Jacob Maris

Jacob Maris (1837-1899) was a Dutch painter of the Hague School, known for broad landscapes, harbor views, and quiet interior scenes. He trained in Antwerp and Paris before settling in The Hague. His work records the moment in Dutch art when painters turned from studio finish to the muted light and weather of the North Sea coast.

Life and training

Jacob Maris was born on August 25, 1837 in The Hague, Netherlands. He studied at the Antwerp Academy in Belgium, then moved to Paris in the 1860s. In Paris he worked in the studio of Ernest Hébert and came into contact with the Barbizon painters, whose direct observation of light and weather influenced him. In the 1860s he painted small-scale figure studies and interiors, including Girl feeding her Bird in a Cage (circa 1867), now in the National Gallery, London. He returned to The Hague around 1871. He increasingly turned to large landscapes of canals, beaches, and windmills. He became a leading member of the Hague School, a group of Dutch painters who preferred sober color and open-air subjects. His brothers Matthijs and Willem were also painters, but Jacob focused on the Dutch landscape. He died on August 7, 1899 in Karlsbad, then part of Austria-Hungary.

Style and technique

Maris built his pictures with broad blocks of muted color: grey skies, green-black water, ochre sand, and red-brown brick. His early oil paintings such as Girl Knitting on a Balcony in Montmartre (1869) still have a clear Parisian realism, with careful light and defined edges. By the late 1870s his brushwork became looser and his palette more tonal, often held together by a silver-grey atmosphere. Subjects shifted from interiors and figures to open Dutch scenery: windmills, harbors, beaches, and canals under low clouds. He was influenced by the Barbizon painters and by 17th-century Dutch landscape, but his handling is broader and more concerned with weather than with detail.

Key paintings

Girl feeding her Bird in a Cage (circa 1867) is an oil on board of 32.6 x 20.8 cm in the National Gallery, London and shows his early interest in domestic figure subjects. Girl Knitting on a Balcony in Montmartre (1869), now in Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, is a larger 110 x 75.7 cm canvas that records his Paris years. Grey Day with Ships (1877, Rijksmuseum) uses a vertical format of 60 x 38 cm and is one of his ship subjects. Harbour View (circa 1890, Rijksmuseum) measures 51 x 78 cm and shows a wide harbour scene. Landscape with Windmills (1890-1895) represents the flat, windy scenery that became his signature subject.

Where to see the originals

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam holds key works, including Grey Day with Ships and Harbour View. Gemeentemuseum Den Haag has Girl Knitting on a Balcony in Montmartre. The National Gallery in London owns Girl feeding her Bird in a Cage, and the Burrell Collection in Glasgow holds Girl with a Peacock Feather. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam has Italian Girl.