Petrus Van Der Velden

Vocation

Family

Dutch painter who spent much of his later career in New Zealand, where he discovered Otira Gorge on the West Coast, which provided him with his most successful and enduring subject. He studied at the academies in Rotterdam and Berlin. He registered at the Academy of Art, Rotterdam in 1868. After a stay on the island of Marken (1871–1873) he lived in or near The Hague until 1888 and was part of the Hague School in artistic and stylistic origins. During this period he painted mainly genre scenes such as The Dutch Funeral (1872) and the Old Cellist (1887). He also produced some landscapes, for example Snow on the Sand Dunes (1889–1990). In 1890 van der Velden emigrated to New Zealand with his wife and children (one daughter and two sons), aged 53. He arrived in Christchurch, where he stayed until 1898. Van der Velden and family sailed to Sydney in April 1898. Sophia van der Velden died in Australia on 1 May 1899. In Sydney van der Velden met his second wife, Australia Wahlberg. In January 1904 he and Australia departed for Wellington, New Zealand: they were married in Wellington two weeks after their arrival, on 4 February. Their son Noel was born on Christmas Day, 1905 but died 26 days later. A second child, the couple’s daughter Melba (named for Dame Nellie Melba, who the painter greatly admired) was born in May. During a visit to Auckland van der Velden contracted bronchitis and died of heart failure on 11 November 1913. Link to Wikipedia biography