Arnold Koning - Oude Hollandse boerderij - Sold

Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard. The frame has damage in a few places.

Signed on the reverse or attributed to: AH Koning Voorthuizen. Much surviving work by AH Koning was unsigned. Arnold Koning spent a large part of his life in Voorthuizen.

Arnold ("Nol") Koning was born into a patrician family of lawyers and administrators from Groningen. After completing the gymnasium in Winschoten, he left for Amsterdam to study at the National Academy of Visual Arts.
In 1886 he made his debut by participating in an exhibition in Pictura (Groningen). The same year he moved to The Hague for courses at the Royal Academy of Art. In 1887 he left for Paris for nine months. There he met Theo van Gogh, art dealer for Goupil & Cie, and his older brother Vincent. After Vincent left Paris for the South in the spring of 1888, Arnold was given a place in Theo's apartment on the Rue Lepic. Letters of friendship have been handed down.

Back in the Netherlands, Arnold went to live in The Hague again and traveled through the Netherlands to paint. Together with his nine year younger brother Edzard Willem Koning, who also came to the Hofstad to study at the Hague Academy, he was part of the Hague's painting culture. In 1893 Arnold married and moved to Rijswijk. Two children were born of the marriage. In 1897 the family moved to Ede. In 1909 a divorce followed and Arnold left for Voorthuizen. In Voorthuizen he had a house built, remarried and combined painting with a simple existence as a small farmer. In the winter of 1944-45, Arnold fell down the basement stairs at home and died.

Koning was a member of Arti et Amicitiae, Pulchri Studio, the Haagse Kunstkring and Pictura Veluvensis.
Painting style

When Arnold Hendrik Koning starts studying at the Rijksakademie in 1880, the Dutch impressionism of the Hague School is the leading style. Arnold adopted that style and remained faithful to it throughout his working life. Already in Paris, and later through the work of colleagues and in the artists' associations, he must have seen all the successive innovations around the turn of the century, but they bypassed his style.

Arnold painted the traditional Dutch landscape of fishermen and farmers. He used a loose, flowing style, suggesting minor visual elements with a single stroke of paint. This style was his reliable vehicle for striking the mood of the landscape.

Arnold loved nature. The urbanization around The Hague drove Arnold to the pristine Veluwe. But innovation caught up with him. The modernization of the Netherlands with the increase in scale in agriculture and the closure of the Zuiderzee transformed the landscape of farmers and fishermen. For Arnold, that change felt like destruction. From 1920 he retires to Voorthuizen. He has his garden and his animals. The chicken coop at the back of the garden will dominate his small paintings.

Only a limited number of landscapes in paintings by Koning can be located. Arnold did not consider it important to date and place his work. If titles are known at all, then a painting is called: On the edge of a town or Dorpsstraat in Overijssel. He was concerned with the atmosphere in the cultural landscape.
Work in Dutch collections

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam owns several paintings by Arnold from the estate of Theo van Gogh. After 1888 Arnold sent work to Theo to sell in Paris.
The Drents Museum in Assen manages the collection of the Stichting Schone Kunsten around 1900. Arnold Hendrik Koning is represented in this collection.
The Groninger Museum is a place of discovery. The museum has drawings and in 2003 an important work by Arnold Koning was acquired.
The municipalities of Barneveld and Ede also own work by Arnold Koning (mostly through donations).