Johan Mutters

Mutters was born in The Hague in 1858 as the son of Johannes Mutters (sr.), whose father was Herman Pieter Mutters (1797–1864), the founder of the Mutters carpentry and furniture factory on the Molenstraat, near the Koningspoort in The Hague. The firm was well known for its interiors under the leadership of Herman Pieter I to Herman Pieter V, successively. The H.P. Mutters company furnished luxury ships, offices, villas, the Peace Palace in The Hague, and exhibited at several international expositions. Johan Mutters would eventually collaborate regularly with his cousin Herman Pieter III (1855–1922) on designs at world's expositions (Paris 1900, Roubaix 1911), as well as industrial buildings.^[1]

Mutters was well-educated. When he finished high school in the 1870s, he began an apprenticeship with the architect C. Muysken, who was then building the Kasteel Oud Wassenaar; at the same time, he took night classes at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Academy of Visual Arts) in The Hague. He embarked on a study trip in 1881, then transferred to the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Antwerp, before establishing his own firm in The Hague.^[1]

On 16 June 1887 he married Maria Catharina Brouwer (1862–1934) of Rotterdam.^[2]

The talented and skilled Mutters, who had become familiar with the various trends in architectural practice of the era and begun to make extensive social contacts, attracted numerous clients in the 1880s. He began his career working in various revivalist styles, often eclectically combining them, like most architects of the late Victorian era. An early example is the Zuid Hollands Koffiehuis on the Groenmarkt in The Hague (1890), where he used a Northern Dutch Renaissance style.^[1]

However, Mutters belonged to a group of architects from The Hague who were looking for innovative architectural styles and materials, like many architects all over Europe and North America around the turn of the century. He was quick to notice the appearance of Art Nouveau internationally, and with his design for the Lensvelt-Nicola Building at Venestraat 27–29 (1895) he is sometimes credited as the man who introduced the Nieuwe Kunst to the city, followed soon afterwards by the building at Hoogstraat 30 (1897). With its unorthodox emphasis on curvilinear forms and brightly colored materials, the Nieuwe Kunst soon became a popular style for many commercial establishments.^[1]

A slew of commissions soon came Mutters’ way, and he eventually became involved in the designs and renovations of several hotels, shops, offices, a sports park, theaters, and factories, mostly in The Hague and in Schveningen. Probably the best of these was the house he built for his family at 13 Wassenaarseweg in The Hague in 1896. The facade was decorated with Art Nouveau floral motifs and a spacious stairwell built around the hall, not unlike the domestic designs of Victor Horta in Brussels. Sadly, the building was demolished during World War II.

About the same time, Mutters expanded the home of the literary group Sociëteit de Witte on the Plein in 1897–98 with a new wing whose façade copies the original austere neoclassical design by Cornelis Outshoorn, but Mutters was allowed to decorate employ Nieuwe Kunst for the interior. At the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, he showed his design for a house at 35 Jan van Nassaustraat in The Hague, where his choice of the English Tudor style is complemented by Jugendstil details both at the entrance and at the gates. Details between the natural stone bands at the top facade seen in the design have disappeared, however. Also at the fair, with Karel Sluyterman, Mutters designed the Dutch pavilion in a striking Nieuwe Kunst design with multiple spires and lacy window surrounds and spandrels.^[3]

Fashion changed quickly, however, and Mutters largely abandoned Nieuwe Kunst by the end of the next decade. In 1908–09 he built an imposing structure on the corner of de Kneuterdijk and de Plaats for the Kühne company in a style largely influenced by French baroque architecture. The facade has brick panels wedged between natural stone pilasters, along with the familiar classical vocabularies of cornices and decorative vases. He soon changed tack again, moving towards the rationalist designs of Hendrik Petrus Berlage, the most famous Dutch architect of the time. This can be seen in the large set of offices he was commissioned to design for two insurance companies on the corner of Anna Pauwlonastraat in 1911 and in the offices he designed in 1912–13 for the Haagsche Assurantie Compagnie on Bezuidenhoutseweg, both in The Hague. That year, 1913, he also finished the Grand Hotel Central on the Lange Poten, a building now used by the Tweede Kamer, the Dutch House of Representatives.^[4]

Mutters’ success meant his office grew in the number of employees, as well, attracting some talented names. In 1914 Jan Wils became an apprentice draftsman for Mutters, but would leave to set up his own office two years later and become a member of De Stijl; he would go on to design the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam for the 1928 games.^[5]