Wilhelm Albertus Lammers

Wilhelm Albertus (Willem) Lammers (Aalten, 1857 – Ginneken, 1913) was a Dutch painter with a remarkable specialisation: poultry scenes. Until the end of the 19th century, hardly any attention was paid to the living conditions of poultry. Chickens typically slept in a farm barn or in trees. The painter managed to capture this vividly on canvas.

Life

Lammers was born on 3 April 1857 at the Schulenkamp farm in the Dale hamlet near Aalten, as the son of Albertus Lammers and Theodora Huls. The family moved several times within Aalten – first to Kerkstraat, then to Dijkstraat and Hoekstraat. Willem Lammers was initially a shoemaker by trade. In 1880, he left for Gaanderen, and a few years later, he lived in Amsterdam.

In 1887, the Court-Martial in ‘s-Hertogenbosch sentenced him to four months of military detention for desertion. Upon his registration, his occupation was recorded as painter, his religion as Roman Catholic, his height as 1.66 m, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a curly beard.

On 24 July 1890, Lammers married Wilhelmina van den Akker in Breda. The couple lived briefly in Aalten (Dijkstraat) and moved to Breda in April 1891. Eight children were born there: seven daughters—one of whom was stillborn—and one son. Lammers passed away on 4 February 1913 in Ginneken (municipality of Breda).

Arts

As an artist, Lammers was self-taught. He worked mainly in oil on canvas or panel, mostly in small to medium formats. His scenes depict chickens, chicks, and cockerels in their daily environment: around the feeding area, by the haystack, or inside a barn. He signed his work as “W.A. Lammers”, “W. Lammers”, or with the monogram “W.L.”.