J. J. P. Oud

Oud was an iconic modernist architect of the inter-war years, his radicalism tempered by a strong concern for craft. He met Berlage (whose protégé he became) through Berlage’s daughter, a teenage fellow-student. He collaborated with van Doesburg (earth and fire, bound not to last). Rietveld and Mondrian became good friends as well as de Stijl colleagues. Gropius got him to speak at the Bauhaus. Johnson visited and wrote about him and commissioned a house for his mother, but ironically disapproved of his return to decoration. Giedion likewise ended up disagreeing with him; remaining friends, they just didn’t mention architecture.