Rob, Jonkheer Graafland

Dutch painter Rob Graafland studied at the Royal Academy of Art and later taught at an art school in Amsterdam. In 1898 he moved to Maastricht. He taught drawing and painting but also music and literature. In 1901 Graafland founded the first Sunday Art School in the Netherlands. He then spent his honeymoon in Italy and travelled to the United States. Graafland’s paintings were of the romantic impressionistic style, a style he developed on his own. During World War I he lost all of his assets and suffered from depression. He then began to illustrate books, mainly Catholic youth literature, and started to paint again.

Graafland took part in the 1936 Olympic Games in the paintings category within the Art Competitions with his portrait of the horse rider Charles Pahud de Mortanges on his horse Mädel-Wie-Du. Two similar versions of this painting exist, but one of them is said to have been created not before 1937. Graafland died in 1940 after an operation, which had progressively weakened him rapidly. He was appointed Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Many of his works were lost in 1945 during an Allied bombing raid.