not too much can be found on the internet about DIRK BAKSTEEN, 1886 – 1971. accidentally I saw one of his paintings and liked it so much that I had to find more about this artist and his work. BAKSTEEN was born in rotterdam, netherlands, where he attended evening classes at the art academy. in 1912 he settled in mol, belgium. mol becomes later the center of the MOLSE SCHOOL, following the successful BARBIZON SCHOOL earlier in france. the ‘school of mol’ becomes popular for their PLEIN AIR art, – besides BAKSTEEN, JACOB SMITS, PAUL MATHIEU and GASTON DE BIEMME are some of the representatives of the group. baksteen met american etching artist W.SHERWOOD who introduced him to all the secrets of the engraving technique. baksteen became member of the chicago etching society in 1924 and had an exhibit in the palais de beaux arts in bruxelles in 1935. I love the way he portrays nature in that part of europe, with its open wide fields and the simple cottages. too bad I did not know his work when I worked on ‘beauty and the beast’.
my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 45 years I lived and worked in exciting places around the world. after 7 years of teaching in singapore I am back at my homebase in manila, working on a few more books.
One1more2time3's Weblog 
a little correction: Rotterdam, 29 maart 1886 – Antwerpen, 24 september 1971
from hans –
so sorry, my mistake. thank you for your correction
thanks for sharing! beautiful!
I absolutely love these! Thanks for posting Hans. I had not heard about him before.
Lieber Herr Bacher, Dirk Baksteen und mein Großvater waren befreundet und beides lupenreine Nationalsozialisten. Unangenehme Gesellen, was ich so lesen kann… Viele Grüße!
from hans –
gottseidank hat baksteen deshalb noch keine NS-art geschaffen
It’s nice to read about my great-grandfather. I still have a lot of his wonderful work.
Best
Evert