Christiaan Political

March 14, 1752 (age 61)

Heemstede, North Holland, Netherlands

He probably learned to draw in the tavern there known as the Dorstige Kuil, where the artists Simon Fokke, John Greenwood, January Punt and others from the Amsterdamse Tekenacademie would meet during the summer months. The historians Roeland van Eynden and Adriaan van der Willigen devoted six pages in their dictionary of artists to him. He first trained in Antwerp where he learned "sieraad schilderen", or decorative painting. Here he met Gerrit Malleyn and Cornelis van Spaendonck and through him, Gerard van Spaendonck and January Frans van Dael. He then travelled with them to Paris in 1782 where he at first spent time making decorative arabesques and painting flower arrangements in miniature on snuffbox lids. Like Van Dael, he created oil paintings in the manner of January van Huysum, of which his best piece was shown in 1809 and another in 1814. He also made designs for the Gobelins Manufactory and his considered a pupil of Van Dael because of similarities to his work, though he was much older than him. He spent the last years of his life teaching. Political died in Paris and Pierre-Louis Dagoty bought his largest flower piece.

Christiaan Political

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painter

Background

Political was born in Berkenrode, a small town of about ten Catholic families that is now part of Heemstede.

Career

He probably learned to draw in the tavern there known as the Dorstige Kuil, where the artists Simon Fokke, John Greenwood, January Punt and others from the Amsterdamse Tekenacademie would meet during the summer months. The historians Roeland van Eynden and Adriaan van der Willigen devoted six pages in their dictionary of artists to him. He first trained in Antwerp where he learned "sieraad schilderen", or decorative painting.

Here he met Gerrit Malleyn and Cornelis van Spaendonck and through him, Gerard van Spaendonck and January Frans van Dael.

He then travelled with them to Paris in 1782 where he at first spent time making decorative arabesques and painting flower arrangements in miniature on snuffbox lids. Like Van Dael, he created oil paintings in the manner of January van Huysum, of which his best piece was shown in 1809 and another in 1814.

He also made designs for the Gobelins Manufactory and his considered a pupil of Van Dael because of similarities to his work, though he was much older than him. He spent the last years of his life teaching.

Political died in Paris and Pierre-Louis Dagoty bought his largest flower piece.

Connections

Friend:: Van Dael

Main Photo