Jan Mankes

(Dutch, 1889-1920)

Still life

Footnotes

Jan Mankes was born in Meppel a town in the north east of the Netherlands in August 1889. His father was a tax inspector and in 1903 the family relocated to Delft and the following year Mankes joined the workshop of the artist Jan Schouten. At the same time he studied the art of stained glass under the direction of Hermanus Veldhuis (1878-1954), and served as his assistant participating in the restoration of the stained glass in St. John's Church in Gouda. In his spare time Mankes often travelled to The Hague where he where he studied the works at the Mauritshuis, in particular the paintings of Hans Holbein and Dutch masters of the 17th century, Vermeer and Carel Fabritius. From 1909 Mankes enjoyed the patronage of the wealthy tobacco merchant and collector AAM Pauwels and their relationship is well documented in the 700 or so surviving letters that the artist wrote to his patron. Much of the correspondence is Mankes thanking Pauwels for his support which was not only financial, but also in the form of things he sent for the artist to paint - these included Cologne jars, bottles, ginger jars, skulls of animals and Chinese dishes, and live animals: white mice, chickens, eagles, crows, and owls.
In September, 1915 Mankes married Anna Zernike, a progressive woman who became the country's first female minister and the young family settled in The Hague. However around the same time Mankes learned that he had developed tuberculosis and the family moved to Eerbek in the hope that the country air would help his condition. Unfortunately he succumbed to the disease and died on April 23, 1920 and was buried in Eerbeek, Gelderland.

Mankes left behind a very small body of work numbering some 200 paintings, 100 drawings and around 50 prints. He developed a highly personal style characterised by fluid soft brushstrokes giving his work a translucent quality. He often studied and sketched his subjects endlessly, until he knew them by heart; then he painted from memory. He produced rather intense self-portraits, landscapes around his parents' home in Friesland, and views from his studio in Eerbeek and studies of birds and animals.