Jan Sluijters Sr.

The Dutch painter Jan Sluijters had been trained in the academic tradition during his sojourn at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam between 1901 and 1902. In 1904, he won the so-called Prix de Rome, enabling him to travel to Rome and other Italian cities, as well as Madrid and Paris to study the work of the old masters. Sluijters, however, was much more fascinated by contemporary painters, especially Fauvists such as Henri Matisse, André Derain and Kees van Dongen. Sluijters returned to Holland to show his progress to the jury of the Prix de Rome, but they were so shocked by his colourful and boldly painted works of Paris nightlife that Sluijters lost the prize. Many Dutch critics were of the same mind; some, however, saw a new manner of painting in Sluijters’s work. Together with Piet Mondrian and Leo Gestel, he became one of the artists of the school called Amsterdam Luminism. These artists aimed to capture their personal perception of light, whether it be the glow of a lamp in a room or the rays of sunlight in a landscape. Colour and form became an independent aspect of the artwork.