The paintings of Tunis Ponsen are among the most underestimated works in the both academia and the art market. For 37 years Tunis Ponsen painted oils, watercolors, and drawings detailing his impressions and understanding of American life. Critically acclaimed during his lifetime, Ponsen was widely exhibited in Chicago and achieved a modicum of praise and financial success.
Beginning his sojourn as an artist relatively late at age 30, Ponsen had been in the United States only a brief period when he began to paint. He emigrated from his native Holland in 1913 and settled in Muskegon, Michigan where he began his new life as a professional house painter. It was during his 30th year, that a local patron of the arts helped Ponsen to have his first solo exhibition at the Hackley Gallery in Muskegon. Ponsen's success as a traditional painter strengthened in 1924 when he relocated to Chicago in order to attend the Art Institute. There he studied with Karl Buehr, George Oberteuffer, and Leon Kroll.
Ponsen continuously exhibited his work over the years, between 1924 and 1938; his work was included in 34 museum exhibitions. His work found a supportive audience in the Detroit Institute of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Flint Institute of Arts, Muskegon Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, among others. Throughout his career, critics favored him with positive commentary, such as Irwin St. John, critic for the Chicago Herald & Examiner, who stated
"[Mr. Ponsen] brings to his art the serious solidity of a Dutch Conception. He builds his foundations deep and true, and on them erects his painting - even though it be of a subject as transitory as a clouds or a sail flapping in the wind - with careful methodical structure, until the passing moment he has seized upon stand fixed for all time. This man takes what we used to call modernism, gets the good out of it, and makes it glorious."
In 1926, Ponsen, like many of his contemporaries, flocked to the colony in Gloucester, Mass. to capture the timeless wharves, boats, fisherman, and townships. There he studied from American Impressionist masters such as Charles Hawthorne and Richard Miller the art of plein-air. Ponsen was inspired by the harbor scenes he found there. "Wharfing and shipping seem to have a special fascination for the artist whose fishing boats riding at anchor look easily capable of sailing away to the fishing grounds and the day's haul."
One observer from a 1938 exhibition noted that "Ponsen's paintings' grow on you. At first they may strike you as a trifle harsh, perhaps a bit too blunt. But go back to the creations again and you will appreciate that while Ponsen's method is conscientiously abrupt, it is far from crude. You begin to feel the downright integrity of the artist. These paintings are not color poems, mood symphonies or anything of the sort. This is prose, straightforward and deliberate... shorn of all superlatives, done by a man well trained in the grammar of art."
Ponsen painted until his death in 1968. He settled in Chicago as a landscape painter and was a member of the Chicago Painters and Sculptors, Chicago Gallery Association, and the Chicago Society of Artists. While Ponsen's works are mostly associated with the impressionistic school, his careful use of bold color and sweeping brushstrokes are often reminiscent of another prestigious Dutch artist, Vincent Van Gogh. Tunis Ponsen is best known for his use of urban scenes, country landscapes, and harbor scenes.
A critic once said "He is never guilty of adding sugar and spice that might make a rich and popular pastry for rapid and eager consumption. Rather, his work is as substantial and wholesome as bread - and no more difficult to digest."
Source: "The Lost Paintings of Tunis Ponsen", Muskegon Musuem of Art, 1994.