Charlotte van Pallandt

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Charlotte van Pallandt (1898–1997) was a Dutch noblewoman who became a respected painter and sculptor. She was born in Arnhem and grew up in Schaarsbergen with her siblings. After a family tragedy in 1910, she and her family moved to The Hague, and she studied at the Ealing School of Art in London. Back in The Hague, she took drawing lessons with Albert Roelofs and joined the Pulchri Studio.

In 1919 she married Joachim Adolph Zeyger, Count of Rechteren-Limpurg, and the couple lived in Bern until their divorce in 1924. After the divorce she moved to Lausanne and traveled to Paris, where she studied with André Lhote in 1926 and absorbed his Cubist influence. She also began sculpting in the Hague, working with Toon Dupuis. A 1928 trip to Italy brought her into contact with sculptors Albert Termote, Charles Despiau and Charles Malfray. From 1929 she focused on sculpture, spending most of her working years in Amsterdam and a year at the Académie Ranson in Paris in 1935.

Van Pallandt won second prize at the Paris Exposition of 1937 for a portrait of her nephew Serge. At the start of World War II she moved north to Amsterdam (1941), where she connected with sculptors Piet Esser, Paul Grégoire, Cor Hund and Fred Carasso. She joined Arti et Amicitiae and the NKVB (the Dutch circle of sculptors). Through Carasso she met Truus Trompert, whose figure models inspired a series of "Truus-beeldjes." Her first exhibition in 1948 at Santee Landweer in Amsterdam marked a breakthrough at age 50. She helped found De Zeester, a circle of women artists that included Jeanne Bieruma Oosting and others.

Van Pallandt was especially known for her portraits, mostly busts. In 1958 she represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale and won the Prix de la Critique in 1959. She created a notable bust of Kees Verwey in 1961 for the Frans Hals Museum, and Verwey painted her portrait in 1963. Her other portraits included Queen Juliana, Peter Scharoff, Adriaan Roland Holst, Fred Carasso, Ro Mogendorff and Albert Termote. She was titled Ridder (Knight) in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1963 and her portrait of Queen Wilhelmina, unveiled in Rotterdam in 1968, was later moved to The Hague and Museum de Fundatie in Heino. She was promoted to Officier (Officer) in the Order in 1973.

Charlotte van Pallandt died in Noordwijk in 1997. The Charlotte van Pallandt Foundation awards a yearly prize, the Charlotte van Pallandt-prijs, to promising young sculptors.