Willem Hendrik van Norden - untitled.

Painter and industrial artist Willem Hendrik van Norden was born in Amsterdam in 1883. There he attended classes at the Teekenschool voor Kunstambachten (Drawing School for Arts and Crafts) and subsequently evening classes at the Rijksacademie (National Academy) under the direction of August Allebé. In the Gooi, where Van Norden would settle from 1913 to 1920, he mainly painted landscapes, harbours and water with flat-bottomed boats, still lifes and figures in an imaginative and impressionistic style. From the 1930s onwards, his work became more realistic in nature and sometimes tended towards surrealism. Van Norden was also famous as a designer of decorative and utility ceramics. First as artistic director at the pottery factory ‘De Distel’ in Amsterdam and after 1923 at the Gouda pottery factory ‘Goedewagen’. In the late 1920s he designed ceramic models for the pottery factory Eskaf in Steenwijk.