Style Imitating Art | Stork Gather by Theo van Hoytema

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Marsha chose this week’s art inspiration. This particular artist came onto her radar when a blogger from Amsterdam mentioned him. So Marsha looked for his art to use in this challenge and found that he leans toward Art Nouveau and was a lithographer, illustrator, and graphic designer. She chose this piece because she finds storks beautiful and the color palette really spoke to her. Although she was drawn to this artist’s depiction of irises, she passed it over since our last challenge involved irises. 

The Artwork

Stork Gather by Theo van Hoytema

About the Artist: Theo van Hoytema

Born on December 18, 1863, in The Hague, Netherlands, Theodorus van Hoytema was the youngest of eight children of the Secretary-General of the Dutch Department of Finance. After both of his parents died in the 1870s, Theo and some of his siblings moved to Klein Stadwijk, a village in Voorschoten, where Theo received his first drawing lessons from his eldest sister. He attended the Stedelijk Gymnasium Leiden, one of the oldest schools in the Netherlands, where he and two of his brothers passed exams qualifying them to work in the finance industry. Theo quickly became dissatisfied with office work and decided to become a professional artist instead.

He enrolled in drawing classes at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague where he drew and painted the stuffed animals that were exhibited at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie. His work was skilled enough for his uncle Adriaan van Oordt, who was the Director of Brill Publishers, to secure his first commissions for scientific illustrations.

Theo became interested in lithography in 1889 and moved temporarily into a garden house at Binckhorst Castle in 1890. The following year, he successfully published a picture book about birds, got married, and moved to Loosduinen. The marriage produced no children and ended in divorce in 1902.

He became a member of the Haagsche Kunstkring, an artists’ association, in 1892, and joined the Dutch artists’ society, Arti et Amicitiae, in 1893. That same year, he published an illustrated edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling followed by several more picture books with bird themes.

Theo continued to move about restlessly, settling in Voorburg then moving to Hilversum in 1897 and also spending time with family in London. Due to his fragile health, Theo was hospitalized for most of 1904 and 1905, spending some of that time in a psychiatric treatment facility. Upon his release, he went to live with a sister in The Hague where he remained for the rest of his life.

During his years of illness, he created the calendars that made him famous. Between 1901 and 1917, Theo produced annual calendars that featured whimsical lithograph depictions of floral and fauna with scientifically delicate accuracy. These designs formed the basis for the production of furniture and pottery. He and his wife were the inspiration behind the main characters in the 1911 novel Leo en Gerda by Aegidius Willem Timmerman, a book about the generation of artists that emerged in the 1880s.

Theo van Hoytema died on August 28, 1917, at the age of 53, after 15 years of deteriorating health due to syphilis. In 1923, a street was named after him and a monument was placed there in 2009.

About the Art: Stork Gather

Stork Gather is an 1893 lithograph by Dutch illustrator and graphic designer Theo van Hoytema. The image measures 14 x 20 inches (35 x 50 cm) on paper that measures 18 x 24 inches (46 x 60 cm). The artwork depicts a group of storks huddled together against a soft green ombre background adorned with daisies. The contrasting orange of the beaks and legs add another level of depth and vibrance to the image.

According to AI, which I am not trusting at all because I can’t verify any of this information elsewhere, this Stork Gather lithograph began as a massive oil painting on canvas which was then reproduced as lithograph prints for magazines, calendars, and books. The original oil painting measures 67.3 x 120.5 inches (171 × 306 cm) and apparently is housed in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, but I cannot confirm this on the museum website. The original color lithographs are supposedly held in the permanent print collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, but I cannot confirm this as true on those museum websites either.

Speaking of AI and how much I hate it, my next artwork has a little something to say about the topic! Come back next Monday to see what I’ve chosen for our inspiration.

Helpful Links:

• Wikipedia: Theo van Hoytema
• NOCLOO: Theodorus van Hoytema Biography
• Dutch Design Daily: Theo van Hoytema retrospective
• Prints & Fine Art: Stork Gather

About My Outfit

At first glance, I was stumped. At second glance, the daisies popped out and reminded me of this adorable daisy print dress I bought early in December when it was still too cold wear it. I had already paired the dress with this orange kimono robe (worn with olive green for a previous SIA challenge) and had them hanging together to wear when the weather permitted. The weather has finally warmed up (a bit too much, I must say) and Marsha’s choice of artwork gave me the perfect opportunity for styling this flowy combination.

The daisy print dress is self explanatory and the orange duster represents the beaks and feet of the storks. At first, I wasn’t sure if the background was black or green because different images appeared in different color palettes on my laptop screen. But after reading the description of the artwork, it clarified that the background is “a gentle green ombre” so I added green accessories including my wide brimmed green straw hat, my dark green Furkenstocks, and a newly thrifted green and black beaded necklace. I also brought in some more orange elements with two other newly thrifted necklaces. Finally, I wore my green leather feather earrings because I always like to add some sort of feathers when there are birds involved!

Since I had planned the majority of this outfit before I ever considered it for an SIA challenge, I obviously was very pleased with the combination. The accessories were the only things that needed some thinking to go along with the artwork. When I wear this outfit again, I may change out my accessories just to keep some variety in my outfit combinations. But I can always resort back to this exact look if needed!

I hope you all have enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have styled their outfits inspired by Theo van Hoytema’s Stork Gather. If you want to play along and create your own art inspired outfit, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, July 1, 2026.

Until then, happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee