Ode to Marie Kelting | Resident of Pelican Pond

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, artist Marie Kelting (1886-1969) could be found daily with easel or sketchpad in ARTIS. The Amsterdam native visited the park frequently with fellow students during her studies at the National Academy of Fine Arts to study animals. Her professor August Allebé maintained a good relationship with ARTIS director Kerbert, which led to artists having free access to the park. For a large group of artists, ARTIS became a source of inspiration, including Kelting. Birds were her favorite subject matter. Because she could be found there almost daily, it was said that Kelting “pretty much lived by the Pelican Pond. 

Famous artists such as Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, Herbert van der Poll, Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof and Jaap Kaas worked at ARTIS. Female artists were in the minority. Occasionally you could find Thérèse Schwartze and her niece Lizzy Ansingh among the parrots. Bella Stroeve could regularly be found with the monkeys and Co Chevallier with the birds of prey. But by far the most prolific female animal artist of her time was Marie Kelting.

Her presence at ARTIS also led to commissions for the zoological society. When the new Reptile House opened in 1910, Kelting was asked to paint information signs accompanying the animals.

In 1913, she designed an attractive poster announcing the arrival of a “Giant Orangutan. She also illustrated a visitor's guide for the park. Outside ARTIS, illustrations by her hand can be found in magazine 'De Levende Natuur'.

Marie Kelting formed a connecting force between the Amsterdam animal artists and ARTIS. On the occasion of director Kerbert's 25th anniversary in 1915, he received a liber amicorum filled with works by 62 artists, in gratitude for the promotion of their art. The initiative for this gift lay with Marie Kelting. In 1916, she was also the initiator of the exhibition “Works of Art, Relating to the Animal” in the King's Hall at ARTIS. 

Today Marie Kelting is a forgotten name, but in her day she was an active link in the world of art and nature. She was a member of the Amsterdam artist associations Arti et Amicitiae, Sint Lucas and De Onafhankelijken, among others. Although her work was alternately viewed positively and negatively by critics, she exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, among others. Her work is currently part of the collections of ARTIS and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

At ARTIS, she met reptile caretaker Piet Böhncke, who devoted his spare time to animal sculpture. In 1921, they married each other. Böhncke quit his job at ARTIS to focus entirely on art with Kelting. They settled as an artist couple in Blaricum. Böhncke died in 1949. Marie Kelting continued to paint into old age and died in 1969 at the age of 82 in Vleuten.