Hubertine Heijermans

Background

Heijermans was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on January 8, 1936.

Education

Hubertine Heijermans was a student of the Barlaeus Gymnasium. She also took painting lessons from Jos Rovers between 1954 and 1957. Then Heijermans studied for 2 years at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam under the direction of professor Gé Röling.

During the period of 1968-1972 Heijermans studied etching technics at the American high school Villa Schifanoia, of the European Section of Rosary College of Arts and Sciences (now Dominican University), Illinois, and in Fiesole, Italy. The school was founded by Dominican Sisters. In order for Heijermans to not remain all day in the convent, her etching and lithography teacher Swietlan Kraczyna rented a studio in a palazzo overlooking Florence and the river Arno.

Career

Heijermans lived and worked in Switzerland as an artist-painter and graveur Suisse from 1958. In 1963 she exhibited her works Tearoom and St.Tropez in Morges, Switzerland. Another exhibit was held in Scheveningen in 1964. She had her first exhibit in Florence (Italy) in 1969. She exhibited there once again in 1970 and 1972.

While in Italy, Pietro Annigoni showed her ancient techniques in oil painting like the preparation of egg tempera, and explained the use of flake white. His recipes improved the adherence of her paint and reduced the process of darkening and getting yellow with time.

After she settled in the Commune of Ollon, Hubertine Heijermans numerously displayed her artworks in Switzerland during 1973-2008. She exhibited in Aigle, Fribourg, Sion, Lausanne, Montreux, Porrentruy and in Aubonn near Lausanne.

In 1981 Heijermans was advised to attend the workshop of Luis Camnitzer from New-York in Valdottavo (Italy). As a result, she studied photo-etching and multi-plate etching. In 1984 she joined the sculptors of Bex&Arts, and the same year participated with the Concours de la Bâtiaz in Martigny with a 3 plate colour-etching, which later attracted the attention of Léonard Gianadda, when he accepted her book about her "Parcours" in art.

In 1987 an auction was organized in Ollon, selling the works of the local painters and sculptures, in order to save the Ollon castle "de la Roche" from collapsing. Among the participants were Wil Burdet, Coutaz, Rouge, Bauty, Pierre Loye, André-Paul Zeller, René Pedretti and Daniel Bolle, Raboud and Hubertine Heijermans. The Chablaisien wrote an article with a photo on the front page about this show.

In the Netherlands, the artist exhibited in Delft and Leiden in 1986. In the 1990s Jesus Peñarreal showed her the value of thin layers of glaze, which flake white allowed to paint. Peñarreal helped Heijermans to go to Spain, where she was a disciple of the Spanish impressionist painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida in the Museu de Belles Arts de València.

In 1994 Heijermans showed hundreds of her oil paintings, watercolours and etchings in Singapore, where people were eager to buy European art. After that exhibit everything changed. Hubertine felt torn between the Netherlands, where she spent summers and Spain, where she started to spend all winters in order to study the Spanish painters from the 19th century.

In 2004 and 2006 she presented her "Spanish" paintings in Aubonne, and was also captured by the colourful fashion-shows of Yves Saint Laurent, Ungaro and Jean-Paul Gaultier. She was fascinated by the striking Carla Bruni on the catwalk of Dries van Noten. So, Heijermans painted a series of portraits of actresses or haute-couture models of Dior, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent.

In 2006 the artist discovered Bages, a small fishing village in the Departement of the Aude. From 26 April until 28 October 2012, the Musée Historique du Chablais in Vouvry held 2 exhibitions showing the history of the region, where Hubertine Heijermans lives and works. For that reason, her etchings, watercolours and oil paintings, depicting sites of the region called "Les Ormonts" or the plain where the Rhône river joins the Lake of Geneva, were displayed and accompanied a show of the history of health resorts and hotels. In 2015 Hubertine Heijermans opened her own studio, Atelier "Hubertine".

Her painting technics are undoubtedly impressionistic, her material is perfected with underlying coats of mixed white and lead white, which adds and enriches the oil paint and allows the material to become more expressive and alive. She remembers also the valuable but rare lessons of the famous Florentine painter, Pietro Annigoni who showed her to make paint herself with tempera technics. At her 80s, she now creates oil paintings depicting musicians playing the flute and also a series of nudes - models one can today find even on TV or Youtube.

