World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 502 - Thérèse van der Werff

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 502 – Thérèse van der Werff
In November I attended an exhibition in the windows and waiting room of the GPs’ practice (Huisartsenpraktijk) Bonaire in the Baarsjes, a district in Amsterdam. There the work of Thérèse van der Werff was on display.
Thérèse van der Werff paints a variety of subjects. From cityscapes, landscapes and portraits to representations of her inner thoughts and fantasies. I visited her in her home in the Westindies neighbourhood (Westindische buurt) in Amsterdam.

A paint box
After climbing a long staircase I am in Thérèse van der Werff’s living room. I see flowers in vases, many paintings on the wall, dolls in a chair, a bookcase with many art books and an old-fashioned clock with two weights on a chain. Classical music is playing.
Thérèse van der Werff says: “When I was four years old, I was allowed to show a drawing of mine to the nun at school. In the third grade of primary school, we had a teacher whose boyfriend was at the Art Academy. I had to stay behind once and then I saw a man with a beard appear. She showed my drawing to him. I was the only one in the class who got a paint box. It really stimulated me, ‘They see something in me.’ Everyone at home was musical, my father was a piano teacher. I had an uncle who painted.”

A fish with a veiltail
“I went to grammar school. I had a drawing teacher who was a painter, he was almost blind. He held a drawing of mine close to his head so he could look at it. We were also given paint to paint. The teacher asked us to make a fish. I made one with a beautiful veiltail. When he was doing a round in the classroom, he picked up my drawing, held it up and said: ‘What a painter’. He took the drawing home with him. I thought I would get my fish back. No way.”
“Around the age of 14, I was in a bind. I had drawn a work on a piece of paper while sitting on the floor. I had expressed my entire inner self in it. When I had finished it, I felt a sense of power. I rose, as it were, from my circumstances. ‘There must be a need for a work,’ I began to think.”
To the Academy
It gradually became clear to her that her destination was art. “You are discovered and that does you good. I wanted to go to the Academy. That was it for me. The whole time I was at grammar school I thought ‘I’m going to the Academy’. I had the image of an artist in my head of men with beards holding a large drawing folder in their hands.”
“My parents said: is there actually a living in art? To be on the safe side, also do the MO drawing course. I did it for two years. That course was then at the Rijksmuseum. Among other things, we were taught perspective. We also had lessons from a philosopher, Mr. Ringelenstein. I didn’t really want to learn that much. And I’m not suited to being in front of a class. I mainly wanted to be free, I wanted to express myself.”
She did her MO training in the small school in the Rijksmuseum. “When the new Rietveld Academy came, we moved to a modern, new building. We often wandered through the city and hung out with artistic types, including Rob van Reijn, the mime artist.” She continued in the new Rietveld building.

All for nothing?
But life as an artist turned out not to be so easy. “I had been studying for six years, but the income was lacking. I wanted to earn money and went to work. My very first job was at the Post (PTT), after which I ended up in home care. I didn’t like it very much. I wanted to get back into art and went to the primary education drawing course. There we had to copy clothes pegs with chalk. I didn’t like that. I got sick. Had I done everything for nothing?”

The workshop of the old Van Gogh Museum
When she recovered, she ended up in Amsterdam-Noord. At that time, she was working at a weaving mill and as an advanced weaver on her way to becoming an ‘aesthetic consultant’. “I wove and would also dye, I have a good sense of colour, like Bonnard.”
In the evenings she studied Free Graphics at the Rietveld. “I finished that. My final exam work was assessed by Jan Sierhuis, the famous painter. When he saw my pastels, he said: ‘Keep going!!’”
She went to the workshop of the old Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. All kinds of courses were given there. “I participated in, among other things, an etching course and an aquatint course. There were good teachers, such as Alex Lichtveld and Ursula de Boer. Willem van Gogh, the son of Theo van Gogh, Vincent’s brother, had said: There should only be a Van Gogh Museum if there is also an artist’s workshop. In addition to etching and aquatints, you could also draw models under the guidance of good teachers. Nowadays there is also an artist’s workshop, but there is no guidance and museum visitors can walk around freely. That was not the case in the past.”
Alex Lichtveld and Ursula de Boer also went on a week-long drawing and painting trip to Terschelling. At the top of the dike with a view of the mudflats she drew and painted. In the evening she went to the youth hostel. “It was very cozy there, sitting by the fireplace.”

