Tunis Ponsen was born in Wageningen, the Netherlands. He received his early art training from his father, a housepainter by trade, and then formally with sculptor August Falise and painter and cartoonist Louis Raemaekers in 1911. In 1912, Ponsen was certified to teach drawing at the elementary school level. The death of his father in 1907, and mother in 1909, left the family in financial difficulty, and with the state of the European economy in tumult, Ponsen immigrated to the U.S. in 1913. Ponsen was to bring his fiancé at a later date, but during her voyage to the U.S. she met and fell in love with another man, whom she married.
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Ponsen settled in Muskegon, Michigan where he worked as a housepainter and decorator. He was a regular visitor to the Hackley Art Gallery and was acquainted with the gallery’s first director, Raymond Wyer. In 1921 Ponsen enrolled for evening classes at the gallery with Wilbur C. Kensler. Lulu Miller, the gallery’s second director, took an interest in Ponsen, promising him a show if his future work merited it. Miller ultimately arranged three solo shows, in 1922, 1923, and 1927. Ponsen moved to Chicago in 1924 to study at the Art Institute where his instructors include Karl Buehr, George Oberteuffer, and Leon Kroll. (During his early stay, Ponsen roomed at the home of Lulu Miller’s sister, Mrs. Joseph Hawley.)
The art scene in Chicago in the 1920s and 30s was conservative but with growing Modernist influences. Ponsen’s own work reflects this trend, though throughout his career he exhibited and received awards at more traditional venues. His emphasis on planar structures in urban landscapes best reflects his interest with Modernism, and there are some parallels with his paintings and those of his more abstract-inspired peers. Ponsen also painted regularly on the East Coast and studied briefly with prominent Cape Cod and Provincetown artist Charles Webster Hawthorne. The final show of Ponsen’s career was a retrospective at the Hackley Art Gallery (now the Muskegon Museum of Art) in 1967. Yacht Club Pier was painted in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and was exhibited in 1931 at the 34th annual exhibit Artists of Chicago at the Art Institute of Chicago. Its rich, vibrant colors are a contrast to many of his more somber waterside paintings.