Barend Cornelis Koekkoek Biography | Oil Paintings

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek grew up in an artistic household, his father Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek, a renowned marine painter, taught the young boy the art of painting. His three brothers all became successful artists Hermanus Koekkoek as an artist of marine subjects and river scenes and Marinus Adrianus Koekkoek and Johanne Koekkoek as a painter of landscapes. In 1817 at the age of fourteen, he enrolled at the Drawing Academy of Middelburg and studied under Abraham Krayestein. In 1822 he moved to Amsterdam, spending four years at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten.

He focused on wooded landscapes painting in all seasons and like other Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek painted the tiny figures within imposing, majestic natural environments to contrast humble mankind with the significance of creation and natures beauty. This was a popular subject matter during the Dutch Golden Age of the seventeenth century, and a wellspring of inspiration for later nineteenth-century artists.

The flat wide open Dutch countryside started to bore Barend Cornelis Koekkoek’s romantic soul. So, in 1834, he moved to Cleves, Germany, and to the area of the Ahr, Ruhr, and Rhine Rivers, he found his ideal painting subject matter. He spent the rest of his life in Cleves and painted his most important landscapes.

In 1841, his fame had grown to the point that many young artists wanted to study under him, so, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek established his drawing Institute, and many artists made the trip to Cleves seeking instruction from the great master, among his new students were Frederik Marinus Kruseman, Lodewijk Johannes Kleijn, and Johann Bernard Klombeck. Sticking to the old master's principles based on his writings and in his oil paintings, these new artists gave rise to the school of landscape painting that came to be known as Cleves Romanticism.

As he was during his lifetime, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek is still regarded up to this day, as the most accomplished landscape painter of Dutch Romanticism for the lovely composition and the mood of nostalgia, in which the Dutch Golden Age seems to linger on.

Art Movement: Romanticism.
Artists Influencing Barend Koekkoek: Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek, Abraham Krayestein.
He Traveled To Germany.
Painters Barend Cornelis Koekkoek Influenced: Frederik Kruseman, Lodewijk Kleijn, Johann Klombeck.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.