Theo Bitter

Theodorus (Theo) Bitter was a Dutch graphic artist, painter and draftsman who is considered to belong to the New Hague School. Bitter was a pupil of Arnold Smith and Henk Meijer and he studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Later, from 1946 to 1960, he taught at the same academy himself. He worked in The Hague, Oslo, Lecce and later again in The Hague, where he lived in the Artiestenhofje on the Trompstraat.

He painted, drew and watercoloured family portraits in a naive style; fishermen at sea in an abstract-expressionist style; landscapes in abstract style and figures in neo-abstract style.

Bitter was co-founder of Verve and Fugare and was a member of Pulchri Studio, Liga Nieuw Beelden 1955-1968, the Posthoorn Group 1956-1962, the Hague Art Circle, the Hague Watercolorists Circle and the Cultural Council of South Holland in 1991.

Theo Bitter received the Jacob Maris Prize for Painting in 1949 and a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1950.

His work can be found in the Hague Municipal Museum, the Dutch Postal Museum in The Hague and in the National Collection.