“She was a woman who had great success with her pastel drawings and paintings in the early 1900s,” says curator Maaike Rikhof. “The fact that she fell into oblivion after her death is due to what I call the ‘male dimension of Modernism’.”
Not old-fashioned, but modern
In the middle of the last century, artists were judged on their modernist qualities. Women were only admitted to the Dutch Art Academy around 1900 and did not yet belong to the Modernist movement, Rikhof explains. “Coba was described as old-fashioned and typically feminine from the second half of the 20th century, but she was very modern in her own time.”
Time for an exhibition, says the Frans Hals Museum. The exhibition ‘Coba Ritsema, Eye for Color’ is an overview of her work and at the same time a study into the position of female artists in the 20th century. Curator Maaike Rikhof, together with curator in training Jannah Beemsterboer, delved into the life and work of Ritsema and her contemporaries. Jannah Beemsterboer; “I didn’t know her yet when I started this research, but I got to know her well. I think her work is really beautiful, it is really the style that I like, a bit impressionistic.”
More than a wealthy unmarried woman
The aim of the exhibition is to also introduce visitors to her work. “Around 1900 she was really appreciated for her colors and loose touch. Not as a modernist, but as a modern artist. We want to draw people’s attention to the beauty of her art.”
It is striking that in historiography Ritsema is mainly remembered as a member of ‘the Joffers’, a group of female Amsterdam artists. Rikhof: “Ritsema had her breakthrough before the term ‘De Joffers’ was coined by a male artist. It means a wealthy young, unmarried woman, so that marital status is very much in it. It was difficult for her to break away from that.”
And there are more half-truths in the stories surrounding the artist. Her relationship to the painter Breitner, for example. Until recently it was assumed that Ritsema was his student. Her work bears striking similarities to his, but she was certainly not his student. In the exhibition, a work by Breitner hangs next to that of Ritsema.
Intimate atmosphere
Beemsterboer: “They knew each other and Coba also asked him if she could apprentice with him, but he thought she was far too good for that. You can see from her work that he was an influence. Like Breitner, she painted reclining girls, but with Breitner it is more sensual and the sitter looks straight at you. Ritsema’s girl is more introverted, the atmosphere is more intimate.”
Coba Ritsema eventually trained an entire generation of artists in her studio. And that has not left the art world untouched. Curator Maaike Rikhof: “She was someone who did not call herself a feminist, but was a pioneer. She was very successful in her time.”
The exhibition ‘Coba Ritsema, Eye for Color’ can be seen until March in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem