Andries Bonger (20 May 1861 – 20 January 1936) was a Dutch art collector, as well as

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger Johanna (Jo) Gezina van Gogh-Bonger (4 October 1862 – 2 September 1925) was a multilingual Dutch editor and translator of the letters of the van Gogh brothers. Sister-in-law of the painter Vincent van Gogh, and wife of his brother Theo van Go ...

's brother and Theo van Gogh's friend, who later became his brother-in-law.

Relationship with Theo

In December 1879, after finishing a course at the Amsterdam Trade School, Bonger traveled to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

to work at Geo Wehry, a commodity trading firm that focused on tobacco, coffee, tea, and rubber. In 1881, he became librarian at the Hollandsche Club, an expatriate club in Paris, where he became friends with Theo van Gogh. He later introduced his sister Jo to Theo; they married in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

in 1889, but he and his wife did not attend the wedding because he thought the wedding cost too much and they could not afford to travel. Through Theo, he knew

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, who called him "André" in letters. In a letter that Bonger wrote to his parents on March 31, 1885, he describes Theo van Gogh as having received unexpected news the prior week that his father had died due to a "stroke of apoplexy" after having received a letter the previous day that he was in perfect health. He mentioned that Van Gogh was not very strong, and so this was a very melancholy circumstance. In several letters over the remainder of the year, Bonger comments on a growing appreciation for and friendship with Theo. In 1886,

arrived in Paris, which meant that Bonger saw less of Theo. Bonger expressed his concern that Vincent's harshness towards Theo, who had begun to look haggard. Theo met Bonger's parents during a visit to the Netherlands in 1886. Theo had hoped to open a gallery of his own, with his brother-in-law Andries as a partner. Despite promising talks, it never came to fruition. Theo died six months after his older brother Vincent's death, leaving Andries's sister Jo holding the letters of Vincent to Theo and in control of Vincent's artwork. Andries believed that his younger sister should not have sole say about what became of these remnants of her marriage and attempted to exert his influence over her. She resisted and the close of the siblings were at odds. Andries managed the sales of some of Vincent's artwork whose sale Jo authorized.

Later life

In 1892, he returned to the Netherlands after taking a job with an insurance company based in Hilversum. Around this time, Bonger started collecting art, especially works by Odilon Redon and

Émile Bernard Émile Henri Bernard (28 April 1868 – 16 April 1941) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and writer, who had artistic friendships with Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Eugène Boch, and at a later time, Paul Cézanne. Most of his nota ...

, who were his friends. He also owned works by

and

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

. He is buried at Zorgvlied cemetery in Amsterdam.

Relationship with Theo

Later life

See also

References

Further reading