Room 12 - secrets of the atelier @museum.de

Creaking floorboards, smaller windows, unadorned walls – the attic is much more modestly furnished than the previous rooms.

This is where the staff were accommodated. And the room straight ahead is labelled ‘studio’ in the historical floor plan. The room to the right is labelled ‘Daiwaille’. Koekkoek had also set up a studio here for his father-in-law and brother-in-law. He himself worked here in the last years of his life, when the climb to his actual workshop in the tower became too arduous.

Today, temporary exhibitions are held on the second floor.

We first visit the room on the right.

The studio mirror, a so-called psyche, and the small brocade-covered armchair have been preserved from the landscape painter's estate. A mirror is a necessary piece of furniture in a painter's studio to direct the light. The armchair also had its place there. It has a very special story associated with it:

According to family legend, one of Koekkoek's most important clients sat in it during a visit to the studio: Willem II, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

The desk, paint box and easel are also part of the equipment of an artist's studio and have been owned by several generations of the Koekkoek family of painters.

The artist keeps himself in practice with drawings and oil sketches. Now let's hear what he himself has to say about the creation of his works of art. Let's take a look at the many oil sketches that were created in preparation for a painting.

"I do not make drawings of the subject or subjects I want to paint on canvas or wood, because I find it unpleasant to do the same thing twice, but immediately begin to transfer the planned design onto the canvas.

After I have properly sketched and thought through my composition, especially the arrangement of light and dark, I begin to apply it broadly with oil paint, trying as far as possible to incorporate the hue or colouring in which I want to see my landscape, or whatever it may be, when it is finished. I immediately and permanently establish the effect of sunlight, day and shadow, without further concern. This enables me to see in my finished painting a whole that I saw briefly on the panel or canvas before I began my work, and to assess the harmony of the composite objects and colours, while at the same time making it easier for me to make many improvements and embellishments as I paint.

And further: "It is not possible to achieve the subtlety of colours, the transparency of the air, the gently flowing and translucent green of water surfaces and other translucent objects without first having made a good underpainting. All these objects must, if they are to attain the degree of beauty and naturalness that most closely approximates nature, certainly be overlaid more than once with thin and delicate colours. The dullness or flatness that one might think would result from this can be easily avoided by a few quick but carefully placed highlights or piquant lights."

So much for the excursion into the studio.

In his mid-50s, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek is a recognised and highly successful artist, but a stroke ends his career. He can no longer work and from then on content himself with sorting and dating his drawings.

On 5 April 1862, he died at the age of 58. In the same year, he received a final honour: Koekkoek represented his homeland, the Netherlands, at the World Exhibition in London.

This brings our audio tour of the mansion’s interior to an end. Please take the handsomely curved staircase and make your way back down.

However, you’re welcome to stay and visit the garden, where you can listen to two more commentaries. Please check the opening times with a member of staff.

We hope you’ve enjoyed your visit. Thank you for listening! We look forward to seeing you again soon – here at the B.C. Koekkoek House.