Johan Frederik Cornelis Scherrewitz was born in Amsterdam on 18th March 1868. His father was a stockbroker. Johan began his studies as a pupil of the landscape painter, Johan Diderik Cornelis Veltens (1814-1894) and of George Jan Hendrik Poggenbeek (1853-1903) who was also a painter of landscape and town scenes.

The artist lived and worked in Amsterdam until 1898 before moving to Laren where he worked between 1898-1902. He then had a short sojourn in Haarlem between 1902-1904 before settling in Hilversum. Influenced early in his career by his teachers, particularly Poggenbeek, Scherrewitz was renowned as a painter of the Dutch landscape and is considered to be part of the ‘second bloom’ of the Hague School. He painted many works depicting the traditional Dutch farming life but it his portrayal of the fisherfolk and the coast of Holland for which he is most highly acclaimed. He often painted beached boats with fishermen unloading their catch, shrimping or clam gathering under a leaden North Sea sky. These works are highly atmospheric and capture the essence of mans symbiotic relationship with nature.

Scherrewitz was highly regarded and successful as an artist; he was elected to the Academy of St. Luke and to the Society of Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam and he exhibited extensively. Between 1895 and 1903 he exhibited in The Hague, Amsterdam and Arnhem. He was widely collected in England and Scotland exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1907, Liverpool in 1909 and at the British Institution. His paintings were also very sought after in North America.

Scherrewitz died in Hilversum, 9th August 1951.

Museums: The Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede.

Literature: Wesselius, H.A. – Painters of the Brooekloot.
Luinstra, E.A. – Johan Scherrewitz 1868-1951.