Herman Mees

Herman Mees’ greatest talent lay in painting and drawing portraits. In particular, the following should be mentioned:

A series of portraits of professors at the University of Utrecht; Prominent business people in Rotterdam and other cities; H.H. van Dam A.Czn, Chairman of the board of the Rotterdamse Academie; Portraits in pencil of Willem van Konijnenburg, Jan Prins, the poets J.H. Leopold (1922) and P.C. Boutens (1942); Portrait of Queen Wilhelmina (1937), commissioned by the Union of Friesian Women as a wedding present for Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard. The Queen sat for the painting for eight sessions of two hours each. She is seen sitting at her easel with palette in her hand; Another portrait of Queen Wilhelmina commissioned by the Citizens and presented to the Council of Rotterdam; Portrait of Queen Juliana after photo’s, which is now in the Dutch Club in NewYork; Many self-portraits and many, many portraits of children.

Group-portraits: The 'Maalmeesters', a group of directors of flour factories from all over Holland; A group of birthday well wishers, painted outside in the summer; A painting of himself seen from the back, in front of his easel and surrounded by pupils. Religious works: 'The Emmausgangers' (or 'The Road to Emmaus') in the St. Laurenskerk in Rotterdam; 'Christ with apostles' in the Nederlands Hervormde Kerk in Veendam, his birthplace.

Sketches in Indian Ink: These small drawings were started when Herman Mees was ill during the last years of the second world war to pass the time. They are like figures from a fairy tale, dynamic and full of imagination.

Between 1903 and 1906 Herman Mees became intrigued by Theosophy without being distracted from painting. However, when he met and later became friends with the philosopher G.J.P.J. Bolland very little painting was done for about two years while he attended Bolland’s courses and read his books.

In 1912, he met Willem A. van Konijnenburg, the artist from The Hague, whom he admired as an artist, a teacher and friend. He was always interested in new movements in the art world. He tried to understand new directions and not to judge them.

When he was 80 years old, Herman Mees travelled with his wife to Morocco to paint some portraits. In the same year they went to the West Indies to visit his daughter and where he was given several commissions. For the last year of his rich and happy life he lived in Zuidlaren, in the countryside, where he enjoyed nature and the changes that every season brought.