey's environment was therefore strongly focused on social issues and they wanted to base art on that. Community art, decoration, monumentalism… These are core concepts within that concept of art. There seemed to be no place for traditional free painting.

'Through my environment and family relationships I seemed to be predisposed to enter the monumental atmosphere', Verwey once said. It seems an understatement about the effect of all the celebrities on him. Monumental art really always surrounded him, even when he occasionally made an outing to Amsterdam with his father.

For example, the building in which Chris Verwey's employer was housed was designed by Berlage. They looked at Derkinderen's murals together. And then of course there was Berlage's Beurs, which they visited regularly. The decoration program, with work by Jan Toorop among others, was put together by Berlage with the help of Albert Verwey.

In a personal atmosphere, Kees Verwey also met his uncles' friends, such as the artist Richard Roland Holst, a convinced supporter of community art.

Community art was everywhere. But Dutch impressionism was also never far away, thanks to Albert Verwey. It was no wonder that these movements had a great influence on the young artist. Although the freer style of impressionism seems to have appealed to him the most. He himself said about it in 'Proeve van een geschreven zelfportret':

'The baggage he received from his family was not insignificant. The spirit that mainly characterized his parental home was half a century behind in time. Painters such as Breitner, Verster, Witsen, Karsen, made a deep impression on him and this impression […] penetrated his being forever. In this way he was already shaped in advance by his origins and environment. […] He makes frantic attempts to escape from his isolation as an Eighties painter. He has not succeeded. He remains […] a person lost in his own time'.

HF Boot and free painting

Kees Verwey gained a new perspective on art – and with it a new perspective on his own possibilities – when he started to move outside his own circle. At the insistence of his drawing teacher at the HBS, he became acquainted with the painter HF Boot (1877–1963). Verwey ended up in a messy studio in a Haarlems working-class neighborhood so fascinated by Boot's still lifes that he wanted to take lessons from him. Boot initially refused – painters had to be simple people and not belong to 'learned or reputable elite circles' – but he allowed Verwey to visit him occasionally for advice.

The young artist developed quickly thanks to Boot's advice and he wanted to prove himself in the field of free painting. He therefore left the HBS prematurely in 1918. Strangely enough, he did not register for a drawing course or painting lessons. Verwey registered as a student at the Preparatory Department of the School for Applied Arts, thus returning to the bosom of community art. It would be the beginning of a whole series of unfinished courses.

Kees Verwey became so disappointed in his expectations of the various courses that he even lost interest in painting altogether. He converted to music and took violin lessons. This change did not leave the family untouched, as is evident from a letter from Albert Verwey to Kees' father from 1919:

'I happened to speak to Kees in Amsterdam on Friday. He told me about his latest career change. That is of course a crazy plan and will correct itself as such. (…) If I understood Kees correctly, then you will let him do his thing for the time being, without approving what he does. (…) If, as I think is inevitable, a reaction to the current anti-drawing sentiment occurs, then he will probably gain a different insight and then it may still be possible to influence his actions. Berlage was here on Saturday and I could not resist talking to him about it. He was always prepared to help (…). He will tell you at the end of this week, when he is in Haarlem must be, do speak to it. I think, however, that before Kees himself changes his mind again, there will be little to do.

The turnaround that Albert Verwey had hoped for would occur a few years later, under circumstances that no one had foreseen.

To repent in prison

When Kees Verwey reported for military service in Ede in 1922, he refused to accept his uniform. Suddenly overcome by aversion, he decided to refuse service. His anti-militarist environment – ​​his parents, the Santpoort pastor Van den Bergh-van Eysinga and Berlage – supported him in this. Verwey was sentenced to ten months in prison. He read a lot, wrote and started drawing again. Well-known and praised are the sketches he made after reading Cervantes' Don Quixote. Hopmans said about it:

'The read “scenes” are poignant and sometimes very suggestive, with a few brush strokes and washes after a chalk drawing, put on paper'.

He told his mother: 'Say, do you know what I would have loved to have been to; that Breitner exhibition (...) in the Kalverstraat'. His 'anti-drawing mood' is now definitely a thing of the past.

Once out of prison, he made some of his best-known works, such as the portraits of Albert Verwey and his mother. They are painted with a 'looseness' that suggests he has left the strict lessons of the School of Applied Arts behind him. Incidentally, he was forcefully addressed about this looseness in 1923 by Richard Roland Holst, then professor at the National Academy of Visual Arts. About the famous portrait of Albert Verwey he said:

'Bluff! There's a bunch of bluff. Stay away from greasy chalk and thick brushes. You should use a thin hard pencil and then try wagging your tail again'. And: 'You naturally tend more towards the monumental'.

Verwey thought differently about this, as did Boot.