Herman Mees

HERMAN MEES Born: 19th September 1880 in Veendam, the Netherlands; Died: 28th November 1964 in Zuidlaren, the Netherlands.

Education and Training 

Followed classes by the water colourist Jan de Jong and J. Nachtweh while in High School. Attended day and evening classes at the Rijksacademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam under the tuition of Prof. A. Allebé (1901-1903);

Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschappen in Rotterdam; Silver medal as first prize for life drawing (nudes; 1903/04)

Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague (1905 for Teacher’s Certificate)

London School of Art under the guidance of Frank Brangwyn (probably around 1905, evening classes and life drawing lessons (nudes)

Lessons from Willem van Konijnenburg (1921).

Genre and Technique: Portraits, self-portraits and group portraits (many of children); landscapes (Limburg, Drenthe, Zuid-Holland) and city scenes (i.e. Rotterdam, Middelburg, Zieriksee, London and Paris); flowers and still-life; religious works; animal studies (inspired by animals at the zoo in Rotterdam).

A painter and lithographer he worked in oil, watercolour, pastel and pencil. Early works show the influence of his friend Willem van Konijnenburg; later he developed his own impressionist style.

Exhibitions

1909  'Oldenseel', Rotterdam.

1939Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (group exhibition)

1941 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (group exhibition)

1951 Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (solo)

1961Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (solo)

1988'’t Bleekerhûs', Drachten (posthumously)

2009 Veenkoloniaal Museum at Veendam, his place of birth (postumously)

Biography

Hermannus Ellen Mees, born as the third of six children in a doctor’s family in Veendam, the Netherlands, grew up in a comfortable environment. In 1897 the family moved to Rotterdam and there Herman completed his final High School exams in 1899.

After his military service in 1900 he began to read Civil Engineering at the University of Delft.

A year later in 1901, against his father’s wishes, he sat and passed the entrance exams for the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam, where Jan Sluyters, the art critic Huib Luns and Chris Lebeau were to be his contemporaries.

In 1903 he lived for a while in Mook, Limburg and painted mainly landscapes.

In 1904 he won first prize in a life drawing competition and was awarded a silver medal by the Rotterdamse Academie. A year later, after studying and working very hard for six months, Herman Mees qualified as a Teacher of Art. He had satisfied his father by getting a qualification, 'a piece of paper', for the future.

Herman Mees then began travelling abroad. He lived and worked in England for three years, in Paris for six months and visited Munich and Dresden. He used his time abroad to study famous works of art in musea wherever he went. In particular he copied pictures in the National Gallery in London. In Italy, murals made a big impression on him.

In 1909 after his first exhibition in 'Oldenseel', Rotterdam, where park scenes from Paris and Kew Gardens, London, as well as portraits were shown, he became teacher of Drawing at he Rotterdamse Academie. He taught evening classes and the timing of these allowed him five months holiday a year which he used again to travel abroad. In 1916 Herman Mees married Jeannette Petronella van Aken. She was 21 when she married the 35 year old artist. They had three sons and one daughter, none of who showed any artistic talent as children.

Finally in 1923 Herman Mees became head teacher at the Academie in Rotterdam . He had scores of pupils, including Jan van Heel and Joan Bakker. During the lessons he would perform and recite Oscar Wilde’s 'Florentine Tragedy'.

Officially, he left the Academie in 1943, but after that he was still often seen in the corridors, where he would view the work of newcomers. He set up a group called the 'Onafhankelijken', the Independents, and presided over it for three years. The group was against categorizing or compartmentalising free expression in art, which was then the official trend.

He was a member of Pulchri and de Rotterdamse Kunstenaars Societeit en Pulchri Studio in The Hague (both during 1944-1969).

In 1951 he was given the 'Penning van de Leuve' by the Rotterdamse Kunststichting. He was the first to be honoured with this distinction. In reviews of his work he was called: '..not only an artist but also an art scholar' '..his looks intelligent, his character distinctive' '.. a poet' '..his paintings show tranquility'. Many of his ideas and thoughts which he expressed in various ways (e.g. poetry) were lost in May 1940 when the Academie in the heart of Rotterdam was bombed. Many paintings, sculptures and portfolio’s of drawings and sketches were lost at that time.