I am a member of a Dutch artists society called De Ploegh, but have as yet never highlighted the work of our illustrous predecessors (and almost namesake): artist collective De Ploeg.

This society of northern Dutch painters from the first half of the previous century made work that I am starting to appreciate more and more.

Their landscapes especially are robust and colorful, and so fresh the paint seems to be still wet.

This is the second time Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940) is my Monday hero.

Some artists appeal to you because their work is similar to your own, others because they are so utterly different.

Vuillard's work appeals to me because I wish my work was at least a bit like it!

I love the way background and subject look equally important, and I love it when he uses a rather restricted color palet, like in the sunny yellow works above.

I am never quite sure if I should consider the work of Carl Larsson (1853-1919) a guilty pleasure :

You see it everywhere, and it's all so cosy, and the Scandinavian interior decorating style is so trendy at the moment, you'ld almost forget how good it is.

And it is good: the clear drawing, the beautiful colors, I fall for it totally!

And yes, I admit I want a house just like it.

There hasn't been a Monday hero for the last two weeks, because I was away on beautiful Terschelling island.

But now I'm back with another great artist to put in the spotlight: Dod Procter.

The British painter Dod (Doris) Procter (1890-1972) was born Dod Shaw, but married Ernest Procter, who was also an artist. 

Together they studied at various artschools in Britain and Paris. They lived and worked in Cornwall.

Dod Procters earlier work is quite sharply outlined, later her work became more impressionistic.

Her work has fallen out of favour after her death, but lately has found recognition again.

I have never seen the Bayeux Tapestry for real.

We were on our way to it at one time, during the only holiday where I drove a car myself.

Just before Bayeux I hit a petrol pump while backing up to it, and I didn't dare drive in a strange town on top of that.

Shaking, I drove past Bayeux. And I had so wanted to see it!

In a few years it will come to London.

Maybe I will go and see it there. By train...

At the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, beside Liebermann and an Art Nouveau exhibition, there is work on show at the moment by the Belgian painter Jean Brusselmans (1884-1953).

I wasn't familiar with his work, and find it variable in quality, but I rather like his interiors with human figures and his portraits.

I particularly like the blue attic room with the seemingly depressed woman, of which there are other versions too.

In all the other works here above we see mrs Brusselmans.

It looks like her black-and-white dress was a particular favorite of Brusselmans, or indeed of hers.

Today I am sticking with children's portraits.

I came across this painting by the British artist Peter Blake (1932) when I visited Museum Ludwig in Cologne last friday.

Although it is completely unlike the work of Jan Sluijters that I showed last week, Blake also takes his subject seriously.

The painting is neither sentimental nor caricaturist.

I find it an inspiration.

The Museum Ludwig is very much worth a visit, as is the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, also in Cologne.

As you all know by now, I love portraits.

At this moment I am working on a project that exists of (fictitious) children's portraits, that I will tell about at a later stage...

I love the children's portraits by the Dutch painter Jan Sluijters (1881-1957).

They portray real children, complete with dolls and other toys, but they are also very serious.

Sorry about the two 'Monday hero-less' weeks, I was in Italy.

Every year in Bologna in spring, the international Children's Book Fair is held.

But Bologna is also the city of the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964).

This year we didn't manage to go to the Morandi museum there, but I'm getting a second chance, as the Museum Belvédère here in Holland is showing his work this spring.

I am always curiously attracted to Morandi's work. 

Curiously, because almost all his paintings are still lifes of roughly the same objects: bottles, pots and blocks, in a very tight composition.

And yet, composition and colour are invariably just right.