Henry Luyten
Henry Luyten or Jan Hendrik Luyten[1] (21 May 1859 in Roermond – 21 January 1945 in Brasschaat) was a Dutch-born Belgian painter. He is known for his genre scenes, marines, landscapes, portraits and animal scenes.[2]
Biography
Hendrik Luyten was born in Roermond,
In the period from 1886 to 1887 Luyten resided in the Borinage, a coalmining area in the south of Belgium where the working and living conditions of the miners were appalling. Here he witnessed the great strike and its bloody suppression. In response, he painted the triptych "The Strike" on which he worked until 1893. The painting (international title: "Struggle for Life") measures 3 by 5 metres (120 by 200 in). The painting on the right-hand panel (3 by 2.5 metres (118 by 98 in)) is called "After the uprising" and the left-hand panel is called "Misery".
On 17 April 1890 Luyten married Joanna Francisca Brees (1854โ1916). A son named Henry Francis was born on 28 November 1892 from this marriage. The family settled for some time in Merksem. In 1896 Luyten became a naturalized Belgian. He then established himself as an artist in Brasschaat, near Antwerp. In his house, an old farmhouse surrounded by a large garden, he opened a private school of painting around 1900, the Institut des Beaux Arts Henry Luyten. Here he taught pupils from across Europe and the United States and let them paint from nature. His international students included Mara Corradini (Italy/Switzerland), Flora Zenker (Germany), Mary Poulle (USA), Pierre Blanc (Luxembourg), Maria Jansen (Netherlands), Mathilde Bernard (Belgium), Charles Myr Lesaar (Belgium), and Hedwich Behnisch (Breslau). Hedwich Behnisch would become his second wife in 1917 after the death of his first wife Joanna. Behnisch was born in 1873 in Luszkowa (Hohenangern) in the former German province of Posen. Her family owned large estates and castles in Silesia, but lost everything after World War II.
Luyten was blamed after
Embittered, he and his wife left Belgium for a number of years and the couple settled in northern Germany in Wieck am Darss on the Baltic Sea. In 1923 he returned to Brasschaat as a convinced flamingant.
At the end of 1923 Luyten stayed several weeks in
Luyten had to pay for his perceived stance during the World War I twenty years later. At the start of World War II, the octogenarian was jailed for one night. During the post-war repression following the liberation of parts of Belgium he was lifted from his sickbed in January 1945 and again jailed for one night. He died a few days later.
Works
As a painter, Luyten was very versatile. Best known as an impressionist landscape painter, he also excelled in portraits and genre scenes. He was influenced by the 19th century
One of his most famous works is The Golden Canvass of Flanders ('Het Gulden Doek van Vlaanderen') in which Luyten depicts a fictional meeting of the one hundred odd people who in his opinion played a key role in Flemish history and the
References
- ^ Name variations: Hendrik Jan Luyten, Hendrik Luyten, Henry Luyten, Henri Luyten, Hendry Luyten, Rik Luyten, Jean Henry Luyten
- ^ Jan Hendrik Luyten at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
- ^ Oorlogssmet kleeft aan opgeknapt doek, article on the checkered history of the painting The Golden Canvass of Flanders (in Dutch)
Further reading
- ISBN 90-341-0857-0)
- Jozef De Beenhouwer, 'Institut des Beaux Arts Henry Luyten' te Brasschaat: Een Terugblik na Honderd Jaar (Brasschaat: Pandora, 2008; ISBN 978-90-5325-293-2)
- Web page of the IJzertoren museum showing the painting The Golden Canvass of Flanders
External links
Media related to Henry Luyten at Wikimedia Commons