Today exactly 40 years ago, 12 January 1976, Jan van Nouhuys started out as a silversmith in The Hague. His workshop was an idyllic, run-down and affordable little place in a secluded courtyard in the centre of the town. He could not have imagined that 40 years later he would find himself in Schoonhoven, with a spacious workshop and a beautiful gallery adjacent to his home opposite the street.
Moments of exhilaration and of despair mark the road in between.
Restauration of antique silver for high-street antique dealers and jewellers, as well as teaching at the Vakschool in Schoonhoven, kept him and his family going. In the spare moments he created work which hardly ever left the workshop.
A break through came in 1994 when he took part for the very first time at an art fair, PAN Amsterdam. In order to devote himself completely to making his own work, he resigned in 1997 from the Vakschool.
The acquiring in 1999 of a pair of candlesticks by the curator of the metalwork department of the V & A Museum in London was certainly a highlight. They are permanently exhibited in the centre of the extensive silver department.
Two solo exhibitions, one in the Westfries Museum in Hoorn in 2001, at the occasion of the 25th jubilee of Van Nouhuys, the other at the Flehite Museum in Van Nouhuys' native city Amersfoort in 2006, further mark his career.
During all those years and up to this very moment, the greatest gratification stems in the first place from the process of creating, followed by the appreciation of his work by so many people.
If you would like to read the whole story, go to JAN/SILVER TALES/ODE TO TWO HANDS.