Growing up in the natural surroundings of Holland’s coastal region, Peter Korver wanted to become a Biologist since the age of four. After a few university years however he decided to switch to History, combining this with an education in the Arts. Today it seems all of this, plus over a decade of experience in interior design, has added up to his very personal specialty of using historical and monumental interiors as his canvas. Ceilings and murals of intricately painted plants and animals, provide these monuments with a brand new historical context, or brush the dust off the existing one. . Gardensnails and Gecko’s, Seaturtles, giant Boa Constrictors, copulating Butterflies, and Birds gathering their nestmaterial, thus give new meaning to the concept of Natural History. In recent years Korver installed a new ceiling in the former British consulate of Amsterdam, one of Holland’s finest and best preserved 18th c. interior monuments. Although his painting reintroduced the original 1731 scene of Dido and Aeneas, which had been missing for over 120 years, its return seems to be temporary. The more than twenty painted birds Korver added to the original scene, have already started taking it apart again, by pulling curling threads and twines from the canvas.
Peter Korver
Elsewhere a country estate’s 17th c. period room was embellished with spiralling ornamental leaves between the beams of its ceiling, populated with Garden snails, while yet another ceiling featured thousands of single-handedly painted wheat ears, couples of mating butterflies and the prickly leaves of blue thistles.
In an 18th c. Amsterdam apartment, a meandering Boa constrictor was painted on the walls of the entrance, measuring up to seven meters and part of a painted menagerie that occupied all but every room of the stylish modernist interior.
One of his largest ceilings, in the boardroom of a Cees Dam designed corporate office, features over sixty square meters of coffered ceiling, an open grid revealing a sky filled with butterflies, delicate dragonflies and a flock of colourful insectivorous birds. In 2023 Korver would revisit this design for a ceiling at New York’s prestigious Carlyle hotel on Madison Avenue.
Another recent project was finished behind an impressive Louis XVI façade on Amsterdam’s Herengracht. Having served as residence of Napoleon’s gouverneur to the Netherlands and later head-of- fice for the corporate exploitation of the Dutch Indonesian colonies, this 1790’s urban palazzo had an interesting history to say the least. Korver’s paintings have changed the entrance into a gallery of aviaries with birds hanging around between historic memorabilia. Voluntarily, as it seems because the doors of their cages are wide open. What ensues is an encyclopaedic collection depicting the splendour of the birds as well as the history of the house, but at the same time drawing an ambivalent image about the concept of freedom.
In 2019 Korver finished a set of monumental new paintings for the domed ceiling and the more than six meter high walls of the restored Grand Salon at San Anton Palace, Malta’s 17th century presidential residence.
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Houses
“. . I see the existing situation in a house as a point of reference. . my starting point, . not my limitation. . . I like working in houses. . . old houses too. . On a canvas anything is possible, but when working in a house there’s a formal and historical context . . .a story, a question, the limitations of a given situation, the personal affinities of clients . I find that whole process very interesting . ” In recent years I found that a growing number of my clients not only think of their house as a commodity. . a possession. as something to live in comfortably. . but also think of themselves as passersby in the history of the house. . a history to which they consciously and responsibly want to add something . . and so do I . . . This has made the whole process so much richer . . “
Time
“. . Yes. .My works often take up quite a while to produce . . . But, as someone once said . “The intensity of the process of making something, makes up for a large part the presence and expression of the finished work.” . . . . . I think that is quite true. . . ”
Work
“. . When I was seven years old I was given an exercise book during religion class at school. On one of the pages was a picture of Jesus in which we were to add drawings of “friends that were listening”. After I had worked studiously the entire morning, I proudly presented my teacher with the finished result. To her surprise I had filled the entire page with pheasants, zebra’s, a goat, a whale, a shark, crows, caterpillars, butterflies, frogs and mosquitoes. Probably I still do something similar to this very day. . .”
Style
” . . I do not use just one style in painting. The style often seems to adjust itself a little to the project. People always recognize my work however. . . .they say it has quite an intense personal touch and approach. . . . and it’s almost always about plant and animal subject matter of course, . . ”
Computer
“. . I often use the computer. Adjusting grand scale compositions in the computer beforehand, saves a lot of time during the preliminary process and enables me to make quick changes in the approach of the design.
It’s a technical design tool however. Ultimately all the things I do should be intensely handmade in the first place. That’s where the life comes into the work.. . Depth, layers, feeling, energy. . . ”
Surprise
“. . I often use unexpected animals but I’m not interested in shock …There has to be an itch though. That itch, or some confusing surprise at first sight . . . will probably leave you with a more interesting work in the long run. Fortunately most of my clients have come to that same conclusion. .”
Magic
“. . .As a child I used to breed caterpillars. Our aviary would be a hotel for two enamored butterflies whom we allowed an overnight stay only. . When their eggs had hatched, I supplied them with as much twigs and leaves the aviary would allow. One morning the caterpillars had all disappeared beneath the sand. A few uneventful months passed quietly, until I walked outside one early summer evening and discovered our garden to be in full bloom with giant pink moths…”
Studio
“. . A lot of my works are done in the studio, not on site. . . It can be done on site too of course but It’s much more convenient for both us and the client not having me, or a whole team of painters, all over the house for weeks or longer.
And . . there is this final moment of installment. . That moment when a painting slides into the ceiling frame or is attached to the wall. . . the moment when you immediately feel the whole space come together. . make a click. . I really like that. . “
That’s also why I often do a fair share of research into the house and its history, somehow this too slips into the process of painting. . .
Decorative
“. I’m not so much interested in a difference between autonomous and decorative art. . I think the way most people deal with art is essentially decorative in the first place. . However; the moment you stop and focus on what you’re actually looking at . . then something really interesting, rich, complex and inspiring has to happen. . time and again . . . ”
