Johannes Antonius Canta (Dutch, 1816–1888)

St. Elisabeth's Flood

IMG_4417 WEB

Johannes Antonius Canta (Dutch, 1816–1888), St. Elisabeth’s Flood, signed and dated 1849, oil on canvas, 45.6” x 37”

Johannes Antonius Canta, a nineteenth-century painter from Rotterdam, was educated at the Royal Academy of Arts in Amsterdam and in 1847 became a member of the Royal Academy. In 1849, Canta became a member of the prestigious Society Arti et Amicitiae, a private institution that was established in 1839 to act as a hub for art-lovers and artists in the Netherlands. The Arti et Amicitiae continues to this day to play a key role in the Netherlands’ art scene, especially in the city of Amsterdam. In 1850, Canta was named one of the Living Masters of Rotterdam and participated in a group exhibition at Rotterdam’s Great Hall of the Harmony Society. Canta also participated in several expositions at the Beaux Arts (1851, 1857, 1869), and in 1876 he was chosen to represent the Society Arti et Amicitiae at the World’s Fair in Philadelphia. For more information on Canta, please refer to the literature below:

Member / registered with:
· 1847 – – Royal Academy of Arts Amsterdam – Johannes Antonius Canta – from: 1847
· 1849 – – Society Arti et Amicitiae Amsterdam – Johannes Antonius Canta – from: 07/26/1849
Exhibitions:
· 1850 – – Living Masters Rotterdam – Rotterdam Harmony Society
· 1851 – – Exposition générale des Beaux Arts –
· 1857 – – Exposition générale des Beaux Arts –
· 1869 – – Exposition générale des Beaux Arts –
· 1876 ​​- – World’s Fair – Philadelphia –
Literature:
· 1851 – – Record and name list of the members of the society Arti et Amicitiae 1850
· 1855 – – The second exhibition of paintings, drawings etc. of live Dutch masters held in Leeuwarden.
· 1857 – – Exhibition of paintings and works by living masters Hague in 1857 
· 1878 – – Catalogue officiel [l’Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1878 à Paris] 
· 1879 – – Catalogue of paintings and works of art at the exhibition by the Academy of Fine Arts and Technical Sciences in Rotterdam in 1879 
· 1911 – – Thieme Becker V – Algemeines bildenden Lexikon der Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart
· 1969 – – Lexicon Dutch Visual Artists 1750-1950
· 1980 – – Paintings in the Dutch Museums

St. Elisabeth’s Flood brilliantly captures the terror on the faces of a family frantically waiting for help as the swirling floodwaters rise around them.

The St. Elizabeth’s flood of 1421 was a flooding of a large area in what is now the Netherlands; it ranks 20th in the list of worst floods in history. The flood takes its name from St. Elizabeth of Hungary Feast Day, formerly November 19. During the night of November 18 to November 19, 1421 a heavy storm hit near the North Sea coast between South Holland and Zealand (Zeeland). Water from the storm in the North Sea surged up the rivers, causing the dikes to overflow and break in several places. There was widespread devastation when the lower lying polder land (land reclaimed from sea) flooded. Several villages were destroyed and between 2,000 and 10,000 people were killed. Most of the area remained flooded for several decades and, even today, much of the land remains under water.