Gerard Essser

Dutch hair-dresser, painter of animals, poet, troubadour and animal rights activist. He was the son of the baker and evangelist Gerard Esser (28 August 1884, A'dm - ?) and Johanna Antoinette Maria Boers (1884-1963). They married 2 January 1907 in Amsterdam and divorced 4 June 1920. On 11 August 1927 his father remarried Geertruida Carolina Rozeboom (1892) He studied art under the Haarlem School painter Henry Frédéric Boot (8 Frebr 1877, Maastricht - 3 March 1963, Haarlem). Esser never became a classical painter. Instead he used his poetical and drawing talents as an environmental activist, starting with it in the thirties. Till 1964 he was a member of De Ploegh in Amersfoort (1934). According to IISG he also worked as a hairdresser. In the sixties he got publicity in Amsterdam and Canada with his campaigns against the seal hunting in Canada. In the seventies organisations like Greenpeace (1971) took over the quest. Personal. On 12 March 1930 he married Maria Geertruida Haas (21 March 1912) in Amsterdam. They divorced 9 July 1931 in Amsterdam . He died 12 July 1983 in Amsterdam.