Muse and Model

Intimacy, naturalness, and character are rarely better captured than by an artist portraying his own family. The collection of Museum Kranenburgh includes a large number of portraits that testify to the affection and familiarity between the artist and his parent, sister, brother, or child. In Muse and Model, the family bond between painter and model takes center stage: how warm, special, or natural is it?

At the beginning of the last century, the first pioneering artists came to Bergen, attracted by the sea, dunes, and forests, and the countless opportunities to experiment here for a while, to paint outdoors in nature, and to find inspiration and friendship in each other. Most of them stayed here, started families, and built close friendships and relationships with colleagues and kindred spirits. Once settled in the village, they developed their own artistic signature—the Bergen School—and laid the foundation for what could be called the DNA of the artists’ village of Bergen: the magic of this place under the sea light that promises beauty, creative freedom, and adventure, the appeal of an inspiring artistic community, and the fertile ground for the emergence of closely knit networks of relationships. With the artist family as an important institution.

The decision to immortalize family members is not solely motivated by warm feelings of connection, but also has practical considerations. The “models” are available daily, their faces and poses familiar in every detail, and they rarely ask for anything in return or compensation. Jaap Weyand captures his mother on canvas in formal black, but also worn out and tired. Henri ten Holt paints his daughter Sientje and son Simeon at different moments in their lives; the exhibition shows their young faces. The brothers Piet and Mathieu Wiegman both paint their elderly mother: posing for one, simply sewing for the other. Greetje and Christina, Mathieu Wiegman’s teenage daughters, seem to be sitting (or having to sit) for their father with some boredom.