August Allebé is best known as the influential director of Amsterdam’s prestigious Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. A teacher to some of the most well-known Dutch artists from the nineteenth century, including George Hendrik Breitner, Isaac Israëls, and Piet Mondriaan, Allebé mentored many talented draftsmen. His students included Leo Gestel, Jacobus van Looy, Richard Roland Holst, Bart van der Leck[1], Elisabeth Stoffers, and Jan Toorop. Known for being a friendly yet demanding teacher, he pushed his students to perfect their skills through relentless practice.

As a professor of drawing, anatomy and proportions, Allebé frequently took his students to the Amsterdam zoo Natura Artis Magistra, known as Artis. Founded in 1838 as the Netherland’s first public zoo and one of the five oldest in the world, it was only open to members subjected to a strict admission procedure. Since the monthly membership fee of ƒ45 exceeded the monthly wage of the average laborer or office clerk, Artis was the playground of the Amsterdam elite. Established with a few animals, the society depended on its wealthy members to expand, many of whom had connections in the overseas colonial empires, enabling them to procure the exotic animals in demand.

After becoming a professor at the Rijksakademie in 1870, Allebé successfully lobbied for student access, reminding the elite institution to honor its name “Nature is the Teacher of Art”. In 1880, Allebé became the Rijksakademie’s director, a function he kept until 1906. Allebé conveyed his passion for the zoo to his students, taking them there regularly for practical lessons in drawing and modeling. In addition to facilitating visits for his students, Artis also loaned animals, which were replicated in the academy’s garden. To set a strong example, Allebé himself made animal studies during these sessions. A croquis on tracing paper in the Rijksmuseum reveals Allebé’s method to produce more detailed drawings in pencil and watercolor based on his successful capturing of the sleeping crocodiles.[2]

[1] Cees Hilhorst, Vriendschap op afstand. De Correspondentie tussen Bart van der Leck en H.P. Bremmer, Bussum 1999, pp. 15-16

[2] Only one watercolor of a single crocodile, dated 1873, is known, Van Tuyll, op.cit., no. 91, p. 195, measuring 35 by 25 cm., present whereabouts unknown, without image.