Johannes Evert Akkeringa Dutch, 1861-1942

Akkeringa was born in Buitenzorg in the former Dutch East Indies and spent his childhood in Blinjoe on Banka. He was educated at the Drawing Academy in The Hague and Rotterdam. In the years between 1885 and 1890, his work showed a strong affinity with that of Willem de Zwart. Akkeringa, however, is more reserved and refined while De Zwart is more robust and unrestrained. 

Like De Zwart, Akkeringa belongs to a later generation of the Hague School. He was fascinated by dune landscapes in the surroundings of Scheveningen and often painted sunny scenes of children dressed in summery clothes, sea bathers or net-menders. In contrast to the atmosphere of Jozef Israels or Philip Sadee, Akkeringa usually depicted a cheerier mood in his paintings. It was not about the fate of a poor fisherman’s widow, instead, he chose for the carefree existence of summer visitors who had decided to spend their time in the lovely surroundings of The Hague during the time of Louis Couperus.