Dutch Genre Painting: The Koekkoek Family

Notes on the Lecture by Anne Dyson

A talk about Dutch paintings of the 19thC would be incomplete without including works by the Koekkoek family. Beyond being the largest numerically it is also a name with which some people will be familiar. Each member of the family adopted his own choice of subject, but as a general guide to a few of the well known members: Barend Cornelis specialised in landscapes both summer and winter, Hermanus painted seascapes and Marinus Adrianus painted landscapes. Willem chose to paint the cities and towns of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Haarlem.

The family spans several generations - see the family tree - and was very much a business, not just selling and exhibiting their work but contributing to and teaching in the Academies.


Willem Koekkoek 1838-1895


Willem was the son of HERMANUS Snr the third generation of the Koekkoek family to be highly accomplished painters.

The New Market in Amsterdam in Winter

Villagers on a Sunlit Street

Willem- my favourite, was a noted painter of town scenes, topographically accurate with contemporary accessories, not for him the historical view of Amsterdam. His paintings were in demand in the Netherlands and Gt Britain where a market for Dutch paintings had existed since the 17thC. With a growing middle class this demand grew throughout the 19th century providing a market for the Koekkoek family and prcies escalated yet further in the 20th century.

Dutch Street in Winter

A consummate painter of street scenes, it is those set in winter in which he excels. He shows the bustle and activities of everyday life. Stopping and talking, pulling sleds on snow covered streets, builders unloading carts etc.

A Winter Street

The brickwork and masonry of the buildings are perfectly shown, and he is also able to create an atmospheric work with a subtle and delicate quality of light. But a Romantic view, not all the buildings would be in such good repair or the streets so clean - horses leave their mark!

Morning Walk by a Dutch Canal

Figures on a Frozen Canal

Hermanus Koekkoek Senior 1815-1882

Hermanus was also born in Middleburg and he specialised in depicting the flat coastline of Holland in her contrasting moods of calm and storm.
He had a delicate touch which suited the detail and line of the marine crafts, the changes in the appearance of the sea as it enters the estuary and the fine work in the foreground of his compositions.

Vessels at Anchor in an Estuary

There were fifteen members of this family who painted but Hermanus was unique in that he painted entirely with his left hand.

View on the Scheldt

Hermanus could also be termed a Romantic, which can be seen in his calm estuary scenes with shipping and often with caracaturised figures in the foreground.  His paintings are very tranquil.

Calm Waters

Barges on a Canal

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek 1803-1862

Barend was a name to become synonymous with the term Dutch Romanticism. He was of the generation influenced by the Romanticism sweeping Europe and became identified with the Dutch Romantic style.

A panoramic summer landscape with travellers and a castle ruin in the distance

He was born in Middelburg, his father was the marine painter Jan Hermanus Koekkoek. He studied with his father and then at the Middelburg Academy also at the academy in Amsterdam. He married Elize who was also a painter and the daughter of an artist.

Skaters on a Waterway

He also set up an art academy and his brother Marinus Adrianus became one of his pupils. He travelled widely, his subjects the landscapes of Holland in winter and summer, panoramic and woodland scenes and views in Belgium and Germany. He was a very successful artist sought after by patrons all across Europe. He also exhibited widely.  He was one of the finest artists of his generation of the family.

The Ruined Castle

View of Cleves at Sunset

Winter Landscape