Name Albert Houthuesen Known for Painting Education Royal College of Art | Spouse Catherine Dean Role Artist | |
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Full Name Albert Houthuesen Born 3 October 1903 Amsterdam, Netherlands Died October 20, 1979, London, United Kingdom | ||
Albert Houthuesen (3 October 1903, Amsterdam – 20 October 1979, London) was a Dutch-born British artist.
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Houthuesen was born in Amsterdam; his father was Jean Charles Pierre Houthuesen, a painter and musician. In 1912, following the death of his father, he came to London; he became naturalized in 1922. He took art classes at Saint Martin's School of Art while working for a furniture maker, and in an architect's office. He attended the Royal College of Art between 1923 and 1927, with contemporaries Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Edward Burra, Ceri Richards and Cecil Collins. From 1928 to 1936 he taught art classes at The Working Men's College with colleagues Percy Horton and Barnett Freedman, under the Directorship of James Laver
During the Second World War he worked as a draughtsman at Doncaster. After the War he taught at St Gabriel's College, Camberwell, and collected artworks that became the College collection. St Gabriel's Art Department was run by the painter Catherine Dean, who Houthuesen had married in 1931. Each year during the 1930s Houthuesen and Dean visited Trelogan, Dean's family home, where Houthuesen painted monumental portraits of colliers.
Reception and style
In 1976 the BBC broadcast Walk to the Moon - The Story of Albert Houthuesen, a film about Houthuesen's his life and work. Souren Melikian, in a feature article on Houthuesen in the International Herald Tribune wrote: "I suspect that Houthuesen will come to be seen as one of the great figures in post-World War II Western art".
During his career, Houthuesen possibly painted about 2000 works, and although many were acquired by major art galleries and collectors, few have been publicly exhibited.
His work was influenced by Rembrandt, Constable, Turner and van Gogh.
Houthuesen's art is autobiographical and belongs to no 20th century school. He worked in virtual isolation for sixty years, producing still-lives, landscapes, seascapes, and portraits, as well as biblical, mythical and allegorical scenes.