Dutch art teacher, painter, lithographer and clarinet player.
Johan Jo, or Han van Hell was a social-democratic activist and artist with a highly developed social conscience. Many of his later works depict the struggles and plight of the common man (Dutch: “De man van de straat”). In 1925, he decided to produce lithographs to make art available at a reasonable price to the working class. He also gave free private art and music lessons to gifted students who could not pay for the lessons. One of them was Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk, who became famous as the poet of the COBRA movement, Lucebert. Both Lucebert (poetry/painting) and Johan van Hell (painting/music) were later recognised as double talents.
His art oeuvre was varied, ranging from oil paintings, water colours, wood cuts and lithographs to political posters, ex-libris and magazine and book covers and illustrations. He received regular commissions from the City of Amsterdam for his monumental art.
But his music was at least as important to him as his art. He played the from the East African Blackwood tree, Mpingo made clarinet and oboe. He regularly performed with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, but he refused to accept a permanent position. In his last years his music took precedence over his visual art. He played the classic masters, but also modern music. He was one of the promoters of the Austrian composer Alban Berg (9 February 9, 1885 -24 December 1935) in the Netherlands. Berg’s difficult to grasp “Four Pieces for clarinet and piano, op. 5” (composed May 1913, first published 1919) was on his repertoire.
He died on 31 December 1952 of an acute kidney inflammation in the Weesperplein Hospital in Amsterdam.
Personal
He was the fourth of the six children of the diamond worker Jacobus Johannes van Hell (11 October 1855 11 PM , Amsterdam – 3 June 1909 in Amsterdam) and Aartje Reijnders (8 August 1855 – 29 September 1937, A’dam), a housemaid. They married on 24 August 1882 and got five children.
Johannes Gerardus Diederik van Hell (13 December 1882, A’dam -17 November 1887, A’dam) died young.
Aartje van Hell (1894, A’dam – 21 October 1898, A’dam) died young
Jacobus Johannes van Hell (28 November 1884 7 AM, A’dam- 31 May 1958, A’dam) became a clerk and married o 15 Augustus 1923 Elise Marie Kauffeld (1896-1947).
Louis Frederik (Lou) van Hell (28 November 1886, A’dam – 2 October 1963) married Maria Niquet.
Johannes Gerardus Diederik (Han or Johan) van Hell (28 February 1889, A’dam – 31 December 1952, A’dam) married twice.
Maria Elisabeth (Rie) van Hell (15 August 1891, A’dam – 27 July 1971) married Hendrik Willem Heijer (1890-1954)
On 12 November 1915 (Han or Johan) van Hell married in Amsterdam the lithographer and painter Paulina “Pau” Maria Louise Wijnman 29 October 1889, A’dam – 2 October 1930, A’dam). They had no children. After her death, he married on 14 June 1933 the concert pianist and music teacher Caroline Adolphine Lankhout (26 January 1895, Utrecht – 28 July 1947, Amsterdam). She was was the widow of the Concertgebouw cellist Isaac Mossel (22 April 1870, Rotterdam – 29 December 1923 Amsterdam), whom she married 8 December 1921 in Rotterdam. Being half Jewish, she was unable to play during the war. She died of Parkinson’s disease.

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