Jan van Herwijnen

Who was Jan van Herwijnen?

Johannes Adrianus George van Herwijnen was a Dutch painter.

[f.e. THE INSANITY DRAWINGS]

"To really see art you first must detach from it, that's what it all about. A painting is like music, you should not view, you should listen."

Van Herwijnen was born in Delft and grew up in the Jordaan. He was different from the rest of the family. At nine he went to the Rijksmuseum a tile table for copying, his master had given him a box of paints. Concerts and museums hold him up as he began his eleventh year to earn a living. When he was 21 he was clear: "Suddenly I knew I could see ". Then I gained consciousness only. Before that time I had looked into the world through the eyes of a child. But then I knew who I was and what to do. I started in the Rijksmuseum, because I knew the road. Every day I sat there and it was like I had always painted. "

He wants no classes, no academy. He represents himself by copying the old masters. In 1912 he goes to Paris without a penny. Half starved he comes back. He begins to draw people. Poor models of the street and blind and deaf. With the insanity life-size drawings from 1919 he established his name.