Memories of a grandson:

Vincent Lopes de Leão Laguna

Sound clips

  1. Beggar
  2. Domela Nieuwenhuis
  3. Rembrandt
  4. Strong
  5. Salon

One day a beggar came to grandpa’s house and since his studio was, say, in front of the house, half in front of the house. He rang the bell at the studio door. And that man who came begging for some money. Well, grandpa gave him some money. And that man put that away. And then my grandpa he said God bless you boy and that man turned around. And then it started raining, raining hard. And that’s really historic. So that was always a big joke in our house.

Domela Nieuwenhuis

Yes Viv, you asked me to tell you about my grandfather’s situation. What I have heard about the painting by Domela Nieuwenhuis is the following. My grandfather lived in Hilversum at that time and he saw him walking on several times because he was there regularly. And then he approached him on the street. And he did say;’ Mr Nieuwenhuis, uhm, I think you have such a beautiful head. Would it be nice if I made a portrait of you?’ And so it happened. And so it went. And um, yeah, that’s basically the story. Yes. And if you want to hear another one, I’ll tell you. Well what I actually experienced as a child with my grandfather was the next I took a walk with him to Blaricum. So he lived in Blaricum. And he had a colleague and a friend. And he also lived in Blaricum, in the middle of the village on the Torenlaan. And there is still a beautiful house with a large studio window. And that’s where his friend lived and that’s where I walked with him. And I ended up in his studio and there was a painting he was working on. And under the thick blue smoke of both large cigars, a conversation naturally ensued about the arts, about painting. And then they also talked about the painting that was on that easel. He was working on the clouds. And then my grandfather did and I loved seeing that. He then gave him a brush and painted a cloud in it. And that was to their delight I believe. And yes, I was still very young at the time, I think maybe five or six years old, especially at that age. And then at some point we went back. And that was a lot of fun. And that made such an impression on me that studio with the big blue smoke from those big cigars. That I’ve never really forgotten that. And that was more than eighty years ago.

Vivienne: Beautiful. And do you remember who that was? Which painter it was ?

Jansen, J.H. Jansen or H.J. Yes, that was Jansen. And Jansen, who also made many paintings with sea themes and shell fishermen and those kinds of paintings. But he was a very amiable man. And so I thought it was beautiful. And well, those are some of the things I loved about my grandfather. And yes, of course I was about six years old before the war actually broke out. And then, of course, there was also a lack of fuel. And I still remember when peat was fired in the stoves and in the hearths. But of course those peat did not fit in a normal fireplace or stove. And my grandfather was enormously strong and everyone knew it. In Laren we also called it the strong man. And where I was there and I thought that was great, is that the one on his knees grabbed that peat and slammed it in half on his knee. And then he had those pieces until he got a whole mountain together and then it was done. And no matter what happened at that time, a fishmonger always came by. And that fishmonger, he also came by at that time, but he hadn’t come to see them. So my grandfather opened the windows, because they were downstairs, of course. And they shouted and he called “flounder, flounder, flounder” and that man, at that moment he heard that and he came home to offer his fish. But that cry of that “flounder flounder, flounder”, yes that is etched in my memory. Those are the things you never forget in your life. Okay, that was it.

Martijn and Lodi were at home. And he actually came home a little angry from Hamdorff. And then they had actually tricked him a bit. Because the queen had paid a visit to the exhibition in Laren at Hamdorff and there she had said about Grandpa’s paintings. God, there are a lot of Rembrandt-esque colors in that. Well and then grandpa came into his pub where his colleagues were sitting and they said “hey look, there we have Rembrandt, Rembrandt is coming in” and he was kind of pissed off about that. And when he told his sons that at home, they were of course two tall lads, who said “well Dad we’ll teach them a lesson”. And they also went to that pub to set things straight. Yes, that’s the way they did things at that time. Yes, of course we wouldn’t…, we’re too neat for that. But of course they loved that.

Grandpa then lived in one in Laren. I have always been told on the “zijtak “. And then such a farm boy came to him, he said “so Jew” or something of that nature. And then grandpa said “oh did you want something?”. And it seized him, for he was immeasurably strong. And he grabbed that kid and he lifted him high above his head. And then he set it back on the ground. Then he said “do you want something else?”. And that kid, of course he got away. And he had those kinds of things. But of course he was incredibly strong. That’s one thing that’s for sure.

In the summer, customers often came from Amsterdam. And those were indeed a bit of the fine fleur for the directors of fashion warehouses, large companies and I know a lot. And they came with their cars at that time. I am now talking from before the war of course, they came to grandma, because or to grandpa and grandma. But grandma, she always had a kind of salon, which she said herself then “I have a salon”. And then in the garden a table was set with all possible delicacies. “Tea-en” she called it, because of course she was English by birth and then those people were received. And my grandfather would sit in his studio to make arrangements for portraits, either of a child, of a woman, or of the man himself and of course also to discuss the price. And so it went. And my grandmother loved doing that. Well, those are the stories I’ve heard from my mother, of course.