Primal bird

Anton Heyboer (1924-2005) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He lived with four women in a commune in Den Ilp.

Heyboer was born in Saban, on the Indonesian island Pulau Weh, as the son of a mechanical engineer. Five months later the family moved to Haarlem, in 1925 to Delft, in 1929 to Voorburg and from 1933 to 1938 they lived on Curaçao. This was followed by a stay in New York. Heyboer was trained as a mechanical engineer. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the family returned to Haarlem. In 1943, Heyboer was arrested by the Germans as part of the Arbeitseinsatz and transferred to a Durchgangslager for foreign forced laborers in Prenzlauer Berg (Berlin). Seven months later, he returned to Haarlem, deathly ill.

After the war, he settled in Borger. After a stay of a few months in the south of France, he was admitted to the Santpoort psychiatric hospital in Bloemendaal in 1951. In 1961 he settled in a farmhouse in Den Ilp. He lived there together with three women and later with five. Heyboer drew, painted and etched.

On 10 April 2002, Heyboer became a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau. He died in his sleep at the age of 81 in his farm in Den Ilp.