Martin van Waning - Havengezicht 019-MW - Sold

Harbor view by Martin van Waning (1889 – 1972) from the Rijnmond Toen collection under no. 019-MW

Biography Gijsbertus Martinus Wilhelmus Franciscus “Martin” van Waning was born on September 4, 1889 in The Hague.
He lived and worked there, in Rotterdam, Wiesbaden, Rees am Rhein, Dusseldorf, Lunteren and Schiermonnikoog. Van Waning was a student of WHPJ de Zwart, Jan van Rhijnen and Charles Dankmeijer.
The life course of Martin van Waning can be read as an exciting story. 0Martin van Waning was destined for a career in technology. During his studies he painted regularly and to everyone's surprise, he then turned his back on technique for good and devoted himself to painting and sculpture. Charles Dankmeijer and Willem de Zwart, among others, became his teachers and years later Van Waning painted in the art center in Wiesbaden, where he had great success. Perhaps he would have stayed there if he had not met the Russian Grand Duke Orloff, who admired his work and who also appointed him his private secretary. Van Waning traveled through Europe with the Grand Duke. He painted in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and North Africa. In 1917 he returned to the Netherlands and settled in Oostvoorne, later in England and in 1926 we find him in the Veluwe, where he also made the 12 enormous paintings, which we now know as the Veluwe cycle, but which are almost all destroyed. In 1934 the painter came to Schiermonnikoog, without intending to stay there. This visit, however, once again gave a decisive turn to his life. He was given the former nautical school on the island as a studio and exhibition space. During World War I, he almost perished under the rubble of the same naval academy, when a shot-down bomber unleashed its destructive payload over the island. Virtually all saved work was destroyed in a matter of seconds. After months of recovery, however, he regained his old strength and got the courage to start again. His origins from the Hague School can clearly be recognized in his work, his work is as happy as he himself, cheerful as the painter who received thousands of bathers and who did not say goodbye to them without saying goodbye. His work can be divided into different periods: when he lived in The Hague, the Veluwe and Schiermonnikoog. His oeuvre, which was initially characterized by heavy and even gloomy colors, has developed into a lively and clear color palette, with an emphasis on space, light and tranquility. He was especially a master in painting whimsical clouds with the sunlight shining through them. His etchings display a Rembrandtesque atmosphere and are strongly related to those of Marius Bauer. In his etchings, Van Waning imbibed with a certain eagerness the beauty of ancient cultures, incorporated in cathedrals, picturesque streets and neighbourhoods. On Schiermonnikoog in the Middenstreek he found what he had been looking for for years in many countries: peace, tranquility and beauty. He has chosen the beauty of the island as the subject of numerous paintings. Source: Graafschapbode 3-4-1981, on the occasion of the opening of an exhibition of paintings and etchings by Martin van Waning. Info: Lexicon Pieter A. Scheen, Lexicon PMJ Jacobs, Wikipedia, RKD