Notes

Born in The Hague (Den Haag) to a baker father who recognised his son’s talent, Nuijen was apprenticed at age twelve to Andreas Schelfhout. Between 1825 and 1829 he studied at the Den Haag Tekenacademie, under Bartholomeus Johannes van Hove.

Wijnand Nuijen, who died young, is the most striking romantic painter the Netherlands has produced. Nuijen was unusual among Dutch painters of the period, his theatricality and liberal style contrasting with the near photographic depiction that was then the norm.

Unlike his compatriots, Nuijen was directly inspired by the French and English painting of his time. A looser painting style and pronounced use of color were the result. To gain inspiration, Nuijen traveled along the French coast. Nuijen was a student of the famous landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870), but his romantic, almost fairytale-like depictions of Normandy are more in line with the international art of the time than with Dutch art. He was initially criticized for this. But at his early death, everyone was convinced of his great talent, including ‘art king’ Willem II (1792-1849), who owned Nuijen’s painting The Old Mill in Winter from 1838.

The Felix Meritis society of Amsterdam awarded him a medal in 1829 for his watercolour of a forest landscape. On completion of his tuition he travelled to Belgium, France and Germany, at times with his painting companion Antonie Waldorp [1803–1866]. Nuijen became a member of the Koninklijke Akademie in Amsterdam in 1836, and just before his death he married the daughter of Schelfhout, his former tutor.

The painter, who died at the young age of 26, produced only a modest oeuvre. His work is mainly in museum collections.

Museums

Rijksmuseum

Teylers Museum

Wallace Collection

Amsterdam Museum

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen

Kröller-Müller Museum

Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Groninger Museum