Exhibitions

For the prints, those lines can be taken quite literally. After all, these depictions are composed of black ink lines on paper. In this exhibition, engravings and etchings are on display. For both printing techniques, the image is cut into a copper plate before being transferred onto paper. The design drawing for this was often made by an artist other than the one who made the engraving or etching. The design drawing was often made by an artist, whereas the engraving of the plate was done by a specialized engraver or etcher. That is why you will sometimes find two artists’ names on one print.

The image in the copper plate was inked and then printed with a printing press, resulting in a mirrored image of the original design. Hundreds of copies could be made from one copper plate. As a result, prints were much more affordable than paintings and became widespread. They were bought by a wide audience, including artists. Prints were an effective means of spreading ideas about behavior and morality, as well as knowledge about nature and classical antiquity.

This exhibition was curated by a group of international students from the master Arts and Culture. For their course “Art on Paper”, each student chose a painting from Museum Bredius and two prints from the Leiden University Special Collections. The aim was to connect themes, visual traditions, and meanings in Dutch paintings and prints from the period 1580-1700.

Leiden University owns more than 100,000 prints and 12,000 drawings that were brought together over a period of two hundred years. For students, artworks from this collection are inspiring sources of research. In this exhibition they invite you to tag along.

The exhibition guide >

 

In 1911, Lange Vijverberg 14 was where Elisabeth’s husband, Tony Artz (1883-1941) established his art gallery Maison Artz. Elisabeth and Tony lived above the gallery with their two daughters Lislie (1907-1996) and Marjorie (1908-1976). It’s Marjorie’s granddaughter who decided to give the portrait of her great-grandmother to Museum Bredius. There it can be seen in a presentation that also features Maison Artz.

Albert Roelofs (1870-1920) was one of the most talented portrait artists of his day. Son of the celebrated landscape artist Willem Roelofs, he trained in both The Hague and Paris. He married fellow painter Tjieke Bleckmann. Both Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana took painting lessons from him. More than a 100 years later, the portrait that Roelofs painted of Elisabeth Artz-Pop at his studio in 1911 once again hangs in the house in which it was originally displayed, at Lange Vijverberg 14.

The exhibition guide >

In this mini exhibition we show how 17th-century paintings employed a range of optical illusions, such as anamorphosis and various trompes l’oeil. The presentation features an extremely rare perspective box. Only 6 of these exist, and only one is in the Netherlands: at Museum Bredius.

Although Abraham Bredius was convinced that it was Rembrandt who had painted the sketch when he bought it in 1921, other art historians subsequently rejected the claim. Nonetheless, Jeroen Giltaij has concluded that the sketch is indeed by Rembrandt.

After removing the discoloured varnish and the 19th-century overpainting, Rembrandt’s trademark style was eminently recognisable.

Restorer Johanneke Verhave of Restauratie Atelier Rotterdam and Petria Noble of the Rijksmuseum then carried out a technical examination. They found nothing to contradict this attribution to Rembrandt.

Read here: how this new attribution came about >

A gathering of talent, inspiration and skill. Or, in the eloquent words of initiators Willem Jan Hoogsteder (board member) and Nicole Uniquole (curator): a ‘pas de deux of new and old’. Masterly Biennial 2021 art direction and styling was supervised once again by celebrated stylist Maarten Spruyt.

> Revisit 2021

The Inder Rieden collection is one of the largest private ensembles of 17th-century marine paintings in the world. River, shore, beach and seascapes, alongside naval battles and ship portraits provide a magnificent nautical perspective on the Dutch Golden Age. Among the artists represented are major marine painters such as Van de Velde, De Vlieger, Van Goyen, Storck, Verbeeck, Backhuysen and Vroom.

The exhibition guide >

The perspective box dates from the 17th century and is attributed to Samuel van Hoogstraten. Dr Abraham Bredius bought the work in the 19th century and kept its original retaining cabinet. In addition to the box, the exhibition also features several paintings and objects relating to the theme of deception. The perspective box remains on permanent show in the museum after the exhibition so that this superb, unique example can be admired by one and all.

