Willem Bastiaan Tholen

Who was Willem Bastiaan Tholen?

Willem Bastiaan Tholen was a Dutch painter, draftsman and printmaker with some connections to members of the Hague School and later associated with the Amsterdam Impressionism movement.

When Tholen was five years old, his family moved to Kampen. There he became friendly with the young Jan Voerman and they entered the Amsterdam academy together in 1876. Tholen earned his certificate of proficiency within a year, in turn enrolling in the Polytechnic School in Delft, where he attended drawing classes for two years. Having concluded his studies there in 1878 with a secondary school teaching certificate, he went to work as a drawing instructor at the evening secondary school in Gouda.

He spent three months in Brussels in the studio of Paul Gabriël, from whom he received his first real instruction in painting. In the following years Gabriël's advice was of particular importance for Tholen, as they worked together en plein air for many summers near Kampen and Giethoorn, among other places. In Gouda and Kampen he taught draftsmanship in order to support himself but after 1885 concentrated entirely on his own work.

In 1885 Willem Witsen invited Tholen to visit his family's country house near Baarn, where their contemporaries, George Hendrik Breitner and Anton Mauve were frequent guests. From 1887 he lived in The Hague, where he became friendly with other painters of The Hague school. He took an active part in the artistic life of The Hague and was a member of the Pulchri Studio.