Bob Scholte Fine Art will be exhibiting at PAN Amsterdam 2026 • Stand D • 1 - 9 November
Anyone who delves into Dutch art around 1900 enters a period in which society and the art world are undergoing profound change. Industrialisation, wars, the growth of cities, and new ideas about science, religion, and society are transforming the world. Artists are searching for new ways to respond to these developments. The period from 1850 to 1950 therefore forms a particularly diverse chapter in Dutch art history.
Art at the Turn of 1900
The roots of this development lie in Romanticism, when artists such as Andreas Schelfhout, B.C. Koekkoek and Charles Leickert placed overwhelming nature in contrast to modern society. With the Hague School, attention then shifted towards the Dutch landscape and everyday life. Light, air and atmosphere became more important than an accurate rendering of every detail.
Around 1900, this development accelerated. Impressionism brought modern life into view. Artists such as George Hendrik Breitner and Isaac Israëls painted the city, the theatre, the beach and the people who lived there. Luminism took the interest in light and colour further, while artists such as Jan Sluijters and Leo Gestel became increasingly free in their handling of form and brushwork.
At the same time, Symbolist artists sought precisely what lay beyond visible reality. Dreams, spirituality and the subconscious became important sources of inspiration. The elegant Nieuwe Kunst, or Dutch Art Nouveau, brought painting, graphic art and the applied arts together, while Expressionism and Cubism increasingly stretched the boundaries of traditional visual language. Ultimately, this search led artists such as Piet Mondrian towards the abstract art of De Stijl. In response to the First World War, Nieuwe Zakelijkheid, or New Objectivity, emerged in the 1920s, with a more sober and objective approach to reality.
These movements did not form a straightforward succession. Artists constantly moved between styles, absorbed influences from both the Netherlands and abroad, and sometimes developed rapidly over a short period. It is precisely this cross-pollination that makes the period so fascinating. Alongside the well-known names, there was also a large group of artists who made important, but now less widely recognised, contributions to Dutch art.
Bob Scholte Fine Art specialises in Dutch and European paintings and drawings from 1850–1950, with a particular interest in the art of around 1900. The collection moves across different movements and generations, with room for both well-known and lesser-known artists.