The Hague School: An Illustrated Lecture

“On the afternoon of July 3, 2000, I stepped off a busy street in The Hague into the former home of Hendrik Willem Mesdag, the Dutch painter who died in 1914. The house, filled with paintings from the French Barbizon School and the Dutch Hague School, felt peaceful. I was immediately drawn to the Dutch works, for their expansive skies and quiet, solitary landscapes, as well as the domestic scenes of fisherfolk and farmers, which portray a simpler time. Later in the day, I returned for a second look and decided to buy a book about the Hague School. Thus began a twenty-year period of investigation.”

– Don Robbins

Join collector Don Robbins for an illustrated lecture about his new exhibition at the Lightner Museum, The Hague School: The Second Golden Age of Dutch Painting. Attendees will have the opportunity to preview the exhibition before the lecture.

The Hague School denotes a group of artists that lived and worked in The Hague, Netherlands, during the 1870s and 1880s. This vibrant city and its picturesque surroundings provided the venues and subjects for the artists’ paintings, including the Dutch countryside and the North Sea, along with their striking atmospheric effects. As Holland stood on the brink of a new century, these influential artists heralded a new golden age of Dutch painting. Amassed over a twenty-year period, and presented publicly for the first time, the Robbins Collection conveys the undeniable impact of the Hague School on Dutch painting.

About the Speaker
Don Robbins taught Math and Statistics at Flagler College for twenty years and was on the board of the St. Augustine Art Association for eleven years. For the past twenty-four years, he’s been researching and collecting Hague School paintings. In 2023, he published The Second Golden Age of Dutch Painting: The Hague School in the Nineteenth Century with Goosepen Studio & Press.

Event Details
Doors open at 5:30pm
Exhibition preview: 5:30 – 6:30pm
Lecture: 6:30pm

General Admission: $10
Member Admission: Free