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Pieter
Clijnk was born on 30th July 1899 in Zaandam and he died on 15th May
1967 in Zaandam.
He was the
son of Theodorus Clijnk and Antoinette Verberne.
Theodorus
was a bricklayer/contractor working throughout the Netherlands, but he
settled
permanently in Zaandam. He was mainly a church builder (f.e. church of
Bonifatius, Oostzijde Zaandam).
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Piet
Clijnk completed primary school. At first he thought he might have a
vocation to become a priest. He started the education for the
priesthood, but did not finish it.
He went to Wateringen to train as a bicycle repairer. Although this not
become his trade, his training proved very useful to him in later years
because he could repair bicycles very well.
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In 1916
he was a builder/bricklayer and was working in his father Theodorus’
company. It is known that he was working as a bricklayer during the
flood in 1916.
Following an accident whereby he fell into a septic tank, he was
injured in such a way that he could no longer continue his work as a
bricklayer. This accident took place at the beginning of his
marriage.
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On 4th
September 1929 he married Cornelia Vet (10th October 1901 - 20th June
1968). She worked in her father’s butcher’s shop on the Gedempte Gracht
in Zaandam.
They took up residence above the clothing shop De Wit on the Gedempte
Gracht, but later on they moved to a house at Rustenburg in Zaandam. It
was at this house that Piet Clijnk started his shop and began his
career as an artist. It was a difficult start because of the depression
and people did not have enough money to buy paintings. The family lived
here for about three years.
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On 2nd October 1930 their
only son Hugo was born.
In the photographs he can been seen on both his mother’s and father’s
arm in his grandparents’ garden. In 1932 or 1933 (this date is not
certain) they moved to the house at Gedempte Gracht 117. They rented
the ground floor of this two storey house.
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Piet
Clijnk’s experience in the building trade came in very useful, because
he converted the front room of the house to a shop. The back room
served as living room. At the end of the garden was the workshop in
which Piet Clijnk made frames. He was not only an artist, but he also
framed his own work and work of others. The workshop had a bell, which
sounded whenever someone entered the shop. So he could go to the shop
when a customer arrived.
We always thought my grandfather started to paint around 1930, but to
our astonishment we have found an oil painting painted in 1928. My
grandfather took a photo of the painting.
He painted until
his death in 1967 and left a vast body of work which many people still
enjoy, as I found out during my search.
Gedempte Gracht 117. I can be seen behind the shop door as a little girl.
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