Constant Nieuwenhuys - Early Period

Early Period

Constant is born in Amsterdam on 21 July 1920 as the first son of Pieter Nieuwenhuijs and Maria Cornelissen. Their second son Jan Nieuwenhuys is born a year later. That both sons will turn out to be artists is surprising considering that their father works as a manager at a commercial company and has no apparent interest in art.

As a young child Constant draws passionately and with great talent, he reads literature (he has a special preference for poetry) and plays musical instruments. During his teenage years he learns to sing and read notes from paper in the church choir at the Jezuit college. In his later years, greatly inspired by gypsy music, he only improvises when playing music. He plays gitar, violin and at 45 years of age also masters playing the cimbalon.

He paints his first oil-painting, De Emmaüsgangers, at age sixteen. It depicts the revelation of Jesus to two of his followers in Emmaus. With no money to buy materials he paints this painting on a jute sugar bag with pigments he buys from a house-painter. Due to his schooling at the Jezuit college many of Constant’s early drawings and paintings are religiously inspired. When he's twenty he turns his back on Catholicism.

After a one year study at the Kunstnijverheidsschool (Arts and Crafts School) Constant attends the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunst (State Academy of Fine Arts) from 1939 to 1941. Especially during his New Babylon period he puts his skills as a craftsman to use when building constructions and models. He lives and works in Bergen from 1941 to 1943. And through the Bergense School he’s introduced to the work of Cezanne, which impacts him deeply. This is shown in Zelfportret (Self Portrait), 1942.

When Bergen is evacuated by the Germans in 1943, Constant and his wife Matie van Domselaer, whom he married in July 1942, move back to Amsterdam. To avoid the 'Arbeidseinsatz' (labour supply for the Germans) he goes into hiding and since he doesn’t register himself at the ‘Kulturkammer’ (Nazi Chamber of Culture) he is forbidden to exercise his craft and buy art supplies. To paint he uses tablecloths and bed linnen and rinses them out to start again. During the war his brother in law, Jaap van Domselaer, moves into the apartment to hide from the 'Arbeitseinsatz' and he introduces Constant to Plato, Spinoza, Descartes, Kant, Hegel and Marx. Especially the latter will provide great inspiration to Constant for his ideas on art and society.

During the winterfamine of 1944 his first son, Victor Nieuwenhuys, is born. After the war Constant, his wife and son move back to Bergen only to return to Amsterdam in 1946 where he finds an apartment across from Artis (the zoo). When the war is over Constant's artistic view broadens after a period of captivity and limitation. He liberates himself artistically and experiments with multiple techniques. He is inspired by Cubism especially by Braque. In 1946 his daughter Martha is born, followed by his daughter Olga in 1948.