Simon Peter van Kaspelen was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, sometime around 1849. He first became known in Australia when he was working as a portrait artist in Mount Gambier, South Australia, in 1880. By 1882 van Kaspelen was working in Port Augusta, where he advertised his services in the South Australian Advertiser (12 June 1882): “For really artistic and life-like Portraits wholly drawn in Crayon (no Photographic enlargements worked up), send to Van Kaspelen, Port Augusta.”
Around this time he married and briefly lived in Adelaide. By 1884 van Kaspelen was living in Sydney, where he was employed by the prominent art dealer W. Aldenhoven. At Aldenhoven’s, van Kaspelen continued to produce crayon portraits from photographs up to the time of his death and was regarded by the art dealer as the finest artist of this technique working in Australia ( Sydney Morning Herald , 13 January 1893, p. 5).
The artist was a heavy drinker and was known to become violent when intoxicated. In late 1892 van Kaspelen attacked Aldenhoven in the throat. A newspaper report of the inquest suggests that van Kaspelen was not dismissed, however, because Aldenhoven valued his work ( ibid ). Instead, he was banned from going to Aldenhoven’s gallery, his work being sent to his home. In December 1892 van Kaspelen’s wife left him due to his violent behaviour. On 12 January 1893 he shot dead Mrs Annie Wilson at his home in Bourke Street, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, in the belief that she was his wife. Van Kaspelen then killed himself in his room. The murder suicide gained much press attention at the time.
- Writers:
- Silas Clifford-Smith
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