Studios
Her first studio was on the Binnengasthuis grounds. Those studios were anti-squat studios. “I was able to get the director’s office. There were many artists in all those corridors. I worked there all day.” At that time, the squatting movement was flourishing and also had its eye on the former hospital. A squatters’ demonstration was to take place in the city centre. Precautions were taken, for example the stairs were already out, to prevent the building from being occupied by the squatters’ movement. There was a lot of police on the move.
Her belongings were temporarily stored somewhere and she was then able to get a space in the former Emma Hospital near Weesperstraat. “That space was full of rubble. I started to clean up, but no matter how hard I cleaned up, it didn’t get clean. I did work there, but after a while I left. Then I was able to get a place in the former prison at Haarlemmermeerplein. It was allowed to be temporarily occupied. I was able to get a small cell, but the light was bad and it turned out to be very small. Then I thought: ‘Why don’t I use the attic room above my house?’ There was good light there and I was not disturbed by anyone, a room all to myself. I had just been given a nice home.”

Artist groups
She joined artist groups. For example, she was a member of Galerie 30 for a while. “That was a gallery in Kerkstraat that was run by 30 artists. There was a selection process. I was admitted. Every artist was allowed to hang three works of art there every month. Every now and then, as a gallerist, you had to sit in the gallery. I had nice conversations with people there. I was allowed to bring my dog. The Rijksmuseum was not far away. Tourists often came by there and bought something.”
She also spent some time with the Sunday Painters (Zondagsschilders). “They had a space at the Red Light District. There was little concentration when working. Everyone was talking at full volume. We went on a boat through the Netherlands together and moored here and there. From there we went looking for a nice place to paint. But it was too amateurish for me.”
Atelier Pruimboom
Then she discovered the Atelier of Marianne Pruimboom in the neighbourhood. There she started taking a few more courses at Atelier Pruimboom. Initially Thérèse went to the Atelier, and – when that was no longer possible – Marianne came to her home. She constantly gave her inspiring assignments. That produced beautiful results, which often surprised Thérèse.
She was particularly pleased when Marie-Louise Boel approached her for an exhibition she wanted to organise. “Marie-Louise had owned the MLB gallery in the Witte de Withstraat with Mieke for years, but now organised exhibitions in the GPs’ practice in the Baarsjesbuurt. She had initially hung artists from her gallery there. But because she also wanted to do something for the neighbourhood, she had asked one of the doctors at one point: ‘you should see if there is any talent among your patients.’ When the GP came to my house and saw my work hanging there, she asked if I wanted to exhibit with them. I wanted to. She put me in touch with Marie-Louise, who I already knew from the Buurtkamer.”
“I then put together a varied collection that would hopefully withstand the poor conditions in which the works would be hung (six months in the sun).”
“I framed them beautifully and with the help of Mieke, Marie-Louise and Marianne they were taken to the doctor’s office and neatly hung up.”

We look at a number of works:
Portrait Unknown (portrait of a young man)
“In acrylic. A young man was the model. Marianne gets them right off the street.”
Playing boss? (the story of the dog)
In the side room are pictures of the same dog in postcard format. It is the same dog. “I made a compilation of torn black paper. I tore the paper into four pieces, I put it together and I got exactly my dog, Gabi. It was the dog of a friend of mine, she brought him to me every now and then. His name was Gabi. When he was here, he went crazy. I often went to the park with him. I also made linocuts in different colors of Gabi, with a ball. Marianne said: ‘You should cherish that’.”
The Erlking (by Schubert)
“A collage with pieces of paper. I found the poem and the music so beautiful. A fairytale nymph. The Erlkönig is a poem by Goethe.”

Paradise Lost
“A big bright sun. The image is inspired by a work by Jan Sluijters. I also combined a number of elements. Such as a statue in the park with a big eye and a big ear. I looked at that statue and saw: ‘that ear is a snake’. That immediately made me think of Eve. A third element is an abstract tree. Then I thought ‘Adam should also have a place’. I gave him a small spot in the corner. I let him sleep.”
The zeppelin
“A bit unfinished, but still beautiful. There was a window above the stairs, through which you could look straight into the sky. While I was painting, a zeppelin passed by. It was magical, a zeppelin in the sky.”
Parrots
“A wax drawing, made from my imagination. At Marianne’s.”

The Garden of Eros (early work)
“With oil paint. Made between the age of 15 and 20. A piece of music goes with it. You can see that I have a talent for painting.”
Pilgrimage (early work)
“I came up with that title later. Afterwards I also saw the dynamic lines in the background.”

Finally, what is her philosophy?
“My philosophy: It has to come from yourself, something has to have meaning for you. While at school you were asked to make something that people would find beautiful.”
Images
1) Paradise Lost, 2) Posthoorn church in spring, 3)The Erlking, 4) Parrots, 5) Portrait Unknown, 6) Playing Boss? 7) Wind and rough water, Amsterdam maritime museum (Scheepvaartmuseum), 8) Zeppelin, 9) Pilgrimage, 10) portrait Thérèse van der Werff

 

https://www.facebook.com/theresevanderwerff02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kWjNeM6kR0
https://mlbgalerie.nl/
https://inzaken.eu/2024/12/06/therese-van-der-werff-het-moet-uit-je-zelf-komen-iets-moet-betekenis-voor-jezelf-hebben/