Dutch liberal remonstrant theologian and romantic poet.
His French name refers to his ancestry of French Calvinists that fled to Holland after the Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685). The edict issued by Louis XIV of France was revocation of the Edict of Nantes (13 April 1598), and deprived the Huguenots of their rights. Refugees founded the still existing French speaking Walloon church (Église Wallonne, Waalse kerk) in the Netherlands.
P.A. de Génestet was the only son of the stock broker Fredrik Christianus de Génestet (15 January 1804 – 17 September 1838, 1 AM, Haarlem) and the rich merchant daughter Maria Suzanna de Vries (1804- 8 June 1836, Breukelen), who married 11 May 1826, but had an unhappy marriage and divorced on 20 Augustus 1833.
He was born on the prestigious Keizersgracht (emperor channel) with the name Augustus, but under unfortunate circumstances. Financial trouble because of speculations of his father and domestic violence played a role. On 11 October 1830 his father threatened his mother with suicide and on 21 November 1830 his father volunteered in the Dutch army to fight the separatist Belgian provinces. His father left him exactly on his first birthday.
After the early death of his mother of tuberculosis, he was first cared for by his grandparents on mothers side, later he was adopted in the family of his aunt Alida de Vries (9 February 1799 – 24 April 1862), who on 11 May 1826, the same day as her sister, had married the romantic society portrait painter Jan Adam Kruseman (12 February 1804, Haarlem – 17 March 1862, Haarlem). They had a happy marriage, got 7 children, of which 2 died before age one. Kruseman adopted him as his son.
After the death of his grandfather Hendrik Jans de Vries (1775-1838), he lived for a while at the chateau “Queekhoven” along the river Vecht in the Dutch town Breukelen with his grandmother Suzanna de Vries-van der Linde (1773-1842). In Breukelen he visited the elementary school of Nicolaas Monné from 1838 till 1842. After his grandmothers death, he went a year to the boarding school of G.J. Kapteyn in Barneveld.
Summer 1843 he went to the Latin school in Amsterdam. Later to the Gymnasiun in Zwolle. He finished his secondary education on 25 Augustus 1847 in Zwolle by doing the state examinations. He was very anxious on that day. On 22 June 1847 he subscribed to the Remonstrant Seminarium in Amsterdam to study theology. As a student he was involved in many activities, visiting friends, the theatre, writing poetry, walking with his fiancée in the dunes, but also some philanthropy as he raised with friends a fund for the poor.
His first sermon as an aspirant theologian was held 4 March 1851 in Amsterdam : The theme came from Matthew 10:33 “But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”. On 4 April 1851 the thee came from Matthew 5:29-30: “And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, … not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”
On 22 en 23 June 1852 he was promoted, though his professors noted that he lacked a solid evangelical foundation (“ontbreekt .. een fond van vastheid en diepte van evangelische opvatting”). But the theologian, historian, and first professor of art history, Allard Pierson (8 April 1831 – 27 May 1896), who attended the first public speech of De Genestet testified that he had great oral gifts and vision. De Génestet’s theme was taken from John 3:19: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil”.
On 9 September 1852 he married in Overveen (state) and Bloemendaal (church), Henriette Elisabeth Jacqueline Bienfait (28 February 1824, Amsterdam – 20 November 1859, Amsterdam). He met her first at age 14 in 1843, and fell in love. They moved 20 November 1852 to Delft and got four children. Maria Louise Henriette (23 June 1853, Hof van Delft) and Johanna Catharina (16 November 1854, Hof van Delft) survived.
On 5 December 1852 De Genestet was called to duty in Delft as a theologian by professor Abraham des Amorie van der Hoeven (22 February 1798, Rotterdam – 29 July 1855, Arnhem). In 1855 he wrote the poem “In Memoriam” about his former teacher.
During seven years, life went well in his pastors house “Welgelegen” (well placed) next to the church and graveyard. But during the summer of 1859 in Bloemendaal tuberculosis plagued his family. After the birth of his first son, his wife died 20 November 1859 in Amsterdam. Also a child died that year.
De Genestet became depressed and resigned as a religion teacher and preacher. Inspired by their romantic heroes Byron, Heine and Goethe and Schiller, he and his friend Conrad Busken Huet (28 December 1826, Den Haag – 1 May 1886, Paris) wanted to write great poetry, to deal with the sorrowful past. He went to Amsterdam and wrote the bundle “Laatste der Eerste”, referring to his first poetry bundle “Eerste Gedichten” of 1851.
But his physical health declined, and De Genestet died Tuesday 2 July 1861 in Rozendaal of tuberculosis (“tering”).

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