Johan-Barthold Jongkind

born Lattrop (Netherlands) 1819, died Côte Saint-André (Isère) 1891

Jongkind's first teacher was the foremost Dutch landscape painter of the time, Andreas Schelfhout (1787—1870), with whom he studied in The Hague. A government stipend allowed Jongkind in 1846 to go to Paris for further study under Eugène Isabey.

Jongkind made watercolors and sketches in the outdoors, from which composed his oil paintings in the studio. Early public success (acceptance at the Salon, a third-class medal in 1852, several purchases by the State, and support from the dealer Pierre Firmin-Martin) was cut short by the withdrawal of the Dutch stipend in 1853. Jongkind fell into debt, drank heavily, and was forced to return to the Netherlands in 1855.

A sale of works by Jongkind's artist friends in 1860 realised enough money to allow him to return to Paris. Once back, he met Mme Joséphine Fesser-Borrhée. Her friendship and the support of her family literally gave Jongkind a new lease on life. He lived with them until his death (he died at their family home). They travelled frequently to the Normandy coast, where in 1862 he met the young Claude Monet. He also returned to the Netherlands and visited the South of France and the Dauphiné.

Jongkind's art was a path-breaking combination of compositional structures taken from the land and seascape traditions of seventeenth-century Dutch art and a careful study of specific light conditions and free manner of painting.

Source: Monet and the Impressionists exhibition catalogue:
Shackelford, George T M. Monet and the Impressionists.
Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2008

Works by Johan-Barthold Jongkind in the exhibition

Harbour scene in Holland  1868, Johan-Barthold Jongkind.
Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: gift of Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt