Johan Scherrewitz

Dutch

Johan Scherrewitz was born on March 18, 1868 in Amsterdam. His family had high hopes that he would become a stockbroker like his father, but succumbed to Johan’s requests that he be allowed to take drawing and painting lessons. He then began taking art classes on Sunday mornings from a drawing teacher at Velsen. Later Johan Scherrewitz would become a student at the studio of G.J.H Poggenbeek. For the most part Scherrewitz painted and drew landscapes with cattle and horses. It has been said that drawing was in his blood, as his mother was French and related to the painter Antoine Renou.

During his many outings to the eastern and southern regions of Holland, including Achterhoek, Overijssel, Brabant, Heeze and Leende, Scherrewitz made hundreds of drawing studies. Scherrewitz also traveled to Germany and France, but he preferred painting the Dutch landscape, particularly the forest and the dunes along the North Sea, the moors with sheep, and the meadows with cows and horses. He looked for the joys of nature and depicted them with an elegant gesture, and often with great precision.

Scherrewitz lived and worked until 1898 in Amsterdam, in Laren until 1902, in Haarlem from 1902-1904, and then in Hilversum. Many of his works were exported to England and the USA. He taught B. Fokker and J. Holtrup. Scherrewitz was a member of “Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam.