Dutch painter, designer, and ceramicist.
He was the son of a house painter Bart Antonij van der Leck and Hendrika Gathier. The family had no interest in art. At age 14 he left school to become a glass painter. Here he met the architect and designer Piet Klaarhamer (27 December 1874, Zwiep – 1 Januari 1954, Ede), who became his and Gerrit Retvelds mentor.
From 1912 to 1945 modern art “pope” Henk Bremmer was his patron. He got a regular stipendium for part of his work. Bremmer brought him into contact with art collector Helene Kröller-Müller, for which he did the interior design of the Hubertushoeve, now part of the Kröller-Müller museum.
With Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian he founded the De Stijl art movement. He regarded himself as the father of the Stijl movement. He once said about his meeting with Van Doesburg in end December 1916: “Mondrian came to my place one day with Doesburg, whom I had never seen before. When Doesburg noticed an abstract painting right on the easel, he exlaimed: ‘If that is to be the painting of the future, may I be hanged right now!’ Well, a few months later, he was painting in precisely that manner. That’s the sort of person Doesburg was. No ideas of his own. And a cheat in bargain…”
He married the teacher Bertha Aleida Teerink (1883-1959) on 18 July 1912. They got three daughters.
He died 13 November 1958 in Blaricum.
Link to Wikipedia