Willem Bastiaan Tholen

Willem Bastiaan Tholen (Amsterdam, 13 February 1860 – The Hague, 5 December 1931) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and printmaker whose art occupies an individual position between the Hague School and the younger generation associated with the Tachtigers. He studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and at the Polytechnical School in Delft, subsequently receiving important guidance from the Hague School landscape painter Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël. From 1880 he worked around Kampen and Giethoorn, and after settling in The Hague in the 1880s he continued to paint throughout the Netherlands, particularly around the Zuiderzee and on the waterways of Holland. Tholen is best known for landscapes and water scenes: boats, harbours, rivers, polders and village views. Yet his oeuvre also encompasses intimate interiors, portraits, figures, animals, city scenes and nocturnes. His compositions are often distinguished by unexpected viewpoints, cropped forms and a keen observation of changing weather and light. His handling ranges from broadly painted oils to highly assured drawings, watercolours and prints; colour may be luminous and clear, while tonal passages convey mist, winter air or reflected light.

The influence of Gabriël is especially evident in Tholen’s early plein-air landscapes, but he resisted belonging wholly to any one school. His later work became increasingly varied in subject and composition, while retaining a close engagement with nature. A member of Pulchri Studio, he also taught and influenced a younger generation, including Paul Arntzenius. In 1903 he received a medal awarded by Arti et Amicitiae at the disposal of Queen Emma. His works are commonly signed “W.B. Tholen”; His paintings can be found in many Dutch museums.