Dutch painter Bern van Beek initially worked with his father as a decorative interior painter. He subsequently attended the School of Arts and Crafts, but never attended an arts academy. Originally from Amsterdam, Van Beek liked to paint in the small nearby village of Kortenhoef, where he settled in 1911. Painter Paul Gabriël (1828-1903) was a major influence on van Beek’s early work, which later was heavily influenced by the Haagse School and, to a lesser extent, Amsterdam Impressionism. His landscapes featured mostly summer or polder views of the immediate surroundings of Kortenhoef. In his still lifes he painted mainly flowers, but also fishing and sailing scenes – one of the latter was Van Beek’s entry in the 1928 Olympics.
Netherlands