bert feringa                                         painter

Spring is showing its beauty in the backyard of my farmhouse.  The blossom of the old  appletree near the hen house is showing its white glory. 

 The blossom of spring was a favourate topic of the Dutch landscape painter  Arnold Marc Gorter. Gorter painted many landscapes of the environment of Vorden  where I am living now. Gorter was educated at the State Academy in Amsterdam. In 1910 he won a gold medal on the Paris  salon.  His work was also  popular in the United States and United Kingdom. Gorter lived in Amsterdam where he had his studio but became well known by his landscapes of the countryside in the Eastern part of Holland.  Gorter was influenced bij the Hague School, admired Willem Maris and Willem Roelofs, but developed a distinct personal style and use of colour. He was obsessed by stilled nature  and was a master in grasping the different moods of the season. He was also a teacher and advised Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, who was a amateur painter. In 1922 he accompanied the queen on a study trip to Norway where he painted several landscapes.  In 1917 Gorter bought the estate Oudevoorde just outside Vorden in the East of Holland. He built a new  landhouse on the estate and stayed there during summer. Many of Gorters landscapes depict  in many variations the neighbourhood of Vorden, in particular the Vordense beek, a brook that meanders just south of his estate. The beautiful estate still exists and the landhouse is now inhabitated by his grandson Paul Gorter, who is a portrait painter.