Willem Gerrit van de Hulst - Atmospheric impressionistic oil painting "mother and child on the beach" - Sold

• Beautiful oil on canvas painting, in 1984 by the Utrecht painter, sculptor and (children's) book illustrator Willem G. van de Hulst impressionistic and with coarse brushstroke painted representation of a woman with child on the beach. Signed and dated lower right. The canvas is in good condition and that also applies to the valuable SaintHill frame.

Willem Gerrit van de Hulst was born in June 1917 in Utrecht as the eldest son of the author of Protestant-Christian youth literature WG van de Hulst Sr. His mother, Jeanette Maan, was a French teacher. During his primary school years, Willem developed a passion for the violin and took lessons at the conservatory in Utrecht.
But, it turns out he has another talent: painting and drawing.
His brother and sister choose astronomy and veterinary medicine respectively as their study direction. Another brother starts a career in the navy.
Willem is allowed to choose: conservatory, where he was already admitted, or the National Academy of Fine Arts, where he actually cannot go because he is too young at 16. He chooses the visual arts and after a 'test of competence' he is admitted as a very exceptional case and an exciting and intensive training period in the craft begins for him.
At the end of 1939 he successfully completed his education and with borrowed money he bought an inland vessel that was converted into a residential studio. War threatened. In the meantime he had fallen in love and married in 1941. He tried to make ends meet by illustrating - mainly his father's - children's books. Later he added other books, including a beautiful commemorative book about the Dutch Gunpowder Factory. He also made school publications for the publishers Samsom/Kluwer and Wolters Noordhoff. He always continued to paint - undisturbed - but in periods, 'when the time had come again in terms of peace and inspiration'. After the war his wife left him and Willem moved to Paris where he lived and worked for 2 years at the Académie de la Chaumière, where Osip Jocelyn Zadkin also taught. Willem would, at his request, replace him as a teacher several times...
Willem is however an artist with a strong need for space, horizons, skies and vistas and Paris becomes too oppressive. Also, as a pronounced loner, he finds no brothers in the artistic struggle for existence. He returns to the Netherlands, buys another ship to live on and in 1951 marries Diet, the woman who will share his life for fifty years. The young couple is able to buy a piece of land and the first of five houses that he will design and build, is occupied. In the following years three children are born which forces him to provide for the family in a serious livelihood. He writes and illustrates twenty children's books.
In 1973 his work, then exclusively oil paint and watercolor, was shown at Galerie Harry de Jong in Zeist and at the City Art Gallery, Oakland, USA. He also exhibited in Menton and Roque-Brüne, France.
This public appearance, this 'coming out of the closet' attracts media attention. Newspaper, radio and television interviews follow and the confusion with his father proves to be great and persistent. In 1983 his second collection for adults is published: 'Eenkwestie van tijd', fifteen short stories. In the same year he starts the eight-part 'De Metro' which he will work on for three years.
In 1988, the Singer Museum in Laren devoted a major retrospective to Van de Hulst's work, and he also exhibited at Galerie 2000 in Amsterdam. In the same year, his collection of stories 'Wachten op de kraakwagen' was published by Uitgeverij Kok.

Early 1994 the art book 'Willem G. van de Hulst - painter, writer, sculptor in light and space' was published.
In the spring of 1997, the 50-minute television documentary 'In Search of the Light' about the life and work of Willem G. van de Hulst is broadcast in the report series 'Document'. In April 1999, Willem receives the royal distinction of Officer in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.