Max Nauta

Dutch Max Nauta was a painter with a very wide scope, including folklore and costume painting, as well as portraits and stained glass. He was a pupil in the house-painting class of the School of Arts and Crafts in Alkmaar, where he also had drawing lessons. He later attended the State School of Industrial Art in Amsterdam, and at the State Academy of Pictorial and Plastic Art in Amsterdam. On study tours Nauta also visited the Czech Republic, where he stayed for two years, and where he organized the Association of Van Gogh, the first exhibition of Dutch art.

Nauta received recognition for his powerful portraits inspired by the great English portraitists, mostly influenced by William Turner. His best known work was a 1955 portrait of Winston Churchill. Nauta stayed with his wife for a few days on the Chartwell estate, where Churchill posed for him. His love for Bohemian glass brought him to glass painting. Nauta later became spiritually involved with Protestantism and Freemasonry.