Museum Panorama Mesdag has acquired a special acquisition from the Mercura collection through a private donation. It concerns the beach scene Fishing boats on the beach by Théophile de Bock (1851-1904), one of his rare beach scenes. The painting has been restored and cleaned and has been given a special place in the exhibition Tastemakers of the 19th century . The new acquisition can be seen for the first time in Museum Panorama Mesdag from 31 October.
Place of honor
Museum Panorama Mesdag is very pleased with this gift. Théophile de Bock is one of the four painters who, at the request of Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915), contributed to the Panorama of Scheveningen . Although Fishing Boats on the Beach is undated, there is a strong suspicion that De Bock painted it around the time he made his contribution to the Panorama. With the fishing boats on the beach and the impressive cloudy skies, it looks like a finger exercise for his contribution to the Panorama. The museum is thus acquiring a work that supplements and enriches knowledge about the Panorama. The donation of the painting is also important because seascapes or beach views by Théophile de Bock are rare. Fishing Boats on the Beach will be given a place of honour among the works of the other painters of the Panorama that can be seen in the exhibition: Hendrik Willem Mesdag, George Breitner, Bernard Blommers and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten.
Théophile de Bock
Théophile de Bock was 29 years old and had only been active as an artist for a few years when Mesdag involved him in painting the Panorama. De Bock had devoted himself to painting landscapes since 1872, without any academic training.
Mesdag and De Bock were both active members of the Hague artists’ association Pulchri Studio and were both deeply impressed by the French painters of Barbizon, who set the trend among many European landscape painters with their inspired landscapes. Unlike Mesdag, Théophile de Bock also went to work for a while in this artists’ colony in the forests near Fontainebleau, not far from Paris. De Bock had just returned from Barbizon in March 1881, where he had worked for nine months, a month before Mesdag was to execute his design for the Panorama on the immense canvas of 114.5 metres long and 14.6 metres high. Mesdag probably only involved the much younger painter in the project shortly beforehand. Together with Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, Théophile de Bock painted large parts of the dunes and assisted Hendrik Willem Mesdag with the incomparable cloudy skies.
Adrienne Quarles van Ufford, Head of Museum Affairs: ‘De Bock’s Fishing Boats on the Beach immediately makes it clear why Hendrik Willem Mesdag fell in love with this artist. He realised that in De Bock he had found a good dune and cloud painter: the illusion of the Panorama stands or falls with the liveliness of nature and the clouds.’
‘Hail to the knights of the gray mist’
Théophile de Bock often painted in the forests and dunes around The Hague. He used his imagination, the landscapes can rarely be traced back to a specific place. De Bock lived together with several artists and organised parties where fellow Hague School painters came. For the housewarming he hung a sign above the door: Tribute to the knights of the grey mist , referring to the cloudy skies for which they were known. As can be seen in this work and in the Panorama, he excelled in this himself.
Visit Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), a good friend of De Bock, fully appreciated the importance of De Bock’s contribution to the Panorama. Together they visited the spectacle on the Zeestraat in The Hague on 24 August 1881. Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo that De Bock had ‘worked very seriously on that Panorama and that too will generally have a favourable influence on him, even though he himself does not want to admit it.’ De Bock, who would continue to paint landscapes throughout his life, later concentrated mainly on forest scenes. He is considered to belong to the group of painters of the Hague School.
An asset to the collection
Museum Panorama Mesdag manages the largest collection of paintings by Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten and their contemporaries, to which this work is a wonderful addition.
Museum director Minke Schat: ‘We are extremely pleased and grateful that we can enrich the sub-collection of Mesdag’s contemporaries with this new acquisition. With the addition of this work to the museum collection, the museum can provide a broader context to the makers of the world-famous Panorama of Scheveningen .
Tastemakers of the 19th century
The exhibition Tastemakers of the 19th century shows works from the collection of Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, supplemented with a number of special new acquisitions and long-term private loans that have rarely or never been shown to the public. Using works of art and many historical photographs, a lively picture is painted of the trendsetters of that time. Who were they, why was their work trendsetting and what made them so inspiring?
| The exhibition Tastemakers of the 19th Century can be seen until 02.03.2025 at Museum Panorama Mesdag in The Hague. |
