Recent acquisitions (2006–20) at the Mauritshuis, The Hague Supplement COVER_NOV20.indd 1 09/11/2020 09:41 Recent acquisitions (2006–20) at the Mauritshuis, The Hague he royal picture gallery mauritshuis in The 1. Paintings by Nicolaes Berchem reunited at the Mauritshuis. Hague is often likened to a jewellery box that contains (Photograph Ivo Hoekstra). nothing but precious diamonds. Over the past fifteen BankGiro Lottery and the Rembrandt Association, as well as individual years the museum has continued to search for outstanding benefactors, notably Mr H.B. van der Ven, who has helped the museum time works that would further enhance its rich collection of and again. That the privatised Mauritshuis – an independent foundation Dutch and Flemish old master paintings. A director who since 1995 – benefits from private generosity is proved by a great many wants to make worthwhile additions to a collection of such quality must gifts, including seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes by Jacob van Geel Taim very high indeed. The acquisitions discussed here were made during (Fig.5) and Cornelis Vroom (Fig.4), as well as works from the eighteenth the directorship of Frits Duparc, who in January 2008 retired as Director century: a still life by Adriaen Coorte (Fig.2) and a portrait of a Dutch after seventeen years at the museum, and his successor, Emilie Gordenker, sitter by the French travelling artist Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (Fig.16). who earlier this year left the Mauritshuis for a position at the Van Gogh New acquisitions are also supported by numerous other foundations and Museum, Amsterdam. The present Director of the Mauritshuis, Martine funds, all mentioned in the credit lines of individual works. Occasionally Gosselink, aims to continue their active acquisition policy, and details of her the State of the Netherlands supports an acquisition, as in the case of first acquisition were made public at the end of June of this year (see Fig.23). the most expensive acquisition of the last fifteen years, Seascape with ships, It is a commonplace that a static collection is doomed to gradually lose its by Jan van de Cappelle, a purchase supported by many different parties appeal, and that one must constantly review and improve it in order to be (Fig.3). The Mauritshuis owns only a handful of marine paintings, and able to present a faithful picture of a particular period, a particular form this was without doubt the most beautiful of Van de Cappelle’s marines of art or one or more artists. This process is essential because of changes in still in private hands, of a quality that matches, or even surpasses, that taste, and more importantly, because of developments in our knowledge. of the artist’s works in major museums in the United Kingdom. In 2019 The museum actively focuses on strengthening the heart of the the Mauritshuis acquired a still life by the lesser known painter Simon collection and filling in the gaps, by loans from other collections, private Luttichuys (Fig.25) thanks to the successieregeling, the Dutch acceptance or public, or by acquisitions, a prerequisite always being a painting’s high in lieu scheme. Last but certainly not least, the support of the Friends of quality and good condition. It is also necessary for a painting to fit in the Mauritshuis has been instrumental in bringing about many important well with the museum’s intimate character, as the collection is housed acquisitions. The purchase in 2012, for example, of Still life with cheeses, in a city palace that dates from 1644. The Mauritshuis does not strive almonds and pretzels, by Clara Peeters (Fig.10), one of the most important for completeness; above all, it wants to share with the public the best of female artists working in Flanders in the first decades of the seventeenth seventeenth-century painting of the Northern and Southern Netherlands. century, was made possible by a substantial contribution from the Friends. Naturally this includes the great masters, but the Mauritshuis also upholds This important Flemish still life, and the equally significant Mountainous the tradition of displaying the very best work of lesser-known artists of landscape with St Jerome, by the Antwerp-born Paul Bril (Fig.9), were both the Dutch Golden Age, such as Dirck de Bray’s Still life with a bouquet in purchased during the major renovation and expansion of the museum the making (Fig.7), or the only known painting by Johannes Thopas (Fig.6). building in 2012–14, which connected the Mauritshuis with the premises Purchases for the Mauritshuis completely depend on the support of across the street via a luminous underground foyer. The museum doubled others, foremost two very faithful private sponsors of the museum, the in size, yet retained its small scale and intimate atmosphere. the burlington magazine | 162 | november 2020 1 SUPPLEMENT_NOV20 OFFPRINT.indd 1 09/11/2020 09:38 Recent acquisitions (2006–20) at the Mauritshuis, The Hague The museum takes pride in having acquired these and other for a long time, Ludger tom Ring (Fig.13), a forerunner of the many other important Flemish paintings, including attractive still lifes by Savery, flower still lifes in the Mauritshuis. The Mauritshuis has added a great Van Hulsdonck and Seghers (Figs.12–15). Works by seventeenth-century number of works by true pioneers, including an extremely rare ‘merry Flemish masters have long formed the nucleus of the collection, assembled company’ by Willem Buytewech (Fig.17), a key work in the development of in the eighteenth century by the Dutch stadholders and princes of Orange, early Dutch genre painting, as well as pioneering works in their respective Willem IV and, more notably, Willem V. The Mauritshuis collection genres by Peeters or Bril. For each one of these paintings, the Mauritshuis still bears their imprint. Genre paintings by Jan Steen were among the collection provides the perfect context. favourites of Willem V, but until the acquisition of Moses and Pharaoh’s Recently the Mauritshuis has been able to reunite paintings that had crown (Fig.8) the Mauritshuis lacked a history painting by his hand, or been separated from one another. In 2018 Berchem’s series of the Four for that matter, a representative biblical scene by Rembrandt’s teacher, Seasons, made for a house in Amsterdam and dispersed at the end of the Pieter Lastman (Fig.18). Also, the stadholder had no particular interest in nineteenth century, were reunited in the Mauritshuis, where one of the still lifes, a genre now represented in the museum by a great number of four canvases has been on display since 1992 (Figs.19–22). Earlier this year, paintings, many acquired in the twentieth century. An impressive number after more than a century apart, pendant portraits of a couple painted by of important still lifes have been added in the past fifteen years, including a the German artist Bartholomäus Bruyn the Elder were reunited – they are rare painting dated to 1562 by a Westphalian artist who worked in Antwerp now joined forever in their new frame (Fig.24). 2. Still life with five apricots, by Adriaen Coorte (active c.1683–1707). 1704. 3. Seascape with ships, by Jan van de Cappelle (1626–79). c.1660. Oil on canvas, 30 by 24 cm. Oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 89 by 114 cm. Anonymous gift, 2006 (inv. no.1154). Acquired with the support of the BankGiro Lottery, the Mondriaan Foundation, the National Like his predecessors as Director, Frits Duparc had a wish list for the Mauritshuis Art Collections Fund, the bequest of Mrs A.C. van Agtmaal, the Ministry of Education, Culture collection. The most important consisted of well-known gaps in the collection, and Science, the VSB Fund Foundation, the Friends of the Mauritshuis Foundation, the including a still life by Adriaen Coorte, a long-ignored artist rediscovered in the Rembrandt Association (with support from the bequest of Mr and Mrs Kamerbeek-Walenkamp) 1970s and now firmly belonging to the canon of Dutch painting. After acquiring and the SNS-Reaal Fund, 2007 (inv. no.1155). Coorte’s Still life with strawberries in 1995 as a gift from Mrs E. Speelman in memory Jan van de Cappelle’s seascapes are among the most beautiful products of Dutch of her husband, a decade later the museum was fortunate to receive another still life marine painting. This composition is characteristic of the master’s work, grouping by the master, again as an unexpected gift from a private individual. Coorte’s bright together ships of different sizes and types lying at anchor while using a modest illumination lends the still life with five apricots a magical quality. In the spring of palette, consisting of cool, silvery-grey tones for the sea and sky and shades of brown 2008, both paintings were included in the retrospective exhibition Ode to Coorte in for the ships. The magnificent cloudy sky produces a monumental scene that appears the Mauritshuis, organised as a farewell gift to Duparc. larger than it is. With the purchase of this painting from a private German collector, the artist is represented in a Dutch public collection at the highest level for the first 2 time. The acquisition of this masterpiece by the Mauritshuis was a personal triumph for Frits Duparc, who had set his heart on acquiring it many years ago. 4. River landscape, seen through the trees, by Cornelis Vroom (c.1591–1661). c.1638–39. Oil on panel, 50 by 67 cm. Promised gift of Mrs G. de Koster-Burgersdijk, 2007 (inv. no.1156). Haarlem artists figured prominently in the development of the naturalistic landscape in the Dutch Golden Age. With his views of rivers and woods, Cornelis Vroom made an important contribution to this new concept of landscape painting.