(b ’s Hertogenbosch, 20 Dec 1859; d Amsterdam, 2 Nov 1925). Dutch painter, designer, printmaker and writer. He trained at the Koninklijke School voor Nuttige en Beeldende Kunsten in ’s Hertogenbosch (1878–80) and at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (1880–84) under the direction of August Allebé. In 1882–3, on the advice of Allebé, he spent a year studying at the Académie Royale, Brussels. He received his first important commission in 1884 for a mural painting for the Begijnhof church in Amsterdam. The Procession of the Miraculous Holy Sacrament, which was painted on canvas and not directly on to the wall, was rejected by his patrons after its completion in 1889 because of its unusual, innovative character. Only in 1929, four years after Derkinderen’s death, was the enormous canvas (2*11 m) placed in the Begijnhof church (in situ). Inspired by the work of Giotto and that of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, whom he had met during a journey to Italy and France in 1887, and under the influence of Walter Crane and other theorists of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, Derkinderen became one of the first in the Netherlands to subscribe to the notion that a mural painting must be subservient to its architectural setting and must not have a strong naturalistic or illusionistic character. The pale tonality and severe figure style of the Begijnhof mural are particularly indebted to Puvis de Chavannes.

• Derkinderen, Antoon (Johannes)
  • Holst, Richard Roland
  • Looy, Jacobus van
  • Netherlands, the, §III, 6(ii): Painting and graphic arts, c 1850–c 1900
  • Netherlands, the, §XV: Art education
  • ’s Hertogenbosch, §1: History and urban development
  • collaboration
    • Mendes da Costa, Joseph
  • groups and movements
    • Witsen, Willem
  • pupils
    • Nijland, Dirk
  • works
    • Veth, Jan Pieter