Johannes Pieter van Wisselingh - Landschap bij Soesterberg

Watercolor with depicted landscape near Soesterberg.
Johannes Pieter van Wisselingh was the brother of art dealer Hendrik Jan van Wisselingh and an uncle of his famous son Elbert Jan van Wisselingh. They came from a wealthy Amersfoort family, where their father, also called Elbert Jan, held the position of imperial notary. Johannes Pieter must therefore have had the (financial) freedom to try his luck as a painter. At the age of 24 he married Jacoba Terwogt. The couple then left for the Veluwe, where Van Wisselingh devoted himself to landscape painting. They then moved to The Hague, where Johannes Pieter was apprenticed to the famous Andreas Schelfhout in 1840. Like his great teacher, the young Van Wisselingh specialized in making summer landscapes. These are often spacious and his compositions also bear witness to the influence of the grand master. Van Wisselingh could stay in one place for a long time. What followed was a busy period of short stays in Renkum, Rhenen, Oosterbeek and The Hague. In 1848 Van Wisselingh finally settled 'more or less permanently' in Utrecht. ('More or less', because he spent some time in Amsterdam in 1852 and 1854). Nevertheless, Utrecht turned out to be the city where he felt most at home. In addition to painting, Van Wisselingh was also active as a graphic artist (etching) and photographer. Between 1862 and 1866 he even had his own photo studio on the Oude Gracht in Utrecht. In 1848 Van Wisselingh became a member of the art society Arti et Amicitae in Amsterdam. Until 1889 he also participated in various exhibitions in Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Arnhem.