The Discovery of Holland
Publisher: Atlas Contact
Jan Brokken takes us on a journey through an extraordinary and underexposed episode of Dutch (art) history
With painters such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Ivar Kamke, Paul Signac, Bart van der Leck, Théo van Rysselberghe, Elizabeth Nourse, Augustine Hanicotte, Georg Hering and Marianne Stokes, as well as Japan’s Crown Prince Hirohito and writer Marcel Proust
In 2023, Jan Brokken was awarded the Golden Quill for his ‘astounding broad oeuvre’
Behind the simple white net curtains of the Volendam Hotel Spaander lies the germ of a crucial period in Dutch art history. The hospitality of managers Leendert and Aaltje Spaander, the lively evenings and the studios on the ground floor proved to be a magnet for large numbers of artists from 1881 onwards. They came to Volendam from all over the world: over 1,400 painters, including around 200 women. What they discovered on the Zuiderzee (South Sea, nowadays IJsselmeer) were the typical Dutch skies and the already famous Dutch light, but also tolerance and openness. Yet Spaander remained relatively unknown as an artists’ colony – and that is right up Jan Brokken’s alley. As he states in The Discovery of Holland: you always know too little about your own country. Once again, he awakens a fascinating underexposed history to life.
Praise:
‘A storyteller pur sang with international fame.’ – Golden Quill Acadamy (Gouden Ganzenveer)
‘Jan Brokken is the godfather of Dutch literary non-fiction.’ – De Standaard der Letteren
Rights sold to Iperborea (Italy)
