Unknown - Large oil portrait of the famous architect H.P. Berlage (1856-1934)

• Artist: unknown
• Medium: oil paint on canvas painting
• Dating: ca. 1910/1920
• Numbered: N/A
• Signed: In good condition
• Titled: Portrait of Hendrik Petrus (Hein) Berlage (1856-1934)
• in the original frame 85 x 80cm - canvas size 75 x 70cm
  

By breaking with 19th-century Neo-style architecture in his theoretical treatises, lectures, and striking designs, Berlage played a key role in architecture around 1900. His work as an architect, urban planner, and writer on architecture was of international significance. Berlage studied for a year at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam and subsequently architecture in Zurich. After completing his studies, he traveled through Austria, Germany, and Italy. Back in Amsterdam, he was hired by the firm of Theo Sanders, where he worked in the Neo-Renaissance style. From 1889 onwards, he was established independently. Influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement and the Dutch 'New Art', Berlage developed a completely unique, 'rational' brick style. In doing so, he strived for a design inspired by craftsmanship and the visible method of construction. Decorative elements were, in theory, to be subordinate to the construction. Berlage's oeuvre includes offices, villas, public buildings, social housing projects, and urban designs. In 1900, he was a co-founder of the firm 't Binnenhuis, where furniture, utensils, and lamps were manufactured and sold, an initiative to raise the standard of applied arts.

In the execution of his major architectural designs, Berlage collaborated with sculptors, craftsmen, painters, and writers, striving for a 'total work of art' that expressed a shared social vision. The highlight of this endeavor is the large Stock Exchange on the Damrak in Amsterdam, built between 1896 and 1903. Other famous designs include the Sint Hubertus Hunting Lodge, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, and the expansion plan for Amsterdam-Zuid.