Cornelis SPRINGER

Cornelis Springer

Springer was The Netherlands’ most important townscape artists of the 19th century. He trained as a painter under Kaspar Karsen and soon went on to specialize in townscapes which are particularly admired for their high level of architectural accuracy and which correspond almost exactly to how the towns he painted actually looked. He lived and worked in Amsterdam for most of his life, and would set out every spring to cross The Netherlands from town to town armed only with a pencil and sketchbook, sketching, above all, town squares, town halls and churches. The rest of the year would then be employed in converting the sketches made into finished paintings. Springer was a very industrious artist who put in a six-day week, year in year out. His townscapes are lit by a characteristic and typically cheerful, spring sunlight.
In the course of his long artistic career he came to know almost all the avant garde artists of his day, but never felt the inclination to belong to any of these new movements. Even though Springer was highly successful in his own life-time he could hardly have imagined that his panels and canvases would become such highly-prized items in so many major collections. He was a modest man, completely wrapped up in his work and a highly trained, and technically perfect, craftsman. He has bequeathed us an astonishing oeuvre whose consistent poetry and quality still shine beacon-like across the years.

Source: http://www.paol-co.com/search_artist_uk.asp?ArtistID=128