Dreamed images. Drawings by Johan Huizinga

Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) is the most famous cultural historian of The Netherlands. His one-hundredth birthday in 1972 was reason to organise an international conference, and next to that an exhibition in the University Museum Groningen about his life and work. The exhibition did not only include his books, writings and photographs, but also eighteen pictures drawn by Huizinga.

Huizinga was one of the six students from Groningen who between 1895 and 1897 organised eight much talked-about exhibitions in Groningen about modern Dutch art. The Groninger Museum currently tells this story in their exhibition How Van Gogh came to Groningen. 

Huizinga’s involvment with modern Dutch art also raises the interest in his own drawings, which are known only to a small circle of admirers. Huzinga was a natural talent. Whatever his eyes saw, his hand could draw: a landscape, a town, a historic building, a loyal friend, family or a dear dog. Not only did he capture images both dreamed and fantasized, but his portrayals of everyday reality are also dream-like or idyllic.

Just like in 1972, the University Museum is the obvious place to bring together his drawings in an exhibition titled Dreamed Images.