Bartus Korteling Enter a
feeling, not
a gallery.
Choose a mood and the room itself answers — the light cools or warms, the air changes pace, and only the works that carry that feeling step forward from the dark. Everything else recedes into shadow.
Bartus Korteling
The Legacy of the Smedenstraat In the narrow streets of Deventer, where the scent of pigment and oil once lingered in the air, the Korteling name was woven into the very fabric of the city's creative life. Born in 1853, Bartus Korteling emerged from a lineage of craftsmen who understood the alchemy of color. His family had established a foundation in the Smedenstraat, where his forefather, Gerhard, spent his days preparing paints by han
d and preserving the ancient methods of the trade. This upbringing meant that for Bartus, art was not a distant pursuit but a tangible, daily reality shaped by the textures of raw materials and the discipline of the workshop. He did not merely inherit a trade; he inherited a way of seeing. While his ancestors focused on the production of the medium itself, Bartus sought to master the application of it. His life was deeply rooted in the…