About the artist

Jan Zoetelief Tromp was born in Batavia (Dutch Indies) as Jan Tromp. He added Zoetelief to his name as a gratitude for his beloved grandmother 'Grootje Zoet' (Granny Zoet). Jan Zoetelief Tromp painted most of his work in the towns of Blaricum and Katwijk. Agrarian life in Blaricum first captured his interest in 1899, and in 1905 he ‘discovered’ Katwijk, where he subsequently spent summers with his family and finally settled permanently in 1914. Tromp painted the daily lives of the fishing community, and especially pictures with children, showing them playing on the beach, shepherding goats or returning from the dunes. These scenes are all idyllic and resonate with a familial contentment that presumably reflected his own. Being both deaf and somewhat introverted, Tromp preferred to use his own wife and children as models.

He was student of the Artschool in The Hague and the Amsterdam Art School. He lived in the Netherlands and after 1928 he left for France. Jan Zoetelief Tromp was, under he influence of his father in law B.J. Blommers, painter of beaches with playing fishermans children, in- and exteriors with fisherman and landscapes. He worked in the tyle of the "Haagse School" but he had his own powerfull light and colour in his paintings.

Exhibitions in The Hague, Arnhem, Amsterdam, Groningen, Rotterdam and Leeuwarden.
Works by Zoetelief Tromp in the Rijksprentenkabinet Amsterdam and Rijksmuseum Van Bilderbeek-Lamaison Dordrecht.

In 1872, he died in Breteuil-sur-Iton (France) in 1947.

All artworks