Johan Barthold Jongkind

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Dutch painter and printmaker. Jongkind was the sixth of seven children. His father Gerrit Adrianus Jongkind (2 February 1776, Bergen op Zoom - 18 July 1836, Gouda) worked with the customs. His mother was Wilhelmina Jacoba van der Burght (16 mei 1783 in Hoeven, NB - 23 Augustus 1855, Utrecht). His father wanted him to become a notary, but after his fathers death he left the boring legal school and went with permission of his mother the Drawing school in Den Haag (1837-1843), later to the Academy of art in Den Haag. His teacher from 1843 to 1845 was the landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout (16 February 1787, Den Haag – 19 April 1870). Via Schelfhout Jongkind was introduced to Eugène Isabey (22 July 1803, Paris - 25 April 1886), with whom he worked since 1846 in his Paris studio. Schelfhout also arranged for Jongkind a a yearly grant via the Prince of Orange. Jongkind seemed to have lucky stars, made friends and got attention, but Montmarte's night-life had a devastating influence on him. He became a depressive alcoholic. In 1849 Isabey took his pupil to Normandy to recover with the help of the Belgian paintress Eugène Smits (1826-1912). The next years he tried to put his life back on the rails, got a medal in 1852, went to London September 1853, but got a depressed alcoholic again in 1855, the year that his Royal grant ended, his mother died and he did not get his work exposed in Salon of Paris.. Disillusioned he returned home to Rotterdam (1855), but most of his family ignored him as the black sheep of the family. His sister Magdalena (3 Sep 1807, Bergen op Zoom - 23 June 1857, Klaaswaal), who was a pastors wife in Klaaswaal, did care for him (1860). Here he made aquarel paintings. Because of debts in France Jongkind could not go back to Paris. Painter friends like Martin and his mecenas Count Doria tried to sell his and even their own work to raise funds. On 17 April 1860 they raised 6000 francs to pay his debts. Thereafter Adolphe-Félix Cals (17 Oct 1801 - 3 Oct 1880) took him back to Paris. He rented in 1861 a studio on the rue de Chevreuse in Montparnasse, where he painted in a pre-impressionistc style. In 1862 he met in Honfleur, Normandy, with later famous impressionistic painters like Alfred Sisley, Eugène Boudin and the young Claude Monet, to which Jongkind served as a mentor. Monet credited the "definitive education" of his own eye to Jongkind: "C'est à lui que je dois l'éducation définitive de mon oeil." On 12 April 1863 Jongkind's and most of his avant-garde friends work were refused by the Paris salon tah would open 1 May 1865. Their paintings got a "R" sign and lost their value. Jongkind even had to sell an already sold painting back. Later that year, starting on 22 April, Jongkind, with rejected painters like Courbet, Édouard Manet, Camille Pissaro could show their work at the first Salon des Refusés that opened 15 May. Despite the credits he got from the avant-garde painters, Jongkind continued to make a mess of his life. Joséphine Fesser, aka madame Fesser (1819-1891), a with a chef cook married drawing teacher, later a painter and lover, cared for him. He refused to participate in the first exhibition of the Impressionist group in 1874. With the Fesser family he moved in 1878 to La Côte-Saint-André near Grenoble. On 27 January 1891 the Fesser's had to arrange an admission for Jongkind in the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Egrève, near Grenoble. Here he died on 9 February 1891. He was buried in La Côte-Saint-André, France. Within a year after his death, his paintings were sold for from 40 to 200 times the prices he got for them. His "Maas at Rotterdam" was sold for 28,000 francs and "Canal at Brussels" for 17,000 francs. His year salary was 3,000 francs at best. Link to Wikipedia biography