Dutch Canal at Night (ca. 1950)
By Arnout van Gilst (1898-1982)
15 ¾ x 19 ¾ oil on canvas
Arnout was student of the Akademie for Beeldende Arts in The Hague under Jan Springer. He was also a student of Johan Coenraad Altorf. As a student of the Academy for Beeldende Art in The Hague he started as a sculptor and after 1923 moved more seriously into painting. He was quite prolific in painting watercolors through the years as well.
Arnout lived and painted until 1937 in The Hague and moved that year to Haarlem. He focused on Dutch landscapes, city and dune views, seas and horses. Van Gilst painted in a naturalistic-impressionist style. He wanted to be inspired by the environment and he preferred to go to a remote place where no one could turn up to look over his shoulders. Van Gilst preferred to settle on the side of a ditch and paint the fields on the other side, which he first made clearly recognizable and detailed on canvas and later allowed it to fade away somewhat during the development.
Signed in the lower left-hand corner, this dark, nocturnal painting depicts a Dutch Canal scene with a moored canal barge boat, and several buildings illuminated by lanterns.
