Painter and lithographer, born in Amsterdam, Holland and taught by his father, Jean Charles PieAlbert Houthuesen was born in the Oude Pijp neighborhood of Amsterdam. He lived at 263 Albert Cuypstraat and was the eldest of four children. His father, Jean Charles Pierre Houthuesen, was a painter and musician, while his mother, Elisabeth Petronella Emma Wedemeyer, ran a boarding house near Hampstead Heath in London after Jean Charles Pierre's early death. When Albert was eight years old, the family moved to London to be closer to Elisabeth's mother.
At the age of 14, Houthuesen left school and took on various jobs, including working as a grocer, lens fitter, apprentice engraver, tailor's stencil cutter, and furniture restorer. During this time, he also attended evening classes at the Saint Martin's School of Art. Houthuesen shared a studio with artists Gerald Ososki, Barnett Freedman, and Reginald Brill in Fitzrovia.
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In 1921, he made the first of three trips to Holland, where he spent time with his uncle, the painter and potter Bernard Boeziek. Houthuesen became a British citizen in 1922 and started designing lettering for the architectural sculpture firm Aumonier in 1923-1924.
Thanks to William Rothenstein, the principal of the Royal College of Art, Houthuesen received a scholarship to attend the RCA from 1924 to 1927. During his time there, he studied alongside notable artists such as Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Edward Burra, Ceri Richards, and Cecil Collins. Houthuesen also taught evening art classes at the Mary Ward Settlement and the Working Men's College in London.
In 1931, Albert Houthuesen married Catherine Dean, and they lived in St John's Wood. Throughout the 1930s, they visited Trelogan in Wales, where Houthuesen painted landscapes and portraits. In 1936, he suffered from an internal hemorrhage caused by a duodenal ulcer.
During the war, the Houthuesens lived in various locations in Yorkshire. Albert worked as a draughtsman for the London and North Eastern Railway but experienced a severe nervous breakdown and was discharged in 1944. It was during this time that he started creating clown drawings after being inspired by a family of Russian Jewish clowns.
After the war, the Houthuesens returned to London and lived in Southwark. They later moved to Oxted, Surrey, and then to Denmark Hill, Camberwell. Albert Houthuesen played a role in building the art collection at St Gabriel's College and acquired several notable pieces.
Houthuesen faced ongoing health issues, spending time in hospitals and suffering a stroke in the 1970s. In 1979, he passed away, and a memorial exhibition was held in 1981 at the South London Art Gallery.
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