Nina Baanders-Kessler


Nina Baanders-Kessler was a Dutch sculptor and medalist.

Life and work

Nina Baanders-Kessler was born to Jacob Kessler, butcher in Leeuwarden, and Elizabeth Anna Axe. She was named after her grandmother Kessler-Antje van der Berg, however, she called herself Nina.
In 1934, Nina Kessler admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where she studied sculpture in the daytime with Jan Bronner. After her studies she made a trip to Paris and Vienna and settled back in Leeuwarden, where she had her own studio in the Eebuurt neighbourhood. She was the first Frisian sculptor, only twenty years later settled among others Maria van Everdingen and Suze Berkhout Boschma in Friesland. She married in 1942 with Ambrose Baanders, and first lived in Leeuwarden, and later in Vinkeveen.

Works (selection)