Nationality Dutch Known for Painting | Name Henri Bol Role Painter | |
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Full Name Henri Cornelis Bol Died July 10, 2000, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands | ||
Henri Cornelis Bol (10 January 1945 – 10 July 2000) was a Dutch still life painter, whose work was known for its realism and trompe l'oeil technique.
Bol was born and raised in the Southern Dutch city of Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant. He was the eldest son of painter Kees Bol. As a young adult Bol studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven (1960-1964), where his father was a teacher, and for several years, he attended the Graphic School in Venlo, Limburg.
In September 1966, he met Gerrie Klinkenberg, eldest daughter of a police inspector, they married in April 1968. In the autumn of 1967 he applied successfully for a job as a creative therapist at the mental hospital Huize Padua in Boekel. Until 1972 the family lived in Handel, a rural town in northeast Brabant. In the same year the house ‘het Blaauw Laaken’ was acquired in the old fortified town of Heusden.
During a visit in the late sixties to the Museum Arnhem, Bol became impressed by Dutch painters Raoul Hynckes, Dick Ket, Pyke Koch and Carel Willink. It inspired him to seriously focus on painting. Soon Bol was given the opportunity to exhibit his work. With fellow artists, he showed his paintings at Gemert Castle and at the Old Mill in Thorn. In 1973 Bol exhibited his work at the Town Hall in Hilvarenbeek.
An avid collector, he acquired antiques like furniture, tin, enamel, watches, musical instruments, glassware, china and books. Historical objects which served only one purpose, namely to act as subjects in his still lifes.
In the late 1970s Bol exhibited in the Old Town Hall in Beek en Donk and at the Philips Leisure Centre in Eindhoven. Subsequently, he successfully showed his work at Smelink & Stokkink in The Hague, Gallery Mokum in Amsterdam and Gallery Gogol in Düsseldorf, Germany. In 1988 his wife Gerrie Bol-Klinkenberg launched her own Art Gallery ‘het Blaauw Laaken’ where Bol exhibited his paintings with great success until he died in 2000.
In the mid 1990s RTL Nederland aired ‘Toppers’, presented by Willibrord Frequin. Central in one episode was Mr. Frits Philips (of the technology company). Bol featured in this program because he was working on a still life, commissioned in honor of the 90th anniversary of the industrialist.
In 2002, on the occasion of the publication of a monograph on his work, an exhibition was organized at the Museum Kempenland in Eindhoven, titled "Sophisticated and timeless, still lifes by Henri Bol (1945-2000)".