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The Laren School is the name of an art colony located in the Netherlands village, Laren, in the Gooi near Hilversum. The artists of this offshoot of the Hague School chose the inhabitants of Laren and the surrounding landscape as the subject of their art.
Discovered by painter Jozef Israëls, the area around Laren School was distinguished by its unspoiled beauty and diversity of landscape, and was considered ideally situated by many members of the Hague School. After 1898, it was rediscovered by young artists known as the second generation of the Laren School, their work extending far into the 20th century. This colony of artists is significant in Netherlands Impressionism, being seen as part of this international movement. The ideas fostered in the area found their way to the Modernism art movement.
After 15 years of fame, from 1855 to 1870, the artists of the Oosterbeek School were looking for a new place to paint. Around 1870, the painter, Jozef Israëls, discovered the village of Laren. He visited often with his son, Isaac, whom he instructed in outdoor painting. His enthusiasm for Laren, and the surrounding landscape and agricultural activity, was infectious, and other artists from the Pulchri Studio began to join him. Albert Neuhuys and Anton Mauve were the first to follow Israëls in 1877 and in 1882.Nina Lübbren: Rural artists colonies in Europe, 1870 to 1910, Manchester University Press, 2001. p 170 Later, Hein Kever, Willem Steelink, Hendrik Valkenburg, Wally Moes, Etha Fles, Arina Hugenholtz and Tony Offermans Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch, Willem Roelofs, and Max Liebermann (the first foreign painter at the Laren School and an old friend of Israël) came to work in Laren. Thus, the Laren School as an artist colony was born. Some of these painters settled in the region; their Laren-inspired works were shown to the public at the Pulchri Studio and affiliated galleries.
Neuhuys concentrated on farm life as a genre subject, but the others turned to the landscape. Art historians describe this as the Laren Style, which is regarded as part of the Hague School.
Around 1885, the first colony ceased to produce new work based on Laren and its environs.
The second generation of the Laren School diverged, one group following the traditions of the Hague School while the rest painted in the new style of Impressionism, embracing modernity with an enthusiasm now considered typical of the Netherlands.
In 1903, under the initiative of August Johannes le Gras (1864–1915), the Painters Association, "De Tien" (The Ten), was founded. This group organized exhibitions across the country to create new opportunities for the work of its members. The Ten included Derk Meeles, Toon de Jong, David Schulman and Emanuel van Beever.
William Singer, an American painter and art collector, came to Laren in 1901. In 1911, he built a villa called De Wilde Zwanen (The Wild Swans) which, after World War II, was converted into the Singer Laren and concert hall. Holland Theaterweb
At De Wilde Zwanen, painters such as Co Breman and Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig differed from the mainstream of Impressionism, painting in the style of Pointillism and Luminism. Johan Coenraad Heyen Brock specialized in the representation of factories. For modernists, like Piet Mondriaan, Jan Sluyters and Leo Gestel, this studio and its location were significant in the direction they took in their art.
In 1921, the Association of Visual Artists, Laren, Blaricum, was founded by Co Breman. In 1935, the Gooische Painters Association fractured, and the members formed several distinct groups. August Johannes le Gras specialised in African landscapes and animals, Jan Pieter Veth in Portraiture, Douwe Komter in still life.
Today, the Singer Museum exhibits works of the Laren School.
This artists of the Laren School are linked together by the relationship between their ideas of art, style and techniques. In Laren, the countryside was the main theme of the landscape painters. Therefore, the term 'Laren' applies primarily as a place of landscape painting. The lightening of color, by adding gold yellow, red and blue, is essential to the Laren School. Another striking feature of Laren School paintings is the romantic view of social life in this tough region of Gooiland.
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