Anton Heyboer

Anton Heyboer ("Call me the Robin Hood of art") Anton Heyboer was born on February 9, 1924 on the Indonesian island of Java. Five months later he moved to Haarlem with his older sister and parents. A period of removals followed. In 1925 to Delft, in 1929 to Voorburg. The Heyboer family stayed on Curacao from 1933 to 1938. Later they moved again to Haarlem. "Heyboer: I had a great childhood. Not, compared to normal, what is called a pleasant childhood. But a rather wild childhood. On uninhabited islands and such. What more do you want as a child?" In 1943 Anton Heyboer was arrested by the German occupiers and put to work in Prenz Lauerber camp for 7 months. He wrote about this: "The concentration camp was no worse than the parental home and society is no worse for me than both; too uncreative."

After the war Heyboer settled in Borger in Drenthe. Here he started, albeit in a traditional style, with drawing. He met the painter Jan Kagie, with whom he spent several months wandering through France drawing and painting. It was in 1948. In 1951 Anton was admitted for a long time to the Provincial Hospital in Santpoort. He was very introverted. After his discharge he lived with his first wife Elsa and their daughter in Haarlem.

The marriage apparently troubled him too much and was dissolved in 1953. Anton married again in 1954. Anton left for Amsterdam with his second wife Erna in 1958 and ended up in the artist world. Drank a lot and sank to the seamy side of existence. At the end of 1958, this marriage, from which a child was also born, was dissolved. Anton married for the third time in 1959. This union, with Yvonne, lasted only until the mid-1960s. By the late 1960s, Anton met Maria. After living together in a farm in Oudekerk a / d Amstel, they moved to a barn near Ilpendam. They still live here. In 1964 she lived with Ingrid. Ingrid left and the interior designer Lotti came. Lotti still lives in Den Ilp. Later this triumvirate was enriched with the arrival of Marike, beautician and fashion model, and Joke, bus driver and car mechanic. Anton Heyboer passed away on April 9, 2005. He was 81 years old.