On 12th of January, 1828 in city of Lent (near Nijmegen), Helenus Albertus Mellink was born. He was one of twelve children from the marriage between Albertus Mellink and Catharina Brouwer.

It is not yet known how he chose to study painting, but in 1846 and 1847 he was registered as a student at the famous Düsseldorfer malerschule. He wasn’t the only Dutchman there, as the art academy was able to attract many foreign art students.

The Düsseldorfer malerschule
The academy was founded in 1773 as Kurfürstlich-Pfälzische Academie der Maler, Bildhauer- und Baukunst, from a previous drawing academy. In the nineteenth century, the academy became a big name for international students, as the Königlich-Preußische Kunstakademie, because of its outstanding course in landscape painting. From around 1830 the name “Düsseldorfer Malerschule” was used, The art academy also offered courses in so called genre painting.

Helenus Albertus Mellink was taught here by, successively, Carl Ferdinand Sohn, Rudolf Wiegmann and Joseph Wintergerst.

The data of the RKD states that Helenus Albertus Mellink was particularly known as a painter of the interior scene genre.
Five paintings are known from him:
– A domestic scene
– A painting titled “Sacrifice to the dog tax”
– A 16th century interior
– A painting titled “Grandmother, telling fairytales to her grandchildren”, and
– A painting titled “Mother at the empty cradle of her child”

Helenus wrote a letter from Antwerp, Belgium to his brother Jan Willem on September 12, 1852 with congratulations on his birthday on September 13, 1852. The letter contained photographs of three of the paintings. Which is quite unique by the way, as photography was still at the beginning of its development. Perhaps he was a student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, but no evidence of this has been found yet.

Later in life Helenus Albertus ended up in Curacao (now an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands), where he worked as a government official. It is not known if he was still active as a painter. On April 1st, 1863 he married Augusta Geertruida Statius Müller.

Helenus and Augusta had five children, one of which died at the age of two. About 11 years after their marriage, tragedy struck again, this time at sea, travelling from Nieuwendiep (nowadays Den Helder), The Netherlands back to Curacao. They left Nieuwendiep November 12, 1874, with the clipper brick ‘Santa Rosa’. But the ship never arrived in Curacao. Helenus drowned, together with his wife and three of the four children.

For unclear reasons one of his childeren, August Leberegt Statius Mellink, wasn’t on board the ‘Santa Rosa’. On August 7th, 1890, at the age of 24, August married Anna Louise Henriëtte Brutel De La Rivière in Utrecht, The Netherlands. They lived (among others) in Bussum, which is just north of Utrecht.

The depicted painting, an oil on panel, measuring 18 x24 cm, shows a 17th century inn scene. The painting is signed with “H.A. Mellink”, on the side of the table. It was signed in red, which makes the signature hardly visible. The painting is not dated.

Courtesy of Dr. Bettina Baumgärtel, Head Department of Painting/Chief Curator at the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.

(Private art collection)