Sientje Mesdag van Houten (1834-1909) was a famous Female Dutch Artist. She married another famous Dutch marine painter called Hendrik Willem Mesdag in 1856. She was a strong supporter of her painter husband. Seven years after their marriage their only child Klaas was born. She was born in Groningen and she moved to Brussels with her husband and her two-year-old son in 1866. When her father died in 1864, she inherited substantial wealth from him. The sudden improvement in their financial status made her husband quit his job at a bank and concentrate on painting.

Painting, a full-time profession

The couple was at home in Brussels as well as the Hague as the artistic environment in these places was much to their liking. This environment encouraged Houten to take up painting. Later, the death of her son, Klaas, in 1871 made her take up painting as her full-time profession. Houten specialized in painting landscapes and still life paintings of flowers and fruits, but she also painted portraits equally affably. Houten was primarily a follower of the impressionistic style. She was considered the most important women painter from the Hague School. Houten received ample support from her husband and her cousin.

Houten was an ardent supporter of female artists. She was also on the boards of a number of women’s societies. She together with her husband collected a considerable number of arts which they exhibited at Museum Mesdag. The collection is now known as The Mesdag Collection. The painter couple devoted a large portion of the collection to artworks by female artists. She encouraged some of the other members of her family to become painters, too. Some of the female artists in Sientje Mesdag-van Houten’s circles are Maria Bilders-van Bosse, Suze Robertson, Therese Schwartze, Margaretha Roosenboom and Gerardina van de Sande Bakhuyzen.

Panorama Mesdag

In 1874, she together with some of her female co-painters painted ‘Hague Orphans’. It was a painting made for Queen Sophie on the occasion of the 25 years royal jubilee of her husband and King Willem III. Thereafter, Hauten participated with her husband in painting ‘Panorama Mesdag’. While the couple was painting this masterpiece art, her husband painted her portrait in the ‘Panorama Mesdog’ as a part of the painting itself.

Flurry of Medals and Awards

Sientje won medals in Amsterdam, Melbourne and Paris, both gold and bronze, for her landscape paintings in 1884. She participated in the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. There was also an honorary exhibition in the halls of the Pulchri Studio in 1905 when she was 70 years of age. In Dec 1904, she was named Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau and in 1906, the Mesdag couple celebrated their golden anniversary. She died aged 75 years in 1909 in the Hague. Her works of art are on display in museums in Amsterdam, Assen, Slochteren, Delft and in The Mesdag Collection.

Major Paintings of Houten

‘Hague Orphans’ (1874), ‘Irissen’, (1897), ‘Landschap met hut’ (1909), ‘In the Surf’ (1879), ‘Portrait of Lotte Bisdom-Croiset van der Kop’ (1886), ‘Sheepfold on the Heath’ are some of the notable paintings of Houten. ‘Girl with Guitar’ (1904) by Therese Schwartze, ‘Still Life with White Roses’ (1842) by Gerardina Jacoba van de Sande Bakhuyzen, ‘Still Life with Pansies’ ((1882) by Geesje Mesdg-van Calcar, ‘Winter in Heelsum’ (1884), by Marie Bilders-van Bosse, ‘The Mirror’ (1872) by Laura Theresa Alma Tadema-Epps, who are all associates of Houten.