related works
Pleurants (Meditations on the Dijon Mourners) : for viola / Rens Tienstra
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Viola
Scoring:
vla
Tema con variazioni : piano solo / Henk Badings
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
Romance : for piano / Than van Nispen tot Pannerden
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
The Robotica Studies : for (robot toy) piano / Rieteke Hölscher
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
composition
Tenderness - Two sketches after Jan Mankes : for piano / Rens Tienstra
Other authors:
Tienstra, Rens
(Composer)
Description:
Tenderness takes its inspiration from the paintings of the Dutch artist Jan Mankes (1889–1920), once called ‘Holland’s most silent painter’ by his fellow artist Richard Roland Holst. The subject of tenderness was mentioned by Mankes himself:
“Je kent de teedere kant van mijn werk… Ik voel de blijdschap om dat teedere het sterkst, als ik aan een vinkennest denk, met spinrag en korstmos op een Meiochtend.”
[“You know the tender side of my work… I experience the joy of tenderness most strongly, when thinking about a finch’s nest, with cobwebs and lichen, on a May morning.”]
Mankes’ subjects include the rural surroundings of Heerenveen and intimate still lives of animals and domestic objects. He painted the latter especially in his later life when Mankes was bedridden due to tuberculosis. He studied and sketched his subjects “until he knew them by heart, and then painted them from memory”. In his balanced compositions, muted tones, almost imperceptible brushstrokes and extended glazing technique, Mankes was able to bring a unique kind of transparency to his work.
Rens Tienstra