Lange Vijverberg 14, 15 and 16 presented exhibits from the art collections of Dr Abraham Bredius, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder and painter Cornelis Kruseman. At Masterly The Hague numerous historical paintings appeared in combination with works made specially for the occasion by contemporary designers. Haute couture by Viktor & Rolf interacted spectacularly with the magnificent armour and the intricate collar in the portrait of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange painted by Michiel van Mierevelt.

Metres-tall metal flowers by Linda Nieuwstad accompanied the roses held by the richest woman in 17th-century Amsterdam, immortalised by Jurriaen Ovens.

Photography duo Petra and Erik Hesmerg presented photos alongside a mysterious Sottobosco painting by an extremely rare artist, J.M. Sartory. Leading 19th-century court painter Jean-Baptiste Van der Hulst was paired with textile designer Jan Koen Lomans. In addition, a further 60 masters of Dutch Design were featured in Masterly The Hague.

Curator Nicole Uniquole chose which master designer to link with which Old Master. For four days, audiences were able to enjoy these striking combinations, with many people visiting Museum Bredius for the first time. Masterly The Hague art direction and styling were by Maarten Spruyt, with whom Nicole Uniquole has designed numerous exhibitions.

The museum was delighted when the missing half of this majestic painting was discovered in Sweden. In was Marina Aarts (no relation) who brought the museum’s attention to its existence and Stichting Vrienden van Museum Bredius was able to buy the work.

Museum Bredius was the first Dutch museum to explore this phenomenon, taking a closer look at why paintings have been divided and later brought together again, whether by coincidence or after years of research. There are several examples of bisected paintings that were separated and reunited, an aspect that was also examined in Linking Pieces.

For many years, the initials AC, with which Abraham van Calraet generally signed his work, were thought to represent the more famous and celebrated Albert Cuyp. They were near contemporaries, both worked in Dordrecht and their still lifes are similar in style. His thorough archive research enabled Abraham Bredius to disprove the attribution of a group of still lifes with peaches to Aelbert Cuyp, in favour of the relatively unknown Abraham van Calraet. Leading Dutch art historian Cornelis Hofstede de Groot refused to accept this, maintaining through thick and thin that Bredius was mistaken. Were the peaches by Cuyp, as traditionally thought, or by Calraet? A passionate debate ensued and mutual recriminations were exchanged, not always relating to whether Van Calraet or Cuyp had authored the work.

The discovery by an art dealer in 1916 of a painting by Abraham van Calraet brought the feud between the two experts to an end. The artist had signed the work with his full name and it clearly matched the still-life paintings under discussion. Bredius had triumphed. He bought the work and later bequeathed it to Mauritshuis. The painting featured together with another twenty by Van Calraet in the exhibition.

The exhibition focuses on Jan Steen’s early work, honing in on the beginnings of his artistic career when he grew in just a few years from a landscape painter to a figure painter. Six landscapes and a city view were selected to illustrate this development.

To show how Steen forged his career as a figure and genre painter, the exhibition presents a key work from his oeuvre for the first time since 1926: The Satyr and the Peasant from the collection of Koninklijke Philips NV founder Dr Anton Philips. This was his favourite piece and he consented only once to a public showing. The newly resplendent canvas appears at Museum Bredius after a thorough restoration earlier this year specially for the exhibition.

A number of the selected paintings have never been publicly displayed before. Museum Bredius offers the first opportunity to view one of the most important discoveries of recent years, Steen’s Mocking of Ceres, based on a work by Adam Elsheimer. It is one of the few nocturnal compositions Steen is known to have painted depicting a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, dubbed by Carel van Mander ‘the painter’s Bible’.

Over thirty paintings are shown in the exhibition, including two that were once part of Huygens’s own collection. Learn more about Huygens’s personal taste through the paintings of 17th-century masters such as Rembrandt, Jan Lievens, Van Goyen and Honthorst.

Bredius’s collection of over eighty silver miniatures provide the inspiration for this presentation. These tiny copies of everyday objects came into vogue in the Netherlands in the second half of the 17th century. It became fashionable among wealthy women, especially in Amsterdam, to furnish a cabinet as a doll’s house and to fill it with minute domestic objects. This was an expensive hobby, since the silver miniatures were made of the same material as the currency of the time. Indeed, doll’s houses became a status symbol. By the 18th century they were all the rage. The demand for silver miniatures was so great in Amsterdam that generations of silversmiths were able to specialise in making these toy trinkets or ‘poppegoet’ as they were known.

