Johannes Sixtus Gerhardus (Jan) Verkade (18 September 1868 - 19 July 1946) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism...

 artist. In the early 1890s, frequented the circles of Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...

 and of Les Nabis

Les Nabis

Les Nabis were a group of Post-Impressionist avant-garde artists who set the pace for fine arts and graphic arts in France in the 1890s. Initially a group of friends interested in contemporary art and literature, most of them studied at the private art school of Rodolphe Julian in Paris in the...

. Converted to Roman Catholicism, he entered the Benedictine Archabbey of Beuron

Beuron

Beuron is a municipality in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Beuron is known for the Beuron Archabbey and the Beuron Art School for religious art.Beuron is divided into subdistricts :* Hausen im Donautal* Langenbrunn* Neidingen...

 and worked close to Desiderius Lenz, leader of the Beuron Art School

Beuron Art School

The Beuron art school was founded by a confederation of Benedictine monks in Germany in the late nineteenth century.-Notables:In addition to the first abbot of Beuron, Maurus Wolter , who founded the abbey with his brother Placidus in 1863, the early leaders of the artistic school were Father...

; his name was changed to Father Willibrord.

Biography

Jan Verkade

Verkade (family)

Verkade is the name of a Dutch patrician family of entrepreneurs.Originating from Leiden in the early 17th century, the family of French Huguenot descent became known for being manufacturers of chocolate, rusk and cookies....

 was born in Zaandam

Zaandam

Zaandam is a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad, and received city rights in 1811...

, the son of industrialist Ericus Verkade

Ericus Verkade

Ericus Gerhardus Verkade was the founder in 1886 of the Verkade manufacturing company of the Netherlands.Verkade was born in Vlaardingen. He was named after his father, the notary Ericus Gerhardus Verkade Sr , who died one month before he was born...

. For two years and a half, 1887-1889, he studies at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. In 1891, he moved to Paris, where he met Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...

, Meijer de Haan

Meijer de Haan

Meijer de Haan was a Dutch painter.-Biography:He was born into a successful Jewish family of biscuit manufacturers, close to the study of religion, music and art. He had already had some success in the Netherlands as a painter of Jewish genre works...

 and Paul Sérusier

Paul Sérusier

Paul Sérusier was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabi movement, Synthetism and Cloisonnism.- Education :...

, and frequented the circle of Les Nabis

Les Nabis

Les Nabis were a group of Post-Impressionist avant-garde artists who set the pace for fine arts and graphic arts in France in the 1890s. Initially a group of friends interested in contemporary art and literature, most of them studied at the private art school of Rodolphe Julian in Paris in the...

. After Gauguin's departure for the South Seas, Verkade traveled to Brittany, accompanied by Mogens Ballin.

Resources

• Boyle-Turner, Caroline: Jan Verkade: Hollandse volgeling van Gauguin, with contributions by Adolf Smitmans, J. A. van Beers and Tim Huisman, Waanders, Zwolle & Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam (exh. 11 March - 21 May), 1989 ISBN 90-6630-171-6
• Frèches-Thory, Claire, & Perucchi-Petry, Ursula, ed.: Die Nabis: Propheten der Moderne, Kunsthaus Zürich & Grand Palais, Paris & Prestel, Munich 1993 ISBN 3791319698 (German), (French)