Jan Hendrik Scheltema (1861–1941) was the youngest child of Lieut-Col Nicolaas Scheltema and his wife Anna Maria, who had 4 surviving children. This patrician family lived in Haarlem and Rotterdam, then moved to Gouda when Jan was 15. Brother Petrus Herman became an architect, then editor of an architectural magazine, and overseer of the Hague’s palaces.
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Paulus Potter, The Young Bull, 1647
Mauritshuis, The Hague
After attending art classes at Rotterdam Academy, Jan took drawing and painting lessons from the painter JJ Bertelman of Gouda for a year starting in 1879. Bertelman helped him to become a plein-air artist. He submitted his work ad won a scholarship from Dutch King William III for 1880-4 at The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art. Later he studied at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Both in Netherlands and Belgium, Scheltema created portraits in the 1880s - these are held by public museums in the Netherlands.
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In 1895 one of his paintings, Driving in the Cows was purchased by the National Gallery Victoria. Since then, his landscapes have appeared in the Art Gallery of NSW; Art Gallery of South Australia; and National Gallery Australia Canberra. Ditto in Victoria’s larger regional galleries eg Ballarat, Benalla, Sale, Hamilton and Bendigo. Bendigo was the first rural public gallery to have a Scheltema work in its collection, in 1890!! Going to Camp was a great sunset with 12 oxen pulling a cart-load of wool bales. Hamilton Gallery now has 5 of Scheltema’s livestock-in-landscapes. He has been compared favourably with Louis Buvelot, another migrant painter of the earlier generation eg Sheep Wash in the Western District 1874, in the Gallery of South Australia.
Scheltema became an Australian citizen in 1935. He and his wife retired to Queensland in 1938 to support their son. Jan died in 1941 and was buried there.
Paintings by Scheltema still sell at auctions. In Dec 2018, 18 of his works held by his family, but unknown in public, were found in the estate of the widow of the artist's great nephew Dr CAW Jeekel and came to Australia. Most are now in the collection of the Gippsland Art Gallery. His exhibition was called The Lost Impressionist.
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Mauritshuis, The Hague
After attending art classes at Rotterdam Academy, Jan took drawing and painting lessons from the painter JJ Bertelman of Gouda for a year starting in 1879. Bertelman helped him to become a plein-air artist. He submitted his work ad won a scholarship from Dutch King William III for 1880-4 at The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art. Later he studied at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Both in Netherlands and Belgium, Scheltema created portraits in the 1880s - these are held by public museums in the Netherlands.
Buvelot, Sheep Wash in the Western District 1874,
Gallery of South Australia Soon after arriving in Australia in 1888 he decided that portraits could not guarantee him a good living, so he specialised instead in rural landscapes with livestock in front. His c1000 surviving paintings often showed the visible brush strokes of the Impressionists. His opened his first studio in Wellington Parade and then joined the Victorian Artists' Society, displaying his work in the same exhibitions as Australia’s most important C19th artists: Charles Conder, Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin. He was a close friend of landscape artist JA Turner (1850–1908), and they often went together to the bush to paint.
Scheltema, Droving Cattle, date?
artnet
I can recognise any C17th Dutch artist and I can recognise any C19th Australian artist, but this was an artist who covered both genres. In Australia he focused on landscape painting, popularising the livestock genre, especially the foreground cattle genre. In 1917 Scheltema married pianist Edith Smith in Melbourne and their son Nicholas was born in 1918. When living in Melbourne for decades, he was a prolific artist and art teacher, even in the land depression of the 1890s, WW1 and the Great Depression.
Scheltema travelled and painted in Europe. In 1898–9 he visited his native Holland, then Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Tunisia. After returning, paintings from this trip were exhibited successfully in his Bourke St studio. Again he travelled and painted in UK, France and the Netherlands in 1909-11. On his return from this 2nd voyage, he presented a very successful solo exhibition in Sept 1911 with 88 works in Tuckett Chambers Melbourne, opened by the Chief Justice of Victoria’s Supreme Court. The catalogue, JH Scheltema's Exhibition of English, Scottish and Australian Paintings can be seen in the National Library of Australia today.
Australian Landscape was sent to his family in Gouda to explain our landscape. See the old eucalypts that had survived the ring-barking, fires & clearings, leaving markers from before European settlement.
Scheltema travelled and painted in Europe. In 1898–9 he visited his native Holland, then Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Tunisia. After returning, paintings from this trip were exhibited successfully in his Bourke St studio. Again he travelled and painted in UK, France and the Netherlands in 1909-11. On his return from this 2nd voyage, he presented a very successful solo exhibition in Sept 1911 with 88 works in Tuckett Chambers Melbourne, opened by the Chief Justice of Victoria’s Supreme Court. The catalogue, JH Scheltema's Exhibition of English, Scottish and Australian Paintings can be seen in the National Library of Australia today.
Australian Landscape was sent to his family in Gouda to explain our landscape. See the old eucalypts that had survived the ring-barking, fires & clearings, leaving markers from before European settlement.
Scheltema, Australian Landscape, date?
sent to his family in Gouda, Wikipedia
So Scheltema became a major landscape artist. He put livestock in the foreground, a genre developed by Dutchman Paulus Potter in C17th (photo). Jan’s skills in that genre were publicly saluted in Australian papers, showing the animals in action eg drinking, running, breaking away or interacting with humans. He painted some equine works, and his oils of well known bullock teams were used to illustrate Australian bullock team history. His paintings told our national story in typical, dusty Australian bush settings.
He quickly showed the colours and textures of the Australian landscape, and studied individual tree species up close. Many of his rural works included one large gum tree, as a unifying feature. He explained the rural life in paintings, just as famous authors then had explained in writing eg Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson.
So Scheltema became a major landscape artist. He put livestock in the foreground, a genre developed by Dutchman Paulus Potter in C17th (photo). Jan’s skills in that genre were publicly saluted in Australian papers, showing the animals in action eg drinking, running, breaking away or interacting with humans. He painted some equine works, and his oils of well known bullock teams were used to illustrate Australian bullock team history. His paintings told our national story in typical, dusty Australian bush settings.
He quickly showed the colours and textures of the Australian landscape, and studied individual tree species up close. Many of his rural works included one large gum tree, as a unifying feature. He explained the rural life in paintings, just as famous authors then had explained in writing eg Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson.
Scheltema, Early morning start, 1895
GippslandIn 1895 one of his paintings, Driving in the Cows was purchased by the National Gallery Victoria. Since then, his landscapes have appeared in the Art Gallery of NSW; Art Gallery of South Australia; and National Gallery Australia Canberra. Ditto in Victoria’s larger regional galleries eg Ballarat, Benalla, Sale, Hamilton and Bendigo. Bendigo was the first rural public gallery to have a Scheltema work in its collection, in 1890!! Going to Camp was a great sunset with 12 oxen pulling a cart-load of wool bales. Hamilton Gallery now has 5 of Scheltema’s livestock-in-landscapes. He has been compared favourably with Louis Buvelot, another migrant painter of the earlier generation eg Sheep Wash in the Western District 1874, in the Gallery of South Australia.
Scheltema became an Australian citizen in 1935. He and his wife retired to Queensland in 1938 to support their son. Jan died in 1941 and was buried there.
Paintings by Scheltema still sell at auctions. In Dec 2018, 18 of his works held by his family, but unknown in public, were found in the estate of the widow of the artist's great nephew Dr CAW Jeekel and came to Australia. Most are now in the collection of the Gippsland Art Gallery. His exhibition was called The Lost Impressionist.
See Jan's oeuvre at Aus Art Auction Records
Turner, Australian pioneers, 1889
Bonhams