Besides interior furnishings, other silver miniatures represent various trades, sports and modes of transport. Some of the rarer items include a sundial, a four-poster bed, a billiard table and even a windmill.

Sensationally, Joseph Estié identified a set of five china vases as extremely early Meissener porcelain. They are some of the most amazing pieces of German pottery in any Dutch museum.

One of the surprises that a restoration may reveal is a re-attribution to another artist. For example, when the painting of this artist in his studio was restored, it became clear that Hendrick Gerritsz Pot’s signature had been added later. Closer examination resulted in a revised attribution to Jan Miense Molenaer. At the same time, the restorers found two skulls in the foreground which had earlier been painted over.

 

Masters of Mills shows the iconic, inspirational importance of windmills in Dutch landscape art over the centuries. This exhibition is also an opportunity to tell today’s generation about the existence of these amazing structures by tapping the imagination of artists such as Rembrandt, Van Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van Goyen and Aelbert Cuyp.

An impressive selection of works from the museum’s collection by Rembrandt’s pupils such as Jacob Backer, Willem Drost, Samuel van Hoogstraten and Isaac de Jouderville accompanies sketches by Rembrandt, also from the collection, and various Rembrandtesque loans.

Bartholomeus Breenbergh was a pupil of Pieter Lastman, as were Rembrandt and Jacob Pynas. He lived in Italy from 1619 to 1629 where he was one of the initiators of the famous ‘Schildersbent’: a society of Dutch artists then in Rome. Breenbergh specialised in painting Italian landscapes, often as a setting for a biblical or mythological scene. His nickname among his friends was ‘the ferret’.

Still Life with Hare was at one time attributed to Jan Weenix, based on a signature in the painting. Yet a doubt remained: the work may have been by Melchior d’ Hondecoeter, who was known for preferring a horizontal composition, for his warm colours, his attention to detail and certain recurring motifs. During the restoration process it became clear that Weenix’s alleged signature was a later addition and therefore false.

Na 15 oktober reist de tentoonstelling naar Middelburg waar het te zien zal zijn van 27 oktober tot 16 november.

Hierna zal de tentoonstelling onderdeel uitmaken van de tentoonstelling ‘Smoke signals: Smoking in Art’ in de Kunsthal van Rotterdam. Hier zullen de werken van 6 december tot 14 maart te zien zijn.

As a connoisseur, Abraham Bredius depended on his spectacles and his magnifying glass to examine artworks, but today’s research methods, such as IRR, offer a surprising insight into the original compositions envisaged by artists and the adjustments they made to achieve the final result.

Abraham Bredius was without doubt one of the greatest Rembrandt experts of his day. His catalogue raisonné of the master’s oeuvre appeared in 1935. His own collection, now at Museum Bredius, included the Bust of Christ and several exquisite Rembrandt drawings.

To compile the exhibition, the museum invited Rembrandt specialist Theo Laurentius as guest curator. He selected works from the University of Leiden Print Room, as well as various loans from private collections. The chosen works are accompanied by the first results of technical research recently carried out into the Leiden prints.

Pescatore Museum has a collection of paintings from the 17th to 19th century assembled mainly by the Luxemburg collector Jean-Pierre Pescatore. They include works acquired from two prominent Hague collections that were put up for auction around 150 years ago, in 1851. They had been in the possession of King Willem II and Baron van Nagell van Ampsen. At his death, Pescatore left his collection to the city of Luxemburg. Now those purchased works will be on show in The Hague again for the first time in centuries.

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This work was hailed by Abraham Bredius in Burlington Magazine in 1937 as ‘A new Vermeer’. Today, 50 years after his death in 1946, new research has revealed that when the painting was first shown to him in Monaco, Bredius already had doubts about its authenticity. This is clear from recently discovered correspondence between Dr Bredius and Van Meegeren’s agent Mr G.A. Boon in the private archive of the late Dr O.J.G. Kronig. The exhibition presented Supper at Emmaus alongside some of the most relevant correspondence and other archive items. Jim van der Meer Mohr’s article on the subject, Eerherstel voor Abraham Bredius? appeared in Tableau Fine Arts Magazine, vol. 18, no. 5, 1996.