Thursday, July 26, 2007

A monumental house. Holland.

Today I biked to Oosterbeek to paint a house that I wanted
to paint for a long time, ... a vicars house that did duty in the
second world war as a R.A.P. during the operation "Market Garden".

A Regimental Aid Posts just behind Oosterbeek Church, in and around this house of Kate ter Horst. She opened up her home and filled it to capacity with as many of the wounded and dying as she could. Throughout the battle she did all that any one person could do to make her guests comfortable and to ease their suffering.


"De Pastorie." Oosterbeek, Holland.
(The Vicars house.) Oil on board.
22 x 24 cm.

To give an impression on how things where then:


And how it is today:


It's such an honour to be able to paint this house.

5 comments:

rob ijbema said...

alo,alo,great composition rene!
love how the shrubs catch the light.
you are getting more and more confident with color.

Edward B. Gordon said...

what a great painting René, and what a story. Makes me very thankful that in our generation we can meet as colleges and friends, appreciate each others work, and not fight wars...

René PleinAir said...

Thanks Rob & Edward,
Indeed Rob, it's becoming more and
more fun to put in more color, I think this summer is helping me also a bit, this wet summer brings up so much more greens and flowers. It's really a thankful thought isn't it Edward and what a pleasure to have Internet now a day.

Anonymous said...

Amazing, I visited in 2007, as a family friend was with 30 corps during ww2 and met Mrs Ter Horst.
I took some photos of the house opposite (with the sunflowers in the garden) and I'm hoping to paint them from that.
A lovely tribute to the Angel of Arnhem.

René PleinAir said...

Hi Anonymous,
I don't know if your receive this message when I post it here, but would you be so kind to mail me personally, ... I would like to let you know something little more about this painting.