Jan Boon (1882-1975)

Jan BOON (Nieuwer Amstel 1882 - The Hague 1975) In 1899 he was briefly a student of Jacob Maris. After Maris died immediately in 1899, he came to the studio of Cornelis Koppenol. From 1898 to 1903 he also attended the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. There he was taught by Koppenol, Frits Jansen and Van IJzeren. After this period of study, he worked for three years in Amsterdam from 1906 to 1908, made possible by an art subsidy, an annual allowance from Queen Wilhelmina. He then settled in Rijswijk, where he lived for five years, before moving to Amerongen in 1914. From 1919 to 1922 he lived in Blaricum, after which he spent several years in Austria, in Traunkirchen on the Traunsee. After a stay in Brussels, he went to live in Bilthoven in 1930, where he would continue to live until a few years before his death. Jan Boon continued to work until a very old age. In the catalog that appeared with the exhibition that marked his 90th birthday, it is noted that he is still active as an artist.

Together with artists such as Adriaan Roland Holst and JC Bloem, he belonged to the circle of friends of the poet Jan Greshoff, for whom he illustrated a rhyme print at least once, in 1927. In 1923 he made a portrait of Greshoff. Boon met Greshoff in 1910, when he lived in Rijswijk. According to a newspaper report, the friendship with Greshoff was also the reason for his stay in Brussels in the late 1920s. According to GH 's Gravesande, who published about Boon in Halcyon, Greshoff possessed the necessary work by Jan Boon, including a painting and many graphics. 's Gravesande also thought the work was worthwhile; he bought the painting from Greshoff when he put it up for auction in 1906. Lovers of Jan Boon's work also included PTA Swillens, an expert on printmaking who also wrote a book about Boon, and the art collector Dr. A. Bredius. Boon also made a portrait of both gentlemen. As early as 1910, Bredius donated a collection of Boon's etchings to the Boymans Museum.

Boon provided several books with illustrations in the form of woodcuts, such as a school book with folklore stories from the provinces of Utrecht and North Holland. Boon made (an unknown number of) etchings, mainly of cityscapes and animals. An important teacher in this field was Philip Zilcken. Boon himself in turn taught Hannie Tutein Nolthenius, among others. Boon's etchings were published by F. Buffa and sons at the beginning of the 20th century, possibly especially during the period when he himself worked in Amsterdam. From the early 1930s until at least 1960 he made a large number of watercolors of flowers and plants, commissioned by the Amsterdamsche Superphosphate factory in Utrecht, later known as Albatros. Reproductions of these watercolors served as illustrations for publications explaining the treatment of plants in room and garden. The message was of course to only use the Asef fertilizer from this factory. Boon had a good client at the factory. For example, the inclusion of color illustrations in the above-mentioned book by PTA Swillens was also made possible by the factory's 'benevolent cooperation'.