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Test your knowledge of famous Dutch or famously Dutch.
Probably one of the most famous painters, Vincent van Gogh (and I have a feeling you won't be pronouncing his last name right, see NL03 - Language) was born in the Netherlands near the town of Breda in 1853. He later moved to Belgium and France where he started painting his famous bright colored paintings. He suffered from depressions and committed suicide in 1890.
Although not too much is known from his life, Johannes Vermeer (Jan Vermeer, Jan van der Meer) has become a venerated painter from the Golden Age. Vermeer (1632-1675) was born in the town of Delft, a thriving city in those days. The movie "Girl with the Pearl Earring" will give you an impression of life in those days.
Another famous Dutch painter is Rembrandt (full name Rembrandt van Rijn), mostly known for his many (self) portraits. Rembrandt (1606-1669) was born in the town of Leiden - a similar city to Delft in those days and lived there for most of his life. Rembrandt was a professional painter and produced hundreds paintings and sketches. His most famous work the Night Watch is on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Pieter Bruegel or Brueghel (1525-1569) was from the southern parts of the Netherlands (Belgium?) and is known for his depictions of everyday life and religious works like the Tower of Babel. He had two sons, who became famous painters as well.
Jan Steen, also from Leiden (1626-1679), is known for his lively and colorful paintings of everyday life in those days. In Dutch we have a saying for when a home is a messy, it's called a "Jan Steen household", for his paintings of parties and people having fun.
Known for his modern geometric and colorful abstracts Piet Mondrian (Pieter Mondriaan) influenced architecture and design. Mondrian was born in 1872 in the town of Amersfoort (central part of the Netherlands) and died in 1944 in New York.
More recent: Karel Appel (born 1921) is known for his colorful abstract expressionism. His paintings are called simple and childlike; in his own words: "I just mess around". Nevertheless his work has influenced many other painters; he himself was influenced by Picasso. He was one of the founders of the COBRA group (for COpenhagen, BRussels, Amsterdam) - an avantgarde group of artists - in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Karel Appel lives in New York.
Also more recent is Carel Willink (1900-1983) who was known for his very realistic and surrealistic paintings with incredible eye for detail and dramatic skies. Carel Willink also became known for being married to Mathilde Willink who was an eccentric lady with a very eccentric taste.
Impossible constructions and deceiving geometric drawings by M.C. Escher (1903-1972) have taunted many a person's perception and perspective.
Besides famous painters, there are also others. Joost van den Vondel was a famous Dutch poet for whom Amsterdam's central park was named. Golden Age scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723, Delft) was an important contributor to the microscope and made some groundbreaking biological discoveries: bacteria. Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695, Den Haag/The Hague) made important contributions to astronomy (Saturn) and mathematics (Probability).
Piet Heyn (1577-1629) was a Vice-Admiral for the West Indies Company and sailed to Central and South-America in search for sugar, tobacco etc. He managed to battle successfully fleets from Spain (Silver Fleet) and Portugal, and became a Dutch heroic figure. He died in battle in 1629. Another great hero - Michiel de Ruyter (1607-1676) fought many sea battles against Dutch rivals like the Spanish, Portuguese and most notably the British. He died during a battle with the French near Sicily in 1676.
Abel Tasman (NL06 Ties) was one of the first European discoverers of Australia. Another famous Dutch explorer - Willem Barentsz (or Barentszoon), together with Jacob van Heemskerck - tried to discover a northern sea route to Asia but was stranded on the infamously cold island Nova Zembla, north of Russia, where he died in 1597. Only a small part of the original group made it back safely to Amsterdam, only to find out that a southern route around the Cape had been established in the mean time.
Dutch sailor Jan van Speyk became famous when he blew up his own ship during a siege by the Belgians in 1831 that wanted to separate themselves from the Netherlands (that still included Belgium in those days). He did not want to surrender and decided to blow up the ship under the famous words "dan nog liever de lucht in" (roughly: I rather blow myself up). Don't try this at home..!
The Flying Dutchman is not much more than a legend, but apparently a Dutch ship was shipwrecked during a big storm around the Cape, South-Africa. Legend has it that the ship can still be seen trying to sail home during heavy storms...
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