Jan Willem Bosboom (1860-1928) The "Hague" architect Jan Willem Bosboom (1860-1928) is among the most representative of a group of Dutch architects and designers who, around 1900, turned away from the prevailing historicizing styles and experimented with innovative trends in European architecture and design. Bosboom drew for some thirty projects in The Hague and immediate surroundings, mainly residential houses and stores. The lion's share of these projects still exists, often in altered form, especially where it concerns shopfronts, and now has the status of Municipal or National Monument. Bosboom's oeuvre was first surveyed by Moritz in 1981. (1) Although modest in scope and depth, this study offers the most complete survey of Bosboom's work to date. More recent references to Bosboom, mostly in the form of building descriptions or Art Nouveau architecture in general, therefore lean heavily on Moritz's research. (2) The same is true of this list of works described as part of the BONAS project. As Moritz points out in his introduction, based on more extensive research in situ and in archives, more buildings in The Hague could be attributed to Bosboom, especially where the period after 1905 is concerned. (3) More in-depth research is therefore called for, and it is hoped that this survey of works and literature will provide an impetus to that end. Background and education Bosboom was born in Zwolle in 1860, where his father had worked as a municipal architect since 1875. This background combined with his education at the 'Gemeentelijke Teekenschool', ensured that Bosboom developed into a talented draughtsman and designer at an early age. In 1883, he traded his hometown for good for The Hague, probably in search of more challenging work. In The Hague, he came to work as an architectural draftsman at the office of H. Wesstra (1843-1911), under whose direction he collaborated until 1892 on the shopping arcade De Passage, café-restaurant and theater Seinpost in Scheveningen (disappeared), and the main building of the Hague Zoo (also disappeared). After Bosboom had a disagreement with Wesstra in 1893, he received his first private commission in 1894 for a facade conversion on the prestigious Noordeinde. Here Bosboom employed an idiosyncratic interpretation of the prevailing Neo-Renaissance style, which in its lightness already points ahead to later designs. The "new style" and some of Bosboom's projects in The Hague Although Bosboom initially adhered to the popular Neo-Renaissance, at the end of the nineteenth century he began to experiment with a new style that would make its name as the Jugendstil or Art Nouveau and was especially popular with the wealthier middle class. Historicizing styles no longer sufficed; new building materials (steel structures and ornamental wrought iron) and new building types (storefronts and galleries) made their appearance and were combined with a plastic ornamentation in which geometric or floral decorations predominated. Much attention was also paid to interiors and furniture. In the Netherlands, especially The Hague and the seaside resort of Scheveningen, which became increasingly internationally oriented around 1900, became the centers of Jugendstil. Hague architects such as Bosboom, Mutters, De Wolf and Van Liefland proved with their daring designs that they were very much in tune with the latest developments in construction and decoration as applied in Brussels and Paris, among others. (4) Yet there was no lack of criticism; especially in the historical and supposedly style-pure city districts, the decorative "pustules, lumps, excesses and hunches" were received with trepidation. Bosboom designed numerous retail residences in the period 1898-1905 in which he increasingly replaced the historicizing formal language of the Neo-Renaissance with that of Jugendstil. The best example of this "transitional architecture" is the row of exuberantly decorated stores with upstairs apartments on Anna Paulownaplein in The Hague. For his own residence at 73-75 Anna Paulownastraat, built in 1901, he pushed the graceful formal language of Jugendstil to unprecedented heights in both exterior and interior design. Bosboom's design for a store at 56 Denneweg, however, is the most progressive in terms of material use; here he leaves the apparently fragile steel construction in sight and the front and curtain walls are made entirely of glass. Work after 1905: from individual projects to scale-up In 1905, Bosboom founded the Exploitation Company for Real Estate 'Prins Mauritslaan' with his brother. With this company, Bosboom realized many large-scale housing projects of high quality in the Statenkwartier district of The Hague. This district was built between 1900 and 1915 and consists largely of spacious and contiguous single-family houses in different styles, thus providing a lively facade image. (5) In comparison with Bosboom's early projects in the city center of The Hague, it is striking that in the Statenkwartier there was a search for scale and standardization rather than for an individual style. Bosboom worked as an architect and property developer in The Hague and its surroundings until the early 1920s. He died in 1928. Notes (1) B. Moritz, Jan Willem Bosboom. A Hague architect at the turn of the century, The Hague 1981. (2) Examples of such publications are Architectuurgids Den Haag 1800-1940 by H.P.R. Rosenberg et al., 1988, and Art Nouveau Architecture in The Hague by J. Knudsen, 1998. (3) The Netherlands Architecture Institute does not possess archival material by Bosboom. Most material, mostly in the form of construction drawings, can be found in the archives of the Municipality of The Hague, the Building and Living Department of the same municipality, and the Royal Archives, also in The Hague. (4) For the reception and development of "Nieuwe Kunst" in the Netherlands, see L. Gans, Nieuwe Kunst, de Nederlandse bijdrage tot de Art Nouveau, decorative arts, arts and crafts and architecture omstreeks 1900, Utrecht 1966, and more specifically for The Hague, R. Blijstra, "Art Nouveau in 's-Gravenhage," in: 's-Gravenhage, Monthly Bulletin of the Municipality of The Hague (1967), volume 22, number 12. (5) On the development of the Statenkwartier, see E. Brandes, Het Statenkwartier; an example of urban housing-urbanism, s.j. [The Hague] 1992. In current research on Bosboom, the period 1905-1925 in particular has been greatly understudied. Education: Drawing School Zwolle/1875-1881 Secondary activities: Tekenschool Zwolle/assistant teacher of line drawing/1880-1883;architectural firm H. Wesstra Jr./building draughtsman/1883-1893;real estate company Prins Mauritslaan/director and project developer/1905-1926;