Willem van Althuis (Dronrijp, 3 March 1926 – Heerenveen, 9 October 2005) was a Dutch painter who only found his artistic calling at a later age. As an autodidact, he sought compensation for the hard life as a road paver in literature, philosophy and drawing at an early age. Encouraged by Thom Mercuur, curator and founder of Museum Belvédère, he began to study the history of modern painting, with a special interest in artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. At the age of 37, Van Althuis began to paint himself and developed a unique style that earned him much admiration.
His work has been shown at various exhibitions, including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, the Institut Néerlandais in Paris and Museum Belvédère in Oranjewoud. In addition, several television broadcasts have been devoted to his work, such as the NOS program "Beeldspraak: Willem van Althuis en de kleur" (1976) and broadcasts surrounding the opening of the Belvédère Museum in 2004-2005, where his work was central.
Much of Van Althuis' work is in private collections, but also in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, PTT Den Haag, the Province of Friesland, the Fries Museum and the Municipality of Heerenveen. Shortly after the Willem van Althuis Foundation was established on June 8, 2005, he died on October 9, 2005.
In 2013, the monograph "Willem van Althuis: Achter de horizon" was published, in which the artist's entire oeuvre is highlighted. This richly illustrated book offers insight into his development as an artist and shows previously unseen work.
Van Althuis' paintings are characterized by a quiet simplicity and a subtle use of color. He often took buildings from the Heerenveen and Dronrijp region as a starting point and reduced them to a few planes with soft colours, which resulted in almost abstract landscapes. His consistent reduction of representations led him to paintings with abstract planes, blurred lines, circles and squares.
