Painting by Hendrik Maarten Krabbé
Military life holds a special appeal for some artists. The colourful uniforms, the martial prestige and the spectacular battle scenes stir the imagination in many of us.
Krabbé
One such artist was Hendrik Maarten Krabbé (that’s right, actor and author Jeroen Krabbé’s grandad), born in 1868 and died in 1931, who depicted marines in several of his paintings around the turn of the twentieth century. In doing so, he did not go for spectacular scenes but rather for images capturing the everyday lives of marines, showing the kind of things ordinary citizens rarely get to see.
THREE YOUNG DRUMMERS
The collection of the Marines Museum already holds a number of Krabbé’s works: a marine trying on his uniform at the quartermaster’s, a tailor stamping pairs of trousers, the funeral of a young seaman and a portrait of drum sergeant. Recently this body of work has been added to by this beautiful water colour painting from 1894 showing drummers and pipers practising. In the foreground a sergeant is seen to instruct two pipers. In the background is another sergeant who is teaching three young drummers.
All are wearing a navy pea coat and the so-called “conductor’s cap” on their head. The painting spent many years on the wall in the home of a private collector, with the Friends of the Marines Museum Foundation buying it for the museum. A handsome asset for the collection, which we are happy to show off to the members of the public!
