Details

Name

Bernardus Johannes Blommers

Brief Biography

1845 - 1914, Dutch

Occupation

Artist

Description

Blommers was one of the most respected Dutch painters of his day. He received many honours and medals both at home and abroad and after the death of Israëls in 1911 was elected president of the Dutch Drawing Society. Many Scottish collectors purchased his work and in 1897 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours. When he and his family traveled to the United States in 1904 he was received by President Roosevelt.
As his father owned a printing business Blommers originally trained as a lithographer, but soon took painting lessons from Christoffel Bisschop (1828 – 1904). He studied at The Hague Academy where he met Willem Maris, with whom he traveled along the Rhine in 1865. In this same year one of his paintings of a Scheveningen subject was given a place of honour beside a painting by Israëls at the Exhibition of Living Masters in Amsterdam. Blommers had met Israëls while painting on the beach at Scheveningen and the two men remained friends throughout their lives. Israëls influenced Blommers’ artistic development. Both artists painted scenes illustrating the life of the peasants and the fishing communities, concentrating on cottage interiors, dune scenes and seascapes in which figures play a leading role. In 1868 Blommers moved into a studio with Willem Maris and received frequent visits from other members of The Hague School including Willem’s brother Matthijs Maris and Anton Mauve. In 1870 when Blommers visited Paris he stayed with Willem’s other artist brother Jacob Maris. Blommers, who would have preferred to settle in Paris, was forced to return to the Netherlands when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. Until the turn of the century, Blommers worked mainly in Scheveningen with occasional visits to Zandvoort. When Scheveningen developed into a popular seaside resort the little fishing village of Katwijk became his favourite place of work. In 1871 he married Anna van der Toorn from Scheveningen. A regular sitter for him, she appears in many of his paintings. As Blommers’ work became extremely popular he was able to afford to have a villa built in The Hague in 1880 where he lived with his family for the rest of his life.