Mural wedding hall City Hall

About this artwork.

The walls of the wedding hall were painted in 1938 by Johan Dijkstra (1896 – 1978). Because the wedding hall ‘receives its light from the north’, Dijkstra used light colours, as he writes in an explanation of his three wall paintings.

The middle wall shows the city of Groningen, which rises from what, according to Dijkstra, were the main sources of its existence: agriculture, livestock and industry. 'Labor' is the central theme in this painting, depicted by the harvest scene in the middle, cattle breeding on the right and peat digging in the peat colonies on the left.

The eastern wall depicts trade and shipping, depicting the city's relationship with the rest of the world. The warehouses of the Oosterhaven can be seen in the background. The western wall has been kept static and quiet by Dijkstra. Here he wanted to express the importance of marriage for the community: marriage as the foundation of society. One of the themes here is 'building'. To give shape to this, he painted a historical image of the city center (from the Grote Markt to the west) and a group of workers.

Dijkstra took into account the design of the wedding hall in his choice of theme. Visitors to the hall at the time sat facing the western wall. ‘After the ceremony, full life and work await,’ Dijkstra wrote. When the visitors get up and leave, they see the other two walls. They were therefore supposed to ‘provide an incentive to active participation in life’.

Johan Dijkstra is regarded as one of the most important Groningen artists of the twentieth century. He was educated at the Minerva Academy as a student of F.H. Bach. In 1918 Dijkstra founded the Groninger art society De Ploeg with Jan Altink, Jan Wiegers and George Martens.

In addition to being a member of De Ploeg, Dijkstra was also a member of “De Onvangenen” and “Arti et Amicitiae”. He received the Willink van Collen Prize in 1925. From 1930 Dijkstra threw himself into the monumental arts. The preliminary study for wall paintings eventually led to the three wall paintings in the wedding hall of the Town Hall in 1938.

At the unveiling of the memorial windows in the Groningen Academy Building in 1951, Dijkstra was made a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau and in 1957 he received the Cultural Prize of the province of Groningen. In Ten Boer you can find the Johan Dijkstrastraat named after him.

Facts & Figures.

• Artist(s)
  Johan Dijkstra

• Year of creation
  1938

• Collection
  Town Hall Collection

• Technic
  Mixed technique

• Floor
  Ground floor