Background
Arntzenius was born in Surabaya on the island of Java where his father served in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army.
Arntzenius was born in Surabaya on the island of Java where his father served in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army.
He is considered a representative of the younger generation of the Hague School. In 1882 he became a student of Frederik Nachtweh, under Nachtweh"s supervision he gained admission to the Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten. After his studies in Amsterdam he spent another two years at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, studying under Charles Verlat.
In 1892 his mother became widowed and moved to The Hague and Arntzenius also moved there to keep her company.
Around the same time his former fellow students Isaac Israëls and George Breitner left The Hague for Amsterdam to be a part of the capital"s more vibrant artistic climate. At The Hague the established painters of the first generation of the Hague School dominated artistic life.
From 1893 to 1895 he shared Bernard Blommers" former studio with Cornelis Antonie van Waning. He also contributed illustrations to Elsevier Geïllustreerd Maandschrift from 1892 to 1894.
In 1896 he was admitted to the Hollandsche Teeken Maatschappij, a society that promoted the medium of watercolours among its members.
During his first years in The Hague, he painted landscapes in the typical Hague School style. Arntzenius later switched to mainly painting cityscapes and street scenes, just like Israëls and Breitner made in Amsterdam. Arntzenius" cityscapes were painted mainly in misty or rainy weather, he made use of these weather conditions to have his subjects be reflected on the wet asphalt.
He also painted a lot in Scheveningen, which had changed from the poor fishing village it was in the time of Jozef Israëls and Hendrik Willem Mesdag, into a popular seaside resort.
Though Arntzenius isn"t considered to be a relevant artist nowadays, he was appreciated in his own day. In 1910 he opened a studio and started taking in students.
During this time he mostly painted portraits in commission of wealthy patrons. This he continued to do until he died of tuberculosis in 1925, at the age of 60.
Arti et Amicitiae; Hague School]
Back in Amsterdam, Arntzenius became a member of the artist"s societies Arte et Amicitiae (1890) and Saint Lucas (1891), and he had a studio at the Sarphatistraat. Arntzenius became a member of the artist"s society Pulchri Studio in The Hague in 1892.