Background
Her father had a large sawmill on the Damsterdiep.
Her father had a large sawmill on the Damsterdiep.
She was the eldest of seven children of Derk van Houten en Barbara Elisabeth Meihuizen. She specialized in landscapes and still-lifes, but also painted portraits. In 1881 she took part in painting the Panorama Mesdag.
In 1893 she made a big impression at an exhibition in Chicago.
When Sientje Mesdag was 70 years, in 1905, she had an honorary exhibition in the halls of the Pulchri Studio. Her work has been exhibited in numerous countries, including Australia, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Austria and the United States. On 21 December 1904 she was named Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.
In 1906 the Mesdag-Van Houten couple celebrated their golden anniversary. She died in the Hague, on 20 March 1909.
She is buried in the Oud Eik en Duinen cemetery.
He husband was also buried there in 1915. Work by Van Houten is found in the collections of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Panorama Mesdag, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Groningen Museum, the Drents Museum in Assen, the Fraeylemaborg in Slochteren, the Museum Lambert van Meerten in Delft and the Mesdag Collection.
Hague School.