Until May 22, 2022, the exhibition ‘Art blooming in love?’ is in Museum Valkenburg. on display with, among others, artist Marijke Stultiens-Thunnissen (1927). In this section ‘Featured’ we highlight a special work by Marijke.

It was a special Artwork of the month that Fransje Kuyvenhoven, curator and researcher, had taken from the rich collection of the National Institute for Cultural Heritage to show in her weblog because of a mere surprise!

When Museum Valkenburg asked to borrow ‘Landscape in Limburg’ from Marijke Stultiens-Thunnissen, the painting was first thoroughly cleaned. Not only did this make the colors of the village scene clear again, the restorer was also surprised to find a second representation on the inside of the cover: a naked woman. When asked, the artist said that in the early years of her painting career she had little money and regularly used the back of paintings for studies.

From 1949 to 1953, Marijke Stultiens-Thunnissen was taught by the Belgian artist Oscar Jespers at the Jan van Eyck Academy. At the time, it was not allowed to work as a nude model. Jespers put an end to that and Marijke was one of the first to draw model Martha. She worked out both the landscape and the model in a naive-realistic style. It was not until the 1960s that she started to work more abstractly.

Her artistic talent was quickly recognised: three times, in 1953, 1954 and 1956, she was awarded the Royal Prize for Free Painting (today known as the Royal Subsidy), an incentive prize for young aspiring talent. She practiced all kinds of techniques (textiles, ceramics, work on paper, oil paint) the Rijksdienst has only bought charcoal drawings and paintings from her: seven landscapes.

In 1960 she exhibited together with her husband Rob Stultiens and eleven other artist couples in Hoensbroek Castle at the exhibition ‘Art in love blooming’.

Until May 22, both sides of this painting can be admired in the exhibition ‘Art blooming in love?’ in Museum Valkenburg, click here for more information: https://www.museumvalkenburg.nl/en/agenda/exhibition-art-blooming-in-love/