.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Jan Altink is widely regarded as the purest 'Groninger' of all Ploeg artists. W.J. de Gruyter also had a great admiration for Jan Altink: "Say Altink and you say 'Groningen', say 'Groningen' and you are bound to recall the 'Ploeg' (Plough), a group of artists founded in 1918. Jan Altink was responsible for the name, and he later must have said: "There were not many activities in Groningen, so I thought of cultivation and, thus, of ploughing."(...) Nobody felt so fundamentally related to this land and its people as Altink did. (...) Without any fuss, indeed, for Altink was always far from being a snob, a 'would-be' or an 'avant-gardist'.
There is a particular honesty and naturalness, combined with a strong, active modesty; his work is above all simple. Yet this simplicity is misleading in that is goes hand in hand with great mastery and astonishing refinement." (exh.cat. Jos de Gruijter, Jan Altink, Haarlem 1978, p.15)
From 1924 on there is a change in Altink's work. His colours became more bright and the forms more simple. As the Gruyter states "Wezenstrekken van het Groninger landschap". Altink developed now his own expressionism; drawn along by Expressionism, which Wiegers had introduced, he remains realistic and naturalistic, depending on direct visual impressions.
The use of wax paint that Jan Wiegers introduced to Altink seemed excellent for his landscape paintings and the plough men, haymakers and diggers he depicted in raw brush strokes and intense colours.
The present lot is part of a series of landscape paintings from circa 1925, a peak in Altink's production. Altink made his best works outdoors. As de Gruyter states: 'air and wind were essential to him. When the sun shivers 'I like to go out', he said'(Jos de Gruijter, op cit, p. 22).
According to Han Steenbruggen it is very likely that the present lot is painted in the neighbourhood of 'Het Hemelrijk' and the 'Oude Adorperweg', where the 'Selwerderdiepje' meandered through the landscape with the church of Noordwolde in the distance.
Han Steenbruggen states Hooiers is in its composition different from many traditional landscape paintings. 'Altink realiseert zo een evenwichtig compositieschema, maar richt ook de kijkbeweging volgens de centrale loodlijn van beneden naar boven. (...) De hoge horizon en de verticale richtlijn accentueren het vlakmatige karakter van het schilderij (...). Bewustzijn van ruimtelijkheid en tweedimensionaliteit zijn in het schilderij Hooiers in voortdurend conflict en houden het kijken gevangen (Lokaal Palet, op cit, p.34).
There is a particular honesty and naturalness, combined with a strong, active modesty; his work is above all simple. Yet this simplicity is misleading in that is goes hand in hand with great mastery and astonishing refinement." (exh.cat. Jos de Gruijter, Jan Altink, Haarlem 1978, p.15)
From 1924 on there is a change in Altink's work. His colours became more bright and the forms more simple. As the Gruyter states "Wezenstrekken van het Groninger landschap". Altink developed now his own expressionism; drawn along by Expressionism, which Wiegers had introduced, he remains realistic and naturalistic, depending on direct visual impressions.
The use of wax paint that Jan Wiegers introduced to Altink seemed excellent for his landscape paintings and the plough men, haymakers and diggers he depicted in raw brush strokes and intense colours.
The present lot is part of a series of landscape paintings from circa 1925, a peak in Altink's production. Altink made his best works outdoors. As de Gruyter states: 'air and wind were essential to him. When the sun shivers 'I like to go out', he said'(Jos de Gruijter, op cit, p. 22).
According to Han Steenbruggen it is very likely that the present lot is painted in the neighbourhood of 'Het Hemelrijk' and the 'Oude Adorperweg', where the 'Selwerderdiepje' meandered through the landscape with the church of Noordwolde in the distance.
Han Steenbruggen states Hooiers is in its composition different from many traditional landscape paintings. 'Altink realiseert zo een evenwichtig compositieschema, maar richt ook de kijkbeweging volgens de centrale loodlijn van beneden naar boven. (...) De hoge horizon en de verticale richtlijn accentueren het vlakmatige karakter van het schilderij (...). Bewustzijn van ruimtelijkheid en tweedimensionaliteit zijn in het schilderij Hooiers in voortdurend conflict en houden het kijken gevangen (Lokaal Palet, op cit, p.34).