Achievements

• 

  Hubertine Heijermans was well-known for her marvellous paintings and engravings. For her achievements, she received a number of awards and prizes. In 1972 Heijermans won the Premio Brunelleschi (a Florentine prize for painters and sculptors) with a series of seven oil paintings of a young Haitian woman, honoured by Piero Bargellini the Mayor of Florence.
  
  In 2014 she was awarded by the Municipality of her Commune, the 'Mérite Boyard 2013' which included a bronze sculpture by André Raboud as well as an amount of money to cover the expenses for colours in the best quality of oil paint and make it possible to acquire good Flemish linen.
  
  Today, the artist's artworks can be found in different museums and galleries of the world, including the Musée Jenisch in Vevey, the museum for photography Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, the Dutch Museum van Bommel van Dam, the Dominican University, the Musée historique du Chablais, among others.

Works

More photos

• design

  • Keep in line with 2 light sensitive plates

• painting

  • Large wooden barn between Grund and Gstaad, in the Berner Oberland, Switzerland

  • Vine-stock in Autumn

  • Vine-stock in Spring

  • Old farmhouse in the Swiss village of Saint-Triphon

  • House of the Dime near Ollon

  • The church and tower of Gsteig, in canton Bern, Switzerland

  • Abbaye de Salaz, near Ollon in Canton Vaud, Switzerland

  • El Fundi in Las Ventas

  • Chalet 'La Renoncule' anno 1791 Les Diablerets Vaud Switzerland

  • Mountain-landscape of Frenières, an Alpine site above Bex, canton Vaud, Switzerland

  • Four à pain aux Posses

  • Fountain in the village of Saint

  • Big stone-built barn at Commune Ollon

  • Grund bei Gstaad - chalet Barbarella anno 1649

  • Les Plans sur Bex, a barn with tractor & Muveran mountain

  • Swiss snow landscape at Arveyes in canton Vaud

  • Dents de Morcles, Swiss mountain landscape and Alpine Nature, seen from Glutieres

  • Metamorphosis of a plane leaf into a swan floating on the water

  • My hospital bed

  • Chestnut trees in the autumn in Antagnes, Switzerland

  • Pepin Liria in bullring

  • Rooftops in the Swiss village Ollon, canton Vaud, Switzerland

  • Emmanuelle Béart 1995

  • Spain Arenys de Mar

  • School-building of the Diablerets, in canton Vaud, Switzerland

  • Watercolour art of my hospital bed, nr. 23

  • Mountain barn at 'Les Posses' above Gryon -Swiss landscape in watercolor painting, plain air

  • House of the ancient Dime at Antagnes in canton Vaud Switzerland/Suisse

  • Villajoiosa

  • Portrait of a Supermodel - in oil painting

  • House of the Dime in the village Glutières

  • Self Portrait Hubertine Heijermans,1959

  • Small river Eau-froide seen in Villeneuve, with mountain landscape of Dents-du-Midi

  • Shed on the Col de la Croix in canton Vaud

  • Lake 'Retaud' in Canton Vaud, Switzerland near Col de Pillon

  • View on the village of Ollon, seen from the road to Vers-Chiez, canton Vaud

  • Coupe Soleil

  • Vine-yards called En Noche

  • The Parish Church-house in Vers-l'Eglise

  • Russian Supermodel at the Catwalk

  • Barn in the village Aux Posses-Dessous, canton Vaud

  • Fountain Le Cotterd in village Ollon, Canton Vaud Switzerland

  • A haystack near Antagnes, in Canton Vaud - region Romandie

  • Posses-Dessous

  • Road descending from Antagnes towards Ollon in Canton Vaud, Switzerland

• photogravure

  • Trapped fly on 2 light-sensitive plates

  • Calligraphy of green beans

  • A cloverleaf on 4 light-sensitive plates

  • Shed on Alpine pass Col de la Croix, Canton Vaud Switzerland

Connections

Hubertine Heijermans met Nils Tellander in 1958. He was born in the Netherlands but was a volunteer and an officer in the British Army during World War II. They got married and settled in Lausanne; there their son Anian was born in 1960. The couple broke up and eventually divorced in 1973.

Spouse:

Nils Tellander