User:Johannes van Hell

JOHAN VAN HELL (1889-1952) – Dutch visual artist and musician

The artist and his dreams When Johan van Hell was a mere boy of 14 years he already knew what he wanted to be and do with his life. Such focus at such a young age is rare “I want to become an artist and a musician and I want to pursue both careers with all my strength.” That was 1903, the year that van Hell enrolled as a student at an Art School in Amsterdam. He never looked back. All his life he would juggle these two ambitions – periods of almost frantic painting followed by periods of mostly music making. But it would never be a question of either/or: his visual art production would never altogether stop and neither would his music. Throughout his life he would teach both music and art. He quickly honed his skills, becoming a qualified art teacher in 1909 and simultaneously developing into an exceptionally good clarinet player. His talent was twofold, had great potential and he instinctively knew that from an early age. That this dedication to two different muses took its toll from his ultimate achievements in either field cannot be disputed. His art oeuvre, for instance, while remarkable in quality, is not overwhelming in size. What sets this man apart are his first class accomplishments in both areas. It is interesting to note that both his first and his second wife shared his passions. He married Pauline (Pau) Wijnman in 1915. The two had met in art academy and she was a skillful artist. Sadly both she and his second wife Caroline (Lien) Lankhout succumbed at a relatively young age to Parkinson’s disease. Lien was an accomplished concert pianist; Johan had known her for years and she had been a fellow-musician in several ensembles. Both wives also shared his devotion to the socialist cause. The love of a good musician Pupil of the eminent Dutch clarinetist Piet Swager, Johan van Hell quickly mastered the difficult instrument to the point that the world-renowned Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam repeatedly invited him to join their ranks. He was evidently recognized as one of Holland’s finest. Typical of van Hell he steadfastly refused, apparently not wanting anything to limit his freedom of movement. However, he agreed to become a replacement clarinetist, regularly attending rehearsals and playing in concerts in that position. He even joined the orchestra twice on tours, once to Berlin and once to Paris. Since he also was a good oboist he would occasionally replace the regular oboist of the orchestra as well. Johan had an eclectic taste in music ranging from the baroque to a genuine appreciation of jazz. Later in his life he would display a love for the music by the ‘modern’ 12-tone composers such as Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg. It illustrates a recurring theme in van Hell’s working life: he would always keep an open mind about things and be looking for new inspiration. We will recognize that in his visual work as well. Apart from his busy schedule as music teacher (he would teach at his home) van Hell often played with smaller ensembles. It was in this environment that he would mostly play the more modern compositions. In his later years, chamber music was his passion. He would get together once a week in his apartment with three or four musician friends to ‘make music’. In 1936 composer Daniel Ruyneman dedicated to van Hell a specially composed sonata for piano and clarinet. Johan’s career with the famous Concertgebouw Orchestra introduced him to many of Holland’s best-known musicians. He knew Willem Mengelberg, the country’s foremost conductor intimately and scores of others. He would regularly play with them and with his old mentor Piet Swager both in the orchestra and in smaller ensembles. The man and his social conscience. The artist is always present in his work: he is the observer, the interpreter and, sometimes, the critic. Johan was all three. He is the quiet observer who shows us life as he saw it. And what he saw was not all pretty. He was a man with concern for the plight of his fellow being and an open eye for the social abuse that was prevalent in the years in which he was growing up. The suffering endured by his subjects is often visible in their eyes; the unfairness of society is clearly expressed in some of his more pronounced socially inspired works. His criticism - his commentary - would, however, always be subdued – never biting. There can be no doubt that Van Hell was a convinced socialist, almost certainly spurred on by his first wife who was politically active in the Socialist Party and Youth Movement. All the standard works by the socialist/communist pioneers were on his bookshelves Nevertheless he was not in any way a political activist. His convictions were expressed through his support in designing posters and pamphlets and in the quiet criticism he included in his paintings and lithographs. For all his political interests he would always remain the artist first and foremost. He also remained aloof to the mystic idealism of some expressions of the Socialist Idea, although one can recognize some of the symbolism of the ‘new beginning’ in his palette. Johan van Hell, the visual artist. One of the most interesting aspects of Johan’s development as a notable visual artist is the way he let himself be influenced by various new schools without ever committing himself to any one of them. It is clear that he was acutely aware of what was happening around him nationally and internationally. He would experiment but then move on - until around 1925, when he would develop his own distinctive style that would remain with him until the start of the Second World War. This refusal to commit seems to have been something very intrinsic in the man. He was the uncommitted seeker, looking with an open mind at everything that was coming his way but always keeping his distance. As most budding artists do, Johan started by painting friends and members of his family. Those early portraits are beautifully and classically painted showing him as a portraitist of the first order. Often undated they are from the period 1910 to 1915. Almost all are in oil, some are watercolour. He also displays a love for the countryside, portraying small farm buildings, a narrow waterway with a small barge, a farmer traipsing through a field carrying a bag and the like. Similarly he will paint the view from his apartment building – the streets and parks. However, the romantic countryside rather soon gives way to a more realistic execution: even in his idyllic scenes, such as skaters on a frozen pond or a rustic scene, he will not blot out the more unsightly factory buildings right next to them. That is the way it was and that is how van Hell entrusts it to his canvas. Van Hell starts his teaching career by accepting a job as an art teacher at a public school in Amsterdam in 1911. He will remain a schoolteacher on and off for most of the period until the start of World War II. In addition he would teach at his home. By 1915 one can see changes in his painting style; he is more daring in his use of more strongly coloured areas and this is attributed to the influence of the post-impressionist fauvist school (e.g. Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Georges Braque), which, for a while also influenced Sluyters’ work. Well-known Dutch born painter Jan Sluyters (1881 – 1957) lived and worked a part of his life in Paris and it had been mostly through him that these new ideas had reached Holland from France around 1910. We are now in the middle of World War I (1914 – 1918). Although Holland manages to stay neutral van Hell is called into active service in 1917 and will serve for 20 months in the Southern province of Brabant. Just as Vincent van Gogh did years before him in Belgium (with The Potato Eaters) van Hell would paint some of the gnarled faces of the poverty stricken rural inhabitants. However, on the whole his output during the war years was minimal. Relief arrives with the end of the war and van Hell’s happy return to Amsterdam. His output during 1919 and ensuing years is high – as if he wants to make good on lost time and needs to vent all the ideas that he has gathered during the war years. New influences appear to enter his style: a bit of cubism here and a bit of expressionism there. It is all carefully handled. In addition we see some symbolism realized in his works. But the artist in van Hell is clearly still seeking and developing. We see the development of a social engagement in his works, picturing the unemployed in their plight. Particularly striking is his Man with Sandwich Board, a sad picturing of being caught between a rock and a hard place. Here’s a poor sod who – for the sake of earning a few pennies - has had no choice but to accept the job of carrying around the political message of the political party that has landed him in a mess in the first place! There is probably no clearer indictment of the social circumstances of the early twenties than that in van Hell’s oeuvre. Van Hell was active in various art societies whose ideas appealed to him, supporting him in his quest to bring art closer to the common people, but here too his involvement was always shy of total commitment. Van Hell at his prime It is not before around 1925 that Johan van Hell shows that his palette has found its own style. He has adopted a geometric approach at the cost of some perspective but eminently suitable to convey his (now often social) message. Watch the placement of the dominant person at the top of the canvas. Also watch the faces and the textures of the fabrics. Although these paintings come across as ‘flatter’, the faces of the subjects convey their struggle, their hopes and hopelessness. And his treatment of texture is superb. These works, produced between 1925 and 1935, are clearly the most significant that van Hell has produced. 1925 is also the year in which Johan starts to produce lithographs. They often depict the scenes of his oil paintings. The idea behind it was to make art available to the common man. Reproduced in quantities of 50 to 100 they could be made available at very reasonable prices. Van Hell wanted to paint in terms that everybody could understand and make his work available at prices that most could afford. He is known to have given many away as well. Money was not that important to him. Many of his lithographs and a number of his paintings pictured the impoverished street musicians that roamed the streets of Amsterdam. Officially these people had to have a city license which was only issued in case the person was physically or for another good reason not able to find other work. Such licenses were hard to come by and many street musicians consequently performed without licenses. Van Hell felt a strong kinship with these people. In the Dutch language there are two words that denote the term ‘musician’. The one, ‘muzikant’, means a ‘common’ musician such as a street musician or busker, the other word is ‘musicus’ meaning a ‘proper’ musician. For van Hell such a distinction did not exist. He apparently felt as close to muzikanten as to musici. As well, in the thirties an increasing number of them were of Jewish origin, having fled from Nazi-Germany and adjacent countries. Johan felt a kinship with Jewish people, having lived next to a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood for many years. Caroline Lankhout had a Jewish father and a number of Johan’s artist and music friends were talented members of Amsterdam’s thriving Jewish community. By 1927 life started to turn grim for Johan van Hell. Pau’s illness was now so far advanced that she could teach no longer. Having given up his school teaching job he now had to start teaching again. In 1930 Pauline Wijnman died – it caused quite a ripple in socialist circles and was devastating for Johan. His music undoubtedly brought him solace. After a while his frequent music partner Caroline Lankhout and he got closer together and they married in 1933. By that time the terrible depression years were coming to an end but circumstances were still abominable. Van Hell continued to paint but perhaps some of the spark had gone out of his oeuvre. Nevertheless, he was kept busy by commissions from friends and from the City of Amsterdam. He produced a variety of different things – ex-libris, portraits and designs for wall decorations and for stained glass windows. He had arrived! Perhaps not yet nationally, but locally he was recognized not only as a gifted painter but as a gifted musician and teacher as well. The Second World War and beyond. The war years were difficult, with Caroline not being allowed to teach due to her Jewish background and Johan being limited as well because of his refusal to join the Nazi-imposed Culture Chamber. He produced very little, but some of it symbolized his hatred for the occupier. The post war years produced a few works only. Van Hell clearly demonstrates to himself and the world that he is still a capable and captivating painter. His works are precisely and skillfully executed. But his first love during the period is his music. These are again sad years with Caroline slowly becoming more incapacitated because of her illness and succumbing to it in 1947, a mere two years after the end of the Second World War. Towards the end of 1952 Johan, a severe diabetic, is rushed to hospital with a serious kidney infection and dies there on the very last day of that year. Johan van Hell started gaining national and international recognition as a visual artist in 1976 when he was ‘rediscovered’ by Thom Mercuur, curator of a museum in the city of Franeker in the Northern province of Friesland. Thanks to his initiative many of van Hell’s works – oil paintings as well as lithographs – were displayed in the first exhibition totally dedicated to him. The exhibition toured right through the Netherlands, starting in Franeker and ending in the renowned Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam. Full recognition as one of Holland’s leading visual artists of the early twentieth century came in the fall of 2005 with the opening, in Arnhem, of the exhibition “Van de Straat” featuring a major collection of van Hell’s work, and the publication of an illustrated catalogue of his total known oeuvre. As a result of this remarkable resume of his contribution to socially inspired European art of that period the value of his work has increased considerably.

September 20, 2015.