Jan Pieter Veth was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 painter, poet, art critic and university lecturer.

Jan Veth was the son of Gerradus Huibert Veth, a Dordrecht

Dordrecht

Dordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...

 iron merchant and liberal politician, and Anna Cornelia Giltay. On his mother's side he descended from the Dordrecht painter family of Van Strij (his mother was a granddaughter of Jacob van Strij). He married Anna Dorothea Dirks on 10 August 1888, from which marriage came five children.

Veth received his art education at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. With several of his fellow students he founded the St. Luke group. From 1885 he worked with the painter Anton Mauve

Anton Mauve

Anthonij Rudolf Mauve was a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He signed his paintings 'A. Mauve' or with a monogrammed 'A.M.'. He was a very significant early influence on his cousin-in-law Vincent van Gogh.Most of Mauve's work depicts people and animals in...

 in Laren

Laren

is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called 't Gooi, it is the oldest town in that area. It is one of the richest towns in the Netherlands, along with its neighbour Blaricum...

. After his marriage in 1888 he settled in Bussum

Bussum

Bussum is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.-History:Bussum was first mentioned in 1306. In this time, Bussum was a large heathland with many small farms, sheep pens and forests as is shown on old maps. Since Bussum is situated near the fortified town...

.

Jan Veth is especially noted as a portrait painter. Amongst his sitters were Max Liebermann

Max Liebermann

Max Liebermann was a German-Jewish painter and printmaker best known for his etching and lithography.-Biography:...

, Lambertus Zijl, Frank van der Goes, Antoon Derkinderen and other contemporaries including various fellow painters.

In addition he was a well-known poet, belonging to the Eighties movement and publishing work in the De Nieuwe Gids

De Nieuwe Gids

De Nieuwe Gids was a Dutch illustrated literary periodical which was published from 1885 to 1943. It played an important role in promoting the literary movement of 1880s...

. He designed the cover for "De Kleine Johannes", a book written by his friend, Frederik van Eeden, contributing to the development of book-art in Holland.

As Professor Extraordinary in History of Art and Aesthetics, he was associated with the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.

Selected works by Jan Veth

• Arnold Aletrino
  Arnold Aletrino
  Arnold Aletrino was a Dutch criminal anthropologist and writer, who published works on homosexuality in Dutch and French...
  
  
• Christiaan Eijkman
  Christiaan Eijkman
  Christiaan Eijkman was a Dutch physician and professor of physiology whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins...
  
  
• Jacobus Kapteyn
  Jacobus Kapteyn
  Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn, was a Dutch astronomer, best known for his extensive studies of the Milky Way and as the first discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation....
  
  
• Diederik Johannes Korteweg
• Abraham Kuyper
  Abraham Kuyper
  Abraham Kuijper generally known as Abraham Kuyper, was a Dutch politician, journalist, statesman and theologian...
  
  
• Willem Johannes Leyds (1859–1940)
• Max Liebermann
  Max Liebermann
  Max Liebermann was a German-Jewish painter and printmaker best known for his etching and lithography.-Biography:...
  
  
• Rudolph Peter Johann Tutein Nolthenius (1851–1939)
• Alieda Maria Tutein Nolthenius (1855–1910)
• Pieter Zeeman
  Pieter Zeeman
  Pieter Zeeman was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for his discovery of the Zeeman effect.-Childhood and youth:...
  
  

Biography

• Prof. dr. J. Huizinga
  Johan Huizinga
  Johan Huizinga , was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.-Life:Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two years after his birth, he started out as a student of Indo-Germanic languages, earning his...
  
  , Leven en werken van Jan Veth, Haarlem 1927.

Sources

• De Navorscher 1950/1951
• Museum of Dordrecht
• Biographical Dictionary