Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1933 – 2011
Annemarie Eilers comes from a social environment of art lovers and book publishers like her French grandfather Emile de la Grange or trading in art like her Dutch grandfather Petrus Christiaan Eilers and her father Piet Eilers, both working at E.J. van Wisselingh & Co at the Rokin. At Van Wisselingh people could see works by George Hendrik Breitner, Marius Bauer, Willem de Zwart and of the French painters: Jean Corot and Charles Francois Daubigny. Later also works by Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse were traded.
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Because her mother spoke French with Annemarie she was not able to understand anyone when she attended Dutch kindergarten. From early on she learned how it is to be different from the rest. Her school education during World War II did not go by the regular rules and also at the Baarns Lyceum it did not go smooth. Her father decided to send her to boarding school in England, where she had to stay a year because it was already paid for. Most girls from outside of England did not come back after Christmas break. It was here Eilers learned to play the piano and above all to paint, the seed was sown. After this she went to school in Paris and lived with her French grandmother and her cousin. This is how she came to speak three languages.
IMAGE ???
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When she was nineteen years old Eilers went to the National Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. When she opened the door to her new drawing class she was shocked to see a male model standing there, naked, and she closed the door immediately. However, she eventually had to go back in and draw the model. During her education at the academy from 1952 to 1955 she had drawing lessons from Gé Röling and she learned painting from Jan Wiegers. Wiegers taught her to use unusually bright colours. She also met Dora Esser-Wellensiek here which became a lifelong friend.
Her husband Ek van Zanten had won the Prix de Rome in 1955 and went to Rome, she followed him with her son Ekkehard (1956), who was just born. Later two other children followed, Marcella (1959) and Patrice (1963-2006). When she returned to the Netherlands Eilers lived with her familyin the Zomerdijkstraatateliers for a couple of years. Together with Dora she made watercolours in the Netherlands and France, and they travelled to Corfu in Greece together. With her daughter Marcella she went on many painting trips to different places, like the lake district in England and several places along the Dutch and French coast and the Dordogne.
Ek Van Zanten met Jos Wong and Jan Wolkers
– at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam
Her style became expressionistic and during the years her pallet of colours became less abundant. She depicted her subjects as strikingly dynamic. These subjects could range from waves with white heads, clouds that savagely go their way, boats that sail diagonally through the strong wind, to dancing people and people in canoes. She often worked outdoors in nature and could work despite any unfortunate weather circumstances. Later, she enjoyed the luxury of working from within her car. She would instantly know what to paint and in which colours. She particularly admired the work of Henri Matisse and Nicholas de Staël.
At the Amsterdam Fashion academy she was teaching model drawing and she used to be a teacher at ”de Vrije leergangen” of the Free University of Amsterdam. Eilers was member of Arti et Amicitae in Amsterdam and was connected to the “Vereniging van Bussumse Beeldende Kunstenaars”. She was member of the board of de “Kunstuitleen” (SBK) in Hilversum and Amsterdam.
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Gallery Imago was founded by Eilers together with Hannie Halma. The gallery at the Nieuwe Zijdsvoorburgwal showed artists like Geer Steyn and Ida Kleiterp, both artists from the Zomerdijkstraat. She worked at the gallery in the eighties and nineties. Eilers had a lot of exhibitions both in the Netherlands and abroad. In 1980 she is divorced Van Zanten. She lived and worked in Naarden from 1961 to her death in 2011.
Annette Groos wrote about Eilers’ art:” Especially her drawings show a playful, almost frivolous joy in observing and registering, a childlike pleasure in talking about what she experienced this time.
Europa and the Bull
– Laapersweg, Hilversum, 1961
Dijkwerkers
– Maashaven Rotterdam, 1961
Portrait Piet Eilers
– Naarden, 1982
Literature
J.F. Heijbroek, E.L. Wouthuysen, Portret van een kunsthandel. De firma van Wisselingh en zijn compagnons 1838- heden, Zwolle, Waanders Uitgeverij/Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1999