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Hoytema, Theo(door) van
(b The Hague, 18 Dec 1863; d The Hague, 28 Aug 1917). Dutch painter, lithographer and designer. He trained at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague. He worked as a draughtsman at the Zoological Museum in Leiden and illustrated scientific studies, for instance On a New Collection of Birds from S. W. Africa by J. Büttikofer (1889) and Zoölogische Ergebnisse einer Reise in Niederl. Ost-Indiën, von dr. Max Weber (1890). Apart from paintings such as Two Arabian Vultures (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), he made many watercolours and drawings of plants and animals, which clearly reveal his appreciation of Japanese prints: he often outlined the separate areas of flat colour in ink, in imitation of such prints, and he could describe the characteristic attitudes of animals with a masterly economy of line. Van Hoytema compiled and published two portfolios of prints of related subjects, Dierstudies [Animal studies] (1898) and Bloemstudies [Flower studies] (1905). His powerful, decorative compositions show an unmatched technical perfection.
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