Adriaan Herman Gouwe (Alkmaar 1875 -1965 Tahiti) trained at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, where he was a student friend of the Maastricht artist Rob Graafland and became a member of Arti et Amicitiae. Gouwe emerged as a talented student and won the Prix de Rome in 1901 and, also through an inheritance, was able to study abroad for several years, visiting Italy, France and Spain and developing his style.
Between 1908 and 1927 he spent half of the year in South Limburg. Gouwe was often found in Café Suisse on the Vrijthof in Maastricht with fellow artists, including Rob Graafland and Henri Jonas. In 1909 he and two fellow students (Gerard Westermann and Chris Hammes) had the opportunity to organize an exhibition at the Stedelijk. Romantic and nature lover Gouwe had already focused on themes of the rolling landscape, plowing horses and farmers in the fields. Inspired by the work of Van Gogh and the early Mondrian, he became a painter of dynamic landscapes full of light and color.
The other half of the year he initially stayed in Amsterdam or around Blaricum and was demonstrably influenced by Jan Sluijters, Leo Gestel and Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig. During this period the artist began to paint with a new, sunnier palette. At that time, Gouwe worked, just like her, in a divisionist style of loose 'touch surfaces' that were often applied in a dynamic pattern. He no longer executed his shadows in black, but opted for fauvist shades of purple, blue or violet.
In the autumn of 1920, Gouwe traveled to Tangier for several months with Henri Jonas. In the summer of 1927 he did not come to South Limburg for the first time, but stayed in the south of France. In the French capital he read about Tahiti in the newspaper. In 1927 he left - leaving his friends in amazement - for the island in the Pacific Ocean; he wanted to be able to work in peace and leave the capitalist system behind him. Nature remains the theme, but in a tropical setting. Due to his transition to a completely different world, Gouwe's work occupies a special place among his contemporaries. He also made commissioned portraits of Tahitian women on the island. Despite his distant stay, his talent did not go unnoticed. Just as he did around 1915, Regnault now again bought about forty watercolors from Gouwe. In 1959 he briefly returned to Amsterdam and Willem Sandberg of the Stedelijk organized an exhibition around Gouwe's work. Museum Voorlinden, the Drents Museum and the Frans Hals Museum now have work by Gouwe in their exhibitions.
