Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig (1866-1915)

Much impressed by the beauty of Zeeland, Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig bought a piece of land there in 1910. A house called Sandlught  was built and from 1911 onwards the family spent their summer holidays in Zoutelande.  During one of these summer trips to Zeeland, Hart Nibbrig painted the present lot Baai te Zoutelande.

The central theme in this painting is the objective rendering of light. The pointillist technique was an ideal means to this end, although Hart Nibbrig also used unbroken brush strokes and various combinations of the two techniques. Interested in the strength of light, Hart Nibbrig used a full brush stroke to indicate indirect light and a pointillist technique where the unbroken rays of the sun were to be rendered. The dune landscape unfolds like a clearly structured panorama: colour strokes and pasture succeed each other in a rhythmic motion until they end at a high horizon. (D. Coolen, Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig, 1866-1915, Zwolle 1996, p. 143)

Due to Hart Nibbrig's choice to paint from a the high view point, Baai te Zoutelande evokes an unlimited space to which emptiness and desolation are essential. His aim was an individual, but non-subjective representation of the landscape. Baai te Zoutelande illustrates that he very well succeeded in this.