ARTISTS from Netherlands

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Dutch Artists of all time. This list of famous Dutch Artists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. M. C. Escher (1898 - 1972)

With an HPI of 73.37, M. C. Escher is the most famous Dutch Artist.  His biography has been translated into 73 different languages on wikipedia.

Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmʌurɪts kɔrˈneːlɪs ˈɛɕər]; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints, many of which were inspired by mathematics. Despite wide popular interest, for most of his life Escher was neglected in the art world, even in his native Netherlands. He was 70 before a retrospective exhibition was held. In the late twentieth century, he became more widely appreciated, and in the twenty-first century he has been celebrated in exhibitions around the world. His work features mathematical objects and operations including impossible objects, explorations of infinity, reflection, symmetry, perspective, truncated and stellated polyhedra, hyperbolic geometry, and tessellations. Although Escher believed he had no mathematical ability, he interacted with the mathematicians George Pólya, Roger Penrose, and Donald Coxeter, and the crystallographer Friedrich Haag, and conducted his own research into tessellation. Early in his career, he drew inspiration from nature, making studies of insects, landscapes, and plants such as lichens, all of which he used as details in his artworks. He traveled in Italy and Spain, sketching buildings, townscapes, architecture and the tilings of the Alhambra and the Mezquita of Cordoba, and became steadily more interested in their mathematical structure. Escher's art became well known among scientists and mathematicians, and in popular culture, especially after it was featured by Martin Gardner in his April 1966 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. Apart from being used in a variety of technical papers, his work has appeared on the covers of many books and albums. He was one of the major inspirations for Douglas Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach.

2. Theo van Doesburg (1883 - 1931)

With an HPI of 67.16, Theo van Doesburg is the 2nd most famous Dutch Artist.  His biography has been translated into 47 different languages.

Theo van Doesburg (Dutch: [ˈteːjoː vɑn ˈduzbʏr(ə)x]; 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He married three times.

3. Theo Jansen (b. 1948)

With an HPI of 56.51, Theo Jansen is the 3rd most famous Dutch Artist.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Theodorus Gerardus Jozef Jansen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈteːjoː ˈjɑnsə(n)]; born 14 March 1948) is a Dutch artist. In 1990, he began building large mechanisms out of PVC that are able to move on their own and, collectively, are titled Strandbeest. The kinetic sculptures appear to walk. His animated works are intended to be a fusion of art and engineering. He has said that "The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds." Some of his creations are reported to incorporate primitive logic gates for collision detection with obstacles such as the sea.

4. Bas Jan Ader (1942 - 1975)

With an HPI of 48.65, Bas Jan Ader is the 4th most famous Dutch Artist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Bastiaan Johan Christiaan "Bas Jan" Ader (19 April 1942 – disappeared 1975) was a Dutch conceptual and performance artist, and photographer. His work was in many instances presented as photographs and film of his performances. He made performative installations, including Please Don't Leave Me (1969). Ader was lost at sea in 1975, attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean from the American coast to England sailing in a thirteen-foot sailboat. His deserted vessel was found off the coast of Ireland on 18 April 1976, offering few clues as to his fate.

5. Joseph Smit (1836 - 1929)

With an HPI of 42.63, Joseph Smit is the 5th most famous Dutch Artist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Joseph Smit (18 July 1836 – 4 November 1929) was a Dutch zoological illustrator.