Vincent van Gogh produced at least 35 self-portraits while living in Paris. A mega narcissist? The truth's far less sensational. Dear Vincent couldn't afford to pay models to pose for him. So he improved his portrait-painting skills using oil paints, canvas, and a mirror. After almost three dozen variations on his lone model, broke Vincent had thought himself to paint portraits rather well, wouldn't you agree?
The cliché of the struggling artist is one that keeps delivering on its dreadful promise. Social media's perpetually open-door to everyone everywhere every second may lessen the challenge an upcoming artist faces in finding an audience. But Instagram wasn't around in the late-1800s when Leendert Spaander bought a tavern in Volendam, a quaint fishing hamlet northeast of Amsterdam.
Today's Volendam welcomes droves of visitors eager to experience its Palingsound (shoutouts to The Cats, Anny Schilder, Jan Smit, and Nick & Simon), cheese & wooden shoe factories, and legendary seafood. But when Leendert and his wife Aaltje Kout opened the doors of Hotel Spaander in 1881, all of these 'industries' were only taking root. Their little pub & inn on Volendam's harbourfront catered mostly to fisherfolk and tradespeople. Then a new clientele started showing up.
Volendam at the time offered a multitude of picturesque landscapes of real life. Rows of pretty wooden houses, sailboats and fishing vessels ambling along, daily goings-on of villagers, the breathtaking sea, and that unique natural light reserved for those lucky spots where the ocean meets the shore - this was everyday life in the key of Volendam. The magnetic pull of so much free visual beauty naturally attracted that category most desperate for this flavor of gratis aesthetics - the struggling artist.
Volendam's varied vistas became an irresistible siren song drawing in painters from across Europe and even the Americas, a miracle considering most of them could barely afford brushes, paints and canvases! The far-flung artists arriving in the village were spoiled for choice regarding cost-free sceneries to paint. But they faced a very different reality when it came to eating and sleeping in Volendam. With scant funds to support their passion/occupation, paying rack rate for room & board was out of the question. So it was serendipitous that an innkeeper who spoke German, French, English, and Dutch, happened to also love art and the artists who plied that merciless trade.
Leendert Spaander's deep appreciation for art formed the basis of an entrepreneurial decision he made that, to him, justified offering beds and food to guests who couldn't afford either. This impulsive move would end up impacting the lives of his wife, seven daughters and Leendert himself, and leave a permanent legacy for his descendants, the city of Volendam, and arguably, The Netherlands.
Leendert's barter with every artist walking through the doors of Hotel Spaander looked like this: in return for a free bed, breakfast and beyond, the artist would pay the house in a painting. Some artists were too poor to even afford a linen canvas to print the innkeeper's payment on! Leendert threw in an extra incentive in their deal - the walls, doors or any part of his hotel that wouldn't fit in a suitcase could be used as a canvas to paint on.
Leendert's extremely flexible art-as-currency approach could quite easily have turned Hotel Spaander into an interior design nightmare (and business failure!). But as fate would have it, some of those who took Leendert up on his offer helped create, arguably, one of the biggest coups in art collection history.
Over the next decade, the walls of Hotel Spaander started getting filled (and painted on) with all sorts of paintings. While many of those who enjoyed the hotel's free hospitality disappeared into art oblivion, some ended up doing pretty well for themselves like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, Georges Seurat, Otto Piltz, and Tom Browne. Over time, Leendert and his kin became one of the most significant art collectors in the region with over 1,200 works displayed in Hotel Spaander at one point including creations of masters.
As the village grew into an artist retreat, streets in Volendam started featuring painter's names. Heringstraat, Augustin Hanicottestraat, and Willem Woutersstraat are testaments to Leendert and Aaltje's passion for the arts, and the passion three of their seven daughters had for artists as Pauline Spaander married German Georg Hering, Trinette Spaander, the Frenchman Augustin Hanicotte, and Conny Spaander went Dutch to wed Wilm Wouters! Leendert's love for art eventually translated into art being in the Spaander family's very bloodline!
As its reputation grew over the last century, Hotel Spaander attracted an endless stream of celebrities. Its guest log features politicians, the glitterati, athletes, business luminaries, and people from all corners of the world. Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Walt Disney, Maurice Chevalier, Julio Iglesias, Anna Pavlova, Edward Grieg, King Wilhelm of Germany, Anthony Eden, Andrew Carnegie, Muhammad Ali and contemporary British artist Damien Hirst are just some of the many famous people who have enjoyed a stay at the art gallery that happened to also be a hotel. Despite its legacy and role as a benefactor of artists both great and small, and its multitude of fans from all walks of life, Hotel Spaander could not survive Covid-19's resulting financial crisis in 2020. The silver lining in this dark cloud looming over Volendam is that the hotel's art collection has mostly remained intact.
Investing in a hotel is complicated, expensive and risky. So the future of Hotel Spaander remains unknown at the time of writing this blog. Considering the heritage and history pouring out from every pore of this monument to art, I'm sure every Volendammer (and a whole lot more) are all making a singular wish that another Leendert Spaander shows up soon to open the doors of Hotel Spaander again. And maybe even continue its role as a sanctuary for artists to live, love, and create whilst in the pretty harbour village of Volendam.
"Volendam zonder Spaander is geen Volendam. (Volendam without Spaander is not Volendam)"
Piet Jonk, employee of Hotel Spaander for over 15 years
