What's this set about?

For this set, I worked with @zendrahh and @dreamyfreckless - since we are all from the same country and love our Masters of art. The Netherlands has no stamp set so far and we'd like to change that. We chose 10 of our biggest painters and realise that not all 10 ideas can be formed as a set, that's where we need your help :) Let us know in the comments which paintings you'd like to see as a stamp.

Johannes Vermeer (1632 – 1675)

Johannes was a very mysterious painter and baptized in Delft in 1632, where he also died at the age of 43. It is still unclear from whom Vermeer learned painting, but he did have painters in his circle of friends. The artist only worked on commission and worked very meticulously, which is why he made only 45 paintings, of which 35 have survived. He is best known for his genre paintings (depictions of everyday life), but he also painted some historical pieces and cityscapes.

Woman Reading a Letter, The Milkmaid and Girl with a Pearl Earring are among his most famous works. His love for the colors blue and yellow is also clearly visible in these works. You can admire some of his works of art in the Louvre, the National Gallery of London, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Rijksmuseum

Karel Appel (1921 – 2006)

Karel Appel was born in Amsterdam in 1921. He was a modern artist within the expressionist style. Although his parents wanted him to take over the barbershop, Appel decided to follow his passion and study painting at the Rijksacademie. Although art experts saw little in him in the period after the World War 2, he really broke through with his art after 1957. Although his work approaches abstraction, his works always include recognizable objects such as people and animals. You can admire his works in metropolises such as New York, San Francisco, São Paulo and Amsterdam.

Jan Asselijn (1610 – 1652)

Jan Asselijn lived in Amsterdam from 1621 until the end of 1635. He was taught by Jan Martszen de Jonge and started his career as an artist. The first known work of his also dates from the period 1634.

At the age of 25, Jan Asselijn started a 12-year ramble through Europe. During that period he worked in Rome, Tivoli, Lyon and Paris, among others. In 1646/1647 Asselijn left Paris for Amsterdam, where he had a child baptized a year later. At that time he lived at Singel 286, which he rented from the then mayor.

In addition to drawing with charcoal, Jan Asselijn mainly painted with oil paint.

Although he painted much more, most people really only know him from one painting: The Endangered Swan. This artwork has been in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for more than 200 years and is part of the Gallery of Honour.

The only known portrait of Jan Asselijn was drawn in 1647 by none other than contemporary and professional Rembrandt van Rijn, whom he had recently become acquainted with.

The painting Threatened Swan is said to represent the murdered stadtholder Johan de Witt while protecting Holland. Salient detail: The enemy would be the staff around the newly born William III of Orange-Nassau.

Judith Leyster (1609 – 1660)

Judith is one of the first female painters. She was born in Haarlem in 1609. Judith Leyster was one of the few Dutch painters during the Golden Age and specialized in genre painting. It can be deduced from her painting technique that she was most likely apprenticed to Frans Hals. She was one of the first female “master painters” in the Netherlands. This gave her the right to teach students in her own workshop. Her baroque works have a monumental atmosphere because she mainly focused on the main subject and paid no attention to side issues. The artwork we chose is called ‘Blompotje’ – which is an old dutch word for a vase of flowers.

Hieronymus Bosch (1450 – 1516)

Hieronymus Bosch, also posthumously called Jeroen Bosch, was born in Den Bosch around 1450, where he grew up in a family of painters. He was part of the renaissance of the north and his painting technique did not differ much from his contemporaries. Although he was already famous during his lifetime and received commissions from the court in Brussels, there is relatively little known about him. Much of his life still remains a mystery, but his most famous work is probably the Garden of Earthly Delights. The artwork we chose for this stamp is called ‘De Hooiwagen’. This world famous triptych can be admired in the Prado in Madrid.

Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890)

Self-portraits, sunflowers and starry nights… This is just a small selection of Vincent van Gogh's extensive oeuvre. During his lifetime he was a misunderstood genius who managed to sell only one work. But after his tragic death, his work gradually gained worldwide recognition. He is not only an icon of Post-Impressionism, but he is also regarded today as one of the most important painters in art history. The artist born in Zundert also had an enormous influence on expressionism, fauvism and abstraction.

Today, we can admire the works of Van Gogh and some of his contemporaries in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In addition, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo has the second largest collection of his works.

Side note: Starry Night is currently under review in the Art movement set, however I'd still like to present it since it's one of the most famous art works.

Piet Mondriaan (1872 – 1944)

Although he started with landscape paintings, Piet Mondriaan has become world famous as a pioneer of abstract art and Cubism. He was born in Amersfoort, but at the age 20 he moved to Amsterdam to further develop himself there. Always looking for innovation, Mondriaan left Amsterdam for Paris in 1912 where he plunged into Cubism. Here he also changed his last name to Mondrian and continued to grow.

Although his works gradually became more and more abstract, they were not always. He started out with landscape paintings, but his best-known works are probably the compositions with only black lines and primary colors and the Broadway Boogie-Woogie that represents an ode to New York.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 – 1669)

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn should of course not be missing when you think about Dutch painters. The painter, born in Leiden, is a true icon of the Golden Age and one of the most important artists of all time. Rembrandt's works belong to the Baroque style in which sharp contrasts between light and dark are central. This chiaroscuro technique is probably inspired by Carvaggio and gives an extra dramatic tone to his paintings. Copies of his more than 300 works hang in major museums around the world. The world-famous ‘Nachtwacht’, his greatest work, can be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It’s very detailled and that’s why we chose for a stamp that focusses on the middle part of the painting.

Elisabeth Alida Haanen (1809 – 1845)

We jump into the 19th century, where we get to know this Utrecht based painter. Elisabeth Haanen was the daughter of an art dealer and painter, so she learned the trade at an early age. Elisabeth took part in various exhibitions in Amsterdam and The Hague and was best known for her interiors, inspired by 17th-century artists. Haanen died at the age of 35, but by then she had already created a number of impressive works. Her paintings can be found in the Amsterdam Museum and the Teylers Museum, among others.