Gerrit van Houten

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Gerrit van Houten (also known as Gerry Wood; 29 August 1866, in Groningen – 18 January 1934, in Santpoort) was a Dutch painter and artist.

The Van Houten family lived just outside the gates of the city of Groningen on the Damsterdiep canal. Although Gerrit would still recognize number 215, the house where he was born on 29 August 1866, its surroundings would seem most strange.

The layout of the house is much the same, with the water pump still in the kitchen, although it no longer works. The stable is now used for storage. A corridor and one of the rooms in the former office would still look familiar to Gerrit, because they are exactly as they were with the door panels that he himself painted.

The house belonged to the timber merchants and sawmill run by Gerrit's father Hindrik and Hindrik's brother Jakob. The sawmill ‘De Twee Reizigers’ stood next to the house on the Damsterdiep canal. Behind the house ditches had been dug; the timber was steeped in these to increase its durability. To the west were the city ramparts and the Steentilpoort gate; in all other directions fields as far as the eye could see.