Andre Idserda (1879-1952)

Andre Idserda was born in 1879 in Vlagtwedde, Groningen. The family moved to Amsterdam 12 years later, because his father, who was a customs officer, was transferred. The urge to be free and to paint arose early on. Because of the free education at the Antwerp Academy, Idserda traveled south and was happily accepted there. To support himself, he rented out from a house painter. In the evenings he drew caricatures of the visitors in bars, which he readily sold. Later, back in the Netherlands, he moved in with his mother, who was now a widow and lived in Laren. He lived here lonely and isolated. He had great admiration for a number of his contemporaries, which was mutual. He had long conversations about painting with them: Hulshoff Pol, Rijlaarsdam, David Schulman, Willem van Nieuwenhoven, the Dooyewaard brothers and Frans Langeveld. Just before the outbreak of the First World War, he and his wife Coba van der Lee had moved to Mol in Belgium. During the war the Idserda family moved with son Theo to his mother, who now lived in Loosdrecht. The landlord, who was not at all happy with such a family of painters, made them decide to move on to Meppel. In Meppel they lived for some years on an old barge ?La Lutte? , (the struggle), located on the Little Cape. It was here that Idserda became acquainted with the aspiring painters Anthony Keizer and Roel Wildeboer. The friendship with both painters became permanent, Keizer became Idserda's pupil and Wildeboer and Idserda continued to meet regularly later in Hilversum. After the war, Idserda and his family returned to Belgium, this time to Bruges, where he received the honor of daughter of the English Prime Minister, Mac Donald. Such commissions brought in money and led to several prominent people having themselves painted by him. Life in Bruges, however, had too many ups and downs, for which his wife eventually proved unable to cope and left. He was left alone and gloomy and rebellious. Finally he moved in with his youngest son Jacques, who lived in Hilversum. During this period he makes his most sensitive work. He lived alternately in Hilversum and Diever. He then stayed in a hotel ?Brinkzicht? opposite the church where he made many drawings with black and red chalk. He also made exceptionally beautiful, large-scale self-portraits here. Idserda's oil paintings are generally quite heavy and dark: broad strokes of paint placed against each other. Only the big picture is indicated. The detail disappears, turning them into close-knit paintings that seem to have been created in a loose, smooth manner. In addition, he has also made work, whereby the short, passionate brushstrokes that here and there soft, light colors flow into each other in such a way that impressionistic paintings were created. All the details of this remain on the retina, without being objectively reflected on the canvas? A fact that invites you to take a long look. Source ; rkd , shone , jacobs , visual benelux