W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp

Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp (often abbreviated as W. O. J. Nieuwenkamp) (Amsterdam, July 27, 1874 – Fiesole, April 23, 1950), was a Dutch multi-faceted autodidact. As an artist he was active as a painter, draftsman, sculptor, etcher, lithographer, and designer of book covers and of ex-libris. In addition, he was also known as a writer, architect, explorer, ethnologist and collector of East Asian art.

He was the first European artist to visit Bali, being greatly influenced by and himself influencing the island's art and culture, and making it better known in wider world. He was also deeply involved with various other parts of the then Dutch East Indies.

Though he took some lessons at the Amsterdamse Kunstnijverheidsschool (Amsterdam School of Applied Arts), Nieuwenkamp was mainly a self-taught artist – reckoned more a graphic artist than a painter. Working primarily in ink, his drawings were executed in rich sepia tones. There is a clear influence of Art Nouveau on his work, though he did not strictly belong to that movement.

In 1900, the year of his marriage to Anna Wilbrink, he built a houseboat called De Zwerver (The Wanderer), which was also his own nickname. In it, he sailed through the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, holding exhibitions on board where his works could be purchased. At the time he had considerable interest in the old Dutch towns and villages of the Zuider Zee and his book on the subject was also translated to English and German.

From the late 1890s and for several decades afterwards, he repeatedly journeyed to Far East and Middle East, and in particular to various islands of the Dutch East Indies – starting with Java in 1898 and 1904, and then Bali and Lombok in 1906 and 1907. In the aftermath of the brutal Dutch military intervention of 1906, destroying the last independent kingdom on Bali, he painted the ruins of the town of Denpasar, destroyed by Dutch troops (see illustration).

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