Matthijs Maris initially acquired fame as a painter in the style of the The Hague School, just like his famous brothers Jacob and Willem. However, over the years he abandoned this realistic palette for more introverted and symbolic themes and started portraying dreamy children, young people on the verge of adulthood, fairytale figures and mythical landscapes using an increasingly smudged painting technique. Even in his own time, Maris was admired at home and abroad by collectors and artists including Vincent van Gogh. In spite of, or perhaps due to his success, Matthijs Maris grew increasingly bitter and spent his last years in his London studio, lonely and almost a recluse.
This publication tells the striking story of the painter Matthijs Maris (1839- 1917). With over 75 paintings, drawings, etchings and pieces of applied art the Rijksmuseum, partly thanks to a unique loan agreement with The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, provides a broad overview of this unjustly forgotten artist. Richard Bionda is an art historian. Until recently, he was associated with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.