Q 07.01.2004

Henri Verstijnen

Andrea Kroon

Dear list members,

In preparation of an exhibition on the work of the Dutch artist Henri
Verstijnen (1882-1940), I am trying to locate surviving ceramic works by
this artist.

Verstijnen was employed by the famous E. Wahliss factory of Art Nouveau
ceramics and glass in Teplice (Czech Republic) in ca. 1902, where he
modeled vases and other objects with female figures. Some photographs of
his models for ceramics survived, but surviving objects have not yet been
located. Verstijnen travelled to Vienna, Bohemia and Prague, where some of
his scetches and paintings may have ended up in local collections. From
ca. 1906 onwards, Verstijnen was employed as a designer of decorations for
ceramics at the Societe Ceramique in Maastricht (The Netherlands). Many of
his designs survived (depicting mainly floral and animal motives), as well
as some objects. After 1918, Verstijnen abandoned ceramic design. He moved
to The Hague (The Netherlands) where he worked as a populair painter and
graphic artist until 1940. His works include depictions of exotic mammals,
birds, fish and flowers, as well as images inspired by theosophical
beliefs. His commercial works includes political caricatures and
illustrations for children's books.

Altough many of his works survived in Dutch collections, these are mainly
paintings and graphic works. I would therefore be very interested to hear
from colleagues, who may be familiar with a ceramic object that could have
been designed or decorated by Verstijnen.

The artist signed his work in full or with the monogram H.V. (sometimes
with the V resting on the H). Unfortunately, most of his early designs
were unsigned, and can only be identified by comparison to surviving
photographs and sketches. Please feel free to contact me personally for
more information or some visual material.

Best wishes for 2004 to you all,
Andrea Kroon.

drs. Andrea A. Kroon
Kroon & Wagtberg Hansen, kunsthistorisch projectmanagement
Thomsonlaan 94
2565 JE Den Haag (NL)
phone/fax: +31 (0)70 3603129
mobile phone: +31 06 22404978

Quellennachweis:
Q: Henri Verstijnen. In: ArtHist.net, 07.01.2004. Letzter Zugriff 15.01.2025. <https://arthist.net/archive/26165>.

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