Henricus Petrus Baard (1906 – 2000), was director of the

Frans Hals Museum The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The museum was established in 1862. In 1950, the museum was split in two locations when the collection of modern art was moved to the '' Museum De Hallen'' (since 2018 called ...

from 1946-1972.

Biography

He was born in Amsterdam as the son of Cornelis W.H. Baard, the director of the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, and though his father wished he would follow a career in the wood trade, he studied art history and accepted a job as a volunteer with the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

. In 1932 he was appointed scientific assistant of history there and as of 1939 he was put in charge of the art collection. When he succeeded

Gerrit David Gratama Gerrit David Gratama (22 March 1874 – 20 August 1965), was a Dutch artist, writer, and director of the Frans Hals Museum. Biography He was born in Groningen and was the brother of the architect Jan Gratama and painter Lina Gratama (1875- ...

as director of the Frans Hals Museum, he moved to the upper floor of the

Jacobus van Looy Jacobus (Jac) van Looy (12 September 1855 – 24 February 1930) was a Dutch painter and writer. Biography Van Looy was the son of a carpenter, but his father lost his job when his eyesight began to fail. His mother died when he was five y ...

house, where he stayed until it was sold in 1967. In the Frans Hals Museum he removed most of the paintings from the display rooms, firmly believing that visitors could better concentrate on fewer works rather than ambling aimlessly room in, room out, attempting to absorb an entire collection in one visit. He felt that a good museum visit should not last more than one hour. From 1953 he introduced "candlelight" evening opening hours that were popular until they were discontinued in 1971. He organized seminars and ordered the creation of a scientific catalog of all the works in the museum, which his scientific assistant Carla van Hees began but which had still not been finished by the time he died. In 1959 he moved all of the Haarlem

schutterstuk Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces w ...

ken to the new annex in the back of the building, where they could all be seen together. They still hang there. In 1943 Baard acted als guardian of the Muiderslot while being head of the Rijksmuseum's historical department. Under his supervision the museumization of the castle received a new impulse. His main achievement was the great international Frans Hals exhibition in 1962 and the scientific catalog that he published with it, that had contributions by Carla van Hees and the young

Seymour Slive Seymour Slive (September 15, 1920 – June 14, 2014) was an American art historian, who served as director of the Harvard Art Museums from 1975 to 1984. Slive was a scholar of Dutch art, specifically of the artists Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Ja ...

. Many distinguished visitors came to Haarlem for the show and he received and showed them around them personally. The show made 750,000 guilders for the city of Haarlem, and though he desired to purchase a 17th-century painting with the funds, the money was used instead to fund young artists in the

Ateliers '63 De Ateliers (formerly Ateliers '63) is an independent art school in located in Amsterdam. It was founded in Haarlem in 1963, among others by Ger Lataster, Mari Andriessen, Nic Jonk, Theo Mulder and Wessel Couzijn. This "group of established arti ...

. According to the RKD he was scientific assistant at the Rijksmuseum 1935-1945 and from 1946-1972 he became museum director in Haarlem and is known for his research books on art history.Henricus Petrus Baard
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

He managed the evacuation of the important artworks during the war to bunkers in the dunes. He died in Haarlem.

Publications

Frans Hals Exhibition catalog, 1962 Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is ''Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplomat ...

for the Frans Hals Museum, title : Exhibition on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Municipal Museum at Haarlem, 1862-1962, exhibition committee: H.P. Baard, Seymour Slive, A.B. de Vries, painting descriptions by Carla van Hees. * ''Hals''. The Library of Great Painters (1981). Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publisher. New York, N.Y., 167 pp.

References

* 'Obituary of Henricus Petrus Baard (26 October 1906 - 19 June 2000)' in ''Jaarboek Haerlem 2000'', by Edwarda J. Zetteler, pp. 334–336, Schuyt & Co., Haerlem, 2001 * Bertus Bakker, 'Frans Hals: is dat niet een bioscoop? Directeur Henk Baard promoot zijn museum via het Haarlems Dagblad' in ''Jaarboek Haerlem 2015'' (Haarlem 2016), 149-172. * Baard, H. P., ''Kunst in schuilkelders'' (Daamen 1946).
Geschiedenis van het Rijksmuseum Muiderslot 1875-1994

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baard, Henk P. 1906 births 2000 deaths Directors of museums in the Netherlands Dutch art historians Curators from Amsterdam Frans Hals Museum 20th-century Dutch historians Dutch art curators