Julien Landa Dutch, b. 1947

Julien Landa’s (1947, Rotterdam) path to painting began with photography. He worked for many years as a freelance commercial photographer and spent time in the south of France in the early 1980s. On returning to the Netherlands, he chose to devote himself to painting at around the age of thirty-five. As a self-taught artist, he found in it the freedom to develop an artistic world of his own.

His early work had a Surrealist character, with René Magritte among his sources of inspiration. Gradually, his focus shifted towards realism and finely detailed painting. Everyday life became his principal subject: fruit, bowls and other familiar objects, carefully brought together in compositions in which each element has its place.

Landa’s painting belongs within the Dutch realist tradition. His affinity with masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer is particularly evident in his attention to light, the rendering of textures and the harmony of the composition. Traditional oil painting techniques take on a contemporary character through his choice of objects and his distinctive use of colour, with blues and yellows often playing a prominent role.

Alongside still lifes, Landa paints landscapes and townscapes. Here too, light, atmosphere and the balance of forms are central. Throughout his work runs a sensitivity to the poetry of the familiar: subjects that might easily pass unnoticed in everyday life are given space to reveal their quiet beauty.