Piet te Lintum

Piet te Lintum (1909–1985) was a versatile artist from the Achterhoek. He worked as a columnist, illustrator, sketch artist and painter, capturing a vast number of landscapes and village scenes of his native region. For this reason, he is often referred to as the “painting ambassador of the Achterhoek”.

Pieter (Piet) te Lintum was born on 13 January 1909 in Aalten, the son of Jan te Lintum, a grocer, and Johanna Christina Adolphina te Giffel. The family lived at Dijkstraat 4, the premises occupied by the Van den Dobbelsteen bakery until 2022. On 15 August 1942, he married Elisabeth Maria Schenk, with whom he had two children.

Talent

From an early age, Te Lintum demonstrated an exceptional talent for drawing. By the age of eleven, he was already producing accurate, lifelike portraits. He received his first lessons from an artist who had just graduated from art academy. He also spent a year taking correspondence courses from an institute in Paris.

At eighteen, he attended classes at the Kunstnijverheidsschool (School of Arts and Crafts) in Arnhem, where he was taught by Hendrik Valk and Gerard van Lerven. Following this, he studied for three years at the Rotterdam Art Academy under David Bautz and Herman Mees. His most influential master, however, was Professor Johannes Hendricus Jurres at the Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid (State School of Arts and Crafts) in Amsterdam.

Career

After finishing his education, Piet te Lintum built a multifaceted career as an illustrator for various publishing houses. Among other projects, he drew the illustrations for the adventures of Aornt Peppelenkamp, written by Frans Roes under the pseudonym Herman van Velzen. He also worked for the Misset publishing house in Doetinchem (including for the newspaper De Graafschapbode) and created comic-strip-style columns for the Tubantia daily newspaper. In addition, he designed commercial advertising work, postcards and painted murals.

Piet te Lintum is particularly renowned for his paintings of dilapidated buildings. He shunned the modern and rectilinear. For him, the rule was: the older and more decayed the building, the more beautiful the picture as a whole. In doing so, he was not merely interested in the romantic imagery of neglected houses and farms; through his works, he also sought to draw attention to local history.

Even back then, Te Lintum watched with sorrow as an increasing number of old, historic buildings were demolished to make way for the redevelopment of the Achterhoek landscape. It is for this very reason that Bernard Schlüter’s small cottage in Südlohn, Germany, and the Kuupershuusken in Bredevoort were rebuilt brick by brick—all for the sake of preserving the rich local history.

Legacy

On 1 May 1985, Piet te Lintum passed away in Winterswijk. His work lives on in the memory of many, not least thanks to the book Wat ik te zeggen heb… (What I have to say…) by Hans de Beukelaer, which pays tribute to his life and work. More than 500 of his pieces were tracked down for the publication. Although a large portion of his murals have not withstood the test of time, his paintings of farms, buildings and regional views remain lasting testaments to his love for the Achterhoek.