By Henry Arvidsson.
Imagine the clapper of hoof’s against cobblestones as your carriage cross the Noord Singelsgracht at Mauritskade. It is 1881 and you are just about to see the biggest spectacle the city of The Hague has to offer. The horses come to a stop at Zeestraat 65 and you disembark the shiny black limousine carriage in front of a roundish industrial looking building with a dome shaped glass roof. Mesmerized you enter and make your way through the crowd and into a dark corridor.
The light at the end of the tunnel comes down through a spiral staircase that appears covered by a canopy of cloth and wood. Then all of a sudden at the top of the stairs you are in the middle of the city transported to the beach at Scheveningen.
There is real sand on the ground around your vantage point. As your eyes look to the sea and in to the land the light shining through the invisible glass roof above change the landscape in front of you. It is just as if you were standing there on top of the tallest of dunes, the Seinpost. Then you realize that it is all a carefully constructed illusion designed to trick your brain. This was the intention of Hendrik Willem Mesdag who painted parts of the panorama in front of you.
Mesdag was born in Groningen 1831. After a sixteen year career in his father’s merchant and banking business his wife Sintje received a substantial inheritance. This allowed Mesdag to pursue his passion of painting full time from 1864. Growing up in the inland he was drawn to the sea and moved to The Hague in 1868. A quick study his painting talent was lauded with a Gold medal at the Paris salon in 1870 which established him as a marine painter in art circles. In 1881 even the master Vincent van Gogh took notice and mentioned a Mesdag water colour (Aquarelle) in a letter to his brother Theo.
In it’s hay-day there were countless panoramas throughout Europe and as the popularity hit a second wave a few businessmen from Brussels saw an economic opportunity, bought the land on Zeestraat and financed the building. Mesdag was commissioned to paint a “Hague maritime Panorama”. Together with six others including his wife Sientje (who is also painted into the panorama) took up pens and brushes in May 1881 to paint the 14.5 metres high and 114.5 metres long canvas in a matter of months.
The panorama opened on 1 August 1881 a day after a competitor located in Bezuidenhout. However after four rocky and loss making years the Zeestraat panorama went bankrupt (as did the competitor a few years later). Mesdag was very upset and as he considered the panorama amongst his major works, he bought it in 1886. However until his death in 1915 it continued to operate at a loss so he used his personal funds to keep it afloat.
Over the years he added the green and red halls which where his mostly maritime paintings hang today. After a multi-year renovation and to commemorate hundred years after Mesdag’s death the doors (or should we say the electronic gates) are now opened to show off much more than sea and sand. Mesdag also painted portraits, designed elaborate party invitations and illustrated books. His wife Sientje herself a very talented artist is also exhibited as are other family members of varying fame in the new hall. The additions to the museum are not just more exhibition space but also an airy café and restaurant available for events and meetings. For those who want to take a piece home the well-stocked gift shop offers a variety of books, posters, cards, apparel and toys.
Now you do not have to go to the beach to see the sea just come to the aptly named Zeestraat to experience the sea and get the taste of salt on your tongue.
For those who want to see what inspired Mesdag the impressive Mesdag art collection is on display at their former residence a few blocks away.
