Paulus Philippus Rink was born in 1861 in Veghel, Brabant, into a large apothecary family. Rink studied under Nicolaas van der Waay at the art academy in The Hague before attending Antwerp’s Royal Academy from 1885 to 1886 where he was a contemporary of Vincent van Gogh.[1] In 1887, Rink was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome, enabling him to travel through Italy, Spain, North Africa, and France. He returned to the Netherlands in 1892 and spent his final years in Edam, drawn to the villagers along the Zuiderzee and Volendam. Rink died in 1903 at the age of 42.

Like Van Gogh, Rink immortalized the hardship of ordinary people, moved by their struggles. Both artists also shared an attraction to irises. Van Gogh’s renowned Irises, painted during his stay at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, was first shown at the Paris Salon des Indépendants in September 1889. Rink, who was in Paris from 1888 to 1890, likely attended the Salon to admire the work of his old friend. While Van Gogh’s Irises drew inspiration from Japanese woodblock prints, Rink’s Iris is rooted in Greek mythology. ἶρις, messenger of the gods and personification of the rainbow, is surrounded by the flower that bears her name. This mesmerizing maiden in Rink’s monumental symbolist interpretation received critical acclaim when first exhibited in 1893.

Iris was immediately acquired: its first owner, Mrs. Van Biema, made a bold acquisition as a female patron in the late nineteenth century. Following the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish Van Biema family faced a tragic fate: deportation and dispossession. After the painting’s then-owner, Eduard van Biema, died on December 16, 1942, his housekeeper and sole heir Maria Saxel entrusted Iris to Frans Duwaer, an Amsterdam publisher and fellow resistance fighter. Urged by his friend Willem Sandberg, director of the Stedelijk Museum, to use his skills to save lives, Duwaer’s printshop on the Nieuwe Looiersgracht turned every Sunday into a center of clandestine enterprise, producing some 70,000 identity cards and other forged documents. On June 8, 1944, Duwaer was arrested by the Sicherheitspolizei and executed two days later.

Maria Saxel, accused of falsifying documents, was already arrested on April 21, 1944.[2] Her home on Ruyschstraat 92 in Amsterdam was raided by the Sicherheitsdienst, her possessions seized. She was interned at the Dutch prisoner’s camp in Vught before being transported to Ravensbrück, a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women. On October 15, she endured a grueling march to the Agfa-Commando satellite camp of Dachau. Despite these harrowing ordeals, the Catholic Czech-born Saxel survived and returned to the Netherlands after the war.[3]

Saxel returned to the Van Biema residence in The Hague and began the arduous process of reclaiming the family’s collection.[4] While many works had disappeared, Saxel was finally reunited with Iris on April 10, 1946. The painting had been safeguarded in the Stedelijk Museum, where it was deposited by Duwaer in March 1943. It was a burdensome task for Saxel to claim ownership of the painting: works of art with a Jewish provenance had been stripped from labels or anything that could refer to their legitimate owner while lists of artworks taken into custody were sketchy.[5] These unregistered artworks were difficult to trace especially if the depositor, in this case Duwaer, did not survive the war.

Iris, messenger of the Olympians, and Maria Saxel both emerged as enduring symbols of resilience and hope. During the war, Maria served as a courier for the resistance, delivering critical messages through coded communications and clandestine routes, ensuring coordinated efforts against the Nazis. Just as Iris’s rainbow signifies hope after a storm, bridging the heavens with earth, Saxel’s unwavering courage embodies the promise of liberation amidst humanity’s darkest hours.

The intertwined stories of Iris and its courageous custodian exemplify the transformative power of messages—whether celestial or clandestine— to inspire and endure. For Maria, Iris’s symbolic presence likely provided solace and reflection on her extraordinary life. Today, Iris stands not only as a masterpiece of Dutch symbolism but also as a testament to survival and the indomitable spirit of those who resist oppression.

[1] Van Gogh letter to Horace Mann Livens, Paris, September or October 1886, The Letters, no. 569, Van Gogh Museum.

[2] Personal file of Maria Saxel, Arolsen Archives, signature 1.1.35.2.

[3] Saxel or Saksel (originally Sakselova), was born on 14 September 1908 in Růžodol, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Since 1928, she resided in The Netherlands. After World War II, she lived in The Hague at Van Biema’s former address. Soon after the war, in 1946, Maria married Willem Jan Joseph Jurgens (1908-?), until they divorced in 1968 when she married Anthonie Klaas Boelhouwer (1919-1992). Maria died on 6 November 1995 in The Hague. CBG Centrum voor Familiegeschiedenis, Persoonlijst 0/144784.

[4] Other artworks kept for safekeeping in the Stedelijk Museum were sold to the Sicherheitsdienst, acccording to eight Intern Aangifte Formulieren, 11 February 1946, Rijksdienst Culturele Erfgoed, The Hague

[5] Gregor Langveld & Margreeth Soeting, “Het ‘oorlogsverleden’ van kunstwerken”, Het Stedelijk in de oorlog, Amsterdam 2015, p. 145