Jan Mankes

Dutch painter, known for his tranquil painting. His father Beint Mankes (4 October 1850, Benedenknijpe - 18 October 1916, Schoterland) was a civil servant. His mother was Jentje Hartsuiker (20 Augustus 1849, Meppel - 10 April 1929, Den Haag). They married on 23 Augustus 1884 and got one son. Jan visited one year the HBS in Meppel (1902), but when the family moved to Delft (1903), he studied glass painting under J.L. Schouten and went in the evening to the arts academy in Den Haag. He painted in the dunes. When his parents moved in 1909 to "It Mar" (Heerenveen), he went on painting the immediate vicinity of Frisian nature: tranquil landscapes, bird nests, animals, portraits. He admired the spirit of Van Gogh and wrote: "Ik wil zolang een doekje koesterend bewerken en me er in denken, dat het een stukje “ziel” wordt" to his patron A.A.M. Pauwels (1875-1952), a tobacco merchant and art collector from The Hague. Though Mankes had a reputation as an ascetic living in a kind of self-chosen isolation in De Knipe, Friesland, he was well aware of what was going on. When he in 1913 met the first Dutch female pastor Anne Zernike, they had a lot to speak about. They married 30 September 1915 in Oudeschoot. Soon they moved to Den Haag, living of the money of Pauwels. The were befriended with Chris Lebeau, a Christian artist and anarchist (26 May 1878 at 20h30, Amsterdam - 30 April 1945, Dachau), who organised meetings where music was made, recited, exhibited and philosophised about theosophy, Taoism and Christian Socialism. As Jan Mankes was weakened by tuberculosis, the doctor advised them to move to the woods. In 1917 the couple moved to the village of Eerbeek, near Arnhem. While Jan seemed to recover, Anne worked on her thesis about historical materialist and social democratic ethics. They got a son Beint Mankes (1 March 1918, Brummen - 1990, Laren), would become a painter and autobiographer. After an illness of eighteen months, Mankes died in peace at age 30 on 23 April 1920 2 AM in Eerbeek. Link to Wikipedia