J.J.P. Oud

Dutch architect, co-founder of the art movement De Stijl.

He was the second child of Hendrik Cornelis Oud (30 Augustus 1861) en Neeltje Theodora Janszen (20 July 1864 - 18 June 1932), who married 28 jan 1886 at Utrecht and got three sons: the jurist and politician Pieter Jacobus oud (5 Dec 1886, Purmerend - 12 Aug 1968, Rotterdam), Jacobus Johannes Pieter and Gerrit Kassen Oud (16 June 1895). His father traded in tobacco and wine, later also in stocks and served as an alderman in the local politics of Purmerend.

Oud followed the French school in Purmerend and wanted to become a painter. But his father stimulated him to become an architect. He visited the art school Quellinus in Amsterdam (1903-1906) and the Drawing school in Amsterdam (1908-1910). He worked under the architects J.Th.J. Cuypers and J. Stuyt in Amsterdam as a trainee and finished his study at Delft technical University (1910-11). He wass influenced by the architect Berlage. In 1913 he started as an architect in Purmerend, later that year in Leiden where he cooperated with the city architect W.M. Dudok. Here he also met Theo van Doesburg who introduced him to cubism and The Stijl movement.

In 1917 he was involved in the publishing of the De Stijl (The Style) magazine with the painters Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondriaan, Bart van der Leek and Vilmos Huszar, the poet A. Kok and the architects R. van 't Hoff and J. Wils. The first example dated October 1917 appeared November 1917. The designer Gerrit Rietveld joined the group in 1918. De Stijl advocated pure simplicity and abstraction, by using only horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms. Furthermore, they advocated the use of the three primary colours (red, yellow, and blue) only and the three primary brightness values: white, grey and black. Mondrian was very influenced by the theosophical movement, as was Oud's elder brother, who was a Freemason.

In 1918 Oud became the city architect of Rotterdam.