In the summer of 2018, I devoted myself to writing a book. Here is how that came about. I had extensively mapped out my family tree (currently about 10,000 people), which was nice work in which I had built up some experience.
That summer, there was an exhibition about Art Nouveau at the Kunstmuseum in The Hague. My girlfriend and I are interested fans of Art Nouveau in the Netherlands and (far) beyond for many years, so that was delicious. All the more so because a statue was prominently displayed that had struck me every time I saw it before: a pottery Javanese dancer who usually stood between the well-known standard pottery, so between plates and vases.
An article was devoted to the sculptor in question and his pottery factory to introduce the exhibition. Not much was known about the sculptor except his birth and some further genealogical data. Ha, I thought, I could find out for the author. It went well, so I immediately worked out his further family and in-laws. They were two families full of musicians, visual artists, and history.
In December 2024, many libraries and archives further on, the book was finished, and I could publish it.
What the book is about
The book now includes the comprehensive biographies of
- Bartholomeus Joannes van Hove, award-winning Hague draftsman and painter, first teacher of drawing and painting at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague;
- Friedrich Wirtz, the first teacher of voice, violin and piano at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague;
- Carel Wirtz, sculptor in the Netherlands and the United States of America;
- Anton Wirtz, draftsman, painter, art teacher and director of the drawing school in the south of the Netherlands;
- Bart Wirtz, cellist with various orchestras in the Netherlands and teacher in Nijmegen, but then mainly in the United States of America at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and later also conductor there;
- Carl Kindler, oboist, first in the Prussian army, then with the Staff Music of the Rotterdamse Schutterij and later conductor and oboe teacher at the Rotterdam Music School;
- Frieda Kindler, concert pianist and piano teacher, especially in Great Britain;
- Bernard van Dieren, composer and music critic, especially in Great Britain;
- Willem Wirtz, draftsman and painter in the Netherlands, Germany and the United States of America;
- Hans Kindler, cellist, conductor and founder of the National Symphony Orchestra of the United States of America; and
- Carel Wirtz, interior designer and teacher of interior design at the Academy for Visual Arts in Rotterdam.
It also includes brief biographies of students and some historical background. Comprehensive lists of compositions are included for all the composers. Bibliographies and an index complete the book, which holds vi + 288 pages, 207 illustrations, and 887 footnotes. It is written in parallel in Dutch and English.
The excerpt on the right provides you with an idea of it.
Where to buy
I have independently published the book through Kindle Direct Publishing.
You can thus buy it anywhere in the world at Amazon.nl.
Bookstores and libraries can obtain this book through Amazon Expanded Distribution.
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