Jan Lievens, Bust of a Young Girl, c.1631-1632, 45 x 38 cm, Courtesy The Mauritshuis
In Conversation with Dr. Quentin Buvelot, the Senior Curator at the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis (Het Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen, in The Hague on the outstanding collection of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo. The couple, originally from the Netherlands and Belgium, has put together a magnificent collection of Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings: all are of outstanding quality and on a par with those in leading museums in New York, Washington, London and Amsterdam, as well as The Hague. Since the paintings were originally destined to hang in private homes, the Made in Holland exhibition is in its element in the intimate rooms of the The Mauritshuis, which was built in the seventeenth century (1636-41). Originally built by John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen (1604–1679), the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, and Rarities was established in 1822, and was dedicated to the display of paintings, in 1875.
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Tags: Adriaen van Ostade, Aeltje Uylenburgh, Amsterdam, Collectors, Dutch, Eijk, Emilie Gordenker, Fine Arts Museum, Flemish, Frans Hals, Gerrit Dou, Holland, Houston, Jan Steen, Karel du Jardin, Made in Holland, Marina Aarts, Mauritshuis, Nederlands, Nicolas Maes, Peabody Essex Museum, Peter Sutton, Quentin Buvelot, Rachel Ruysch, Rembrandt, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentrie, Rijksmuseum, Rose-Marie, Rotschild, Rudi Ekkart, San Francisco, Simone Levie, The Hague, The Netherlands, Van Otterloo
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[...] for the History of Collecting in America, On Collectors and Merchant Princes @ The Frick. Later next week, I will share the proceeds of my conversation with Dr. Quentin Buvelot, the Senior Curator of [...]
That couple has become an idol of curator worship. Fitting, I suppose, because they have devoted money and research (the ex-director of the Rijksmuseum’s) to assembling high quality works. That means nothing to the rest of us until they donate it to a public collection. I can’t wait to see what kind of deal ($) they demand from a museum willing to take their collection. I think it would best serve the public to send individual works to different institutions’ collections where they are most needed, but Buvelot says they want to keep it together. Maybe that will create a meaningful display in a larger museum, or maybe it will wind up a vanity ghetto within a suite of Golden Age galleries. That would be ironic for collectors of Dutch still lifes! Sic transit gloria mundi.
[...] COMPLETE Interview with The Mauritshuis’ Quentin Buvelot on The Van Otterloo Collection [...]