Museum Bredius is a museum named after

Abraham Bredius Dr. Abraham Bredius (18 April 1855 in Amsterdam – 13 March 1946 in Monaco) was a Dutch art collector, art historian, and museum curator. Life Bredius travelled widely, visiting various art collections in his youth, and worked at the Dutch Mus ...

on the Lange Vijverberg in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. It is remarkable for its collection of etchings and paintings, but is most attractive to visitors for its accurate restoration of the 18th-century ''Herenhuis'' interior with period furnishings.

History

The house was built together with its neighbors (numbers 14 & 15) by the architect Pieter de Swart in 1755, and was home to a series of important ''Heren'' up to the 1930s, when it was purchased by

Frits Lugt Frederik Johannes "Frits" Lugt (Amsterdam 4 May 1884 – 15 July 1970 Paris), was a self-taught collector and connoisseur of Dutch drawings and prints and a selfless and tireless compiler of essential reference tools documenting Northern Europe ...

, to house his massive collection of drawings and prints that later (along with the initial donation by

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator. Life He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germ ...

(1863–1930), formed the basis for the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), and is now mostly housed in the

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands or (, Dutch for 'royal') is an honorary title given to certain companies and non-profit organisations in the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Belgium, by the monarchs of each country. It was first introduced by Louis Bonaparte in 1807, then Ki ...

, or (KB). In 1955 the house was purchased by the city of the Hague for the Bredius collection, which until then was housed in the former home of its donor,

(

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 ...

, 1855 -

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, 1946). His house on the Prinsengracht 6 had housed the collection until 1985, when it closed its doors due to a dip in the number of visitors, combined with a subsidy stop. Friends of the museum created the '' Bredius Genootschap'' that took the collection on tour, which met with great success. When the genootschap finally had enough funding to reopen in a permanent location, the old house could not be used. The decision to move to the present location was made possible with the gift of a generous sponsor to remodel it in the original

Louis XV style The Louis XV style or ''Louis Quinze'' (, ) is a style of architecture and decorative arts which appeared during the reign of Louis XV. From 1710 until about 1730, a period known as the Régence, it was largely an extension of the Louis XIV style ...

. It has been home to the Bredius Museum since 1990.

Abraham Bredius

Abraham Bredius was the son of a

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

manufacturer who left him a large fortune to spend in the arts. He was a very learned man and writer of many articles and books on art history, who became known internationally as a Rembrandt expert. He became director of the Mauritshuis in

and in that capacity devoted himself to scientific research.Bredius biography in English on museum website
When he moved to

for health reasons in 1922, he believed that the climate was bad for his paintings, and he left them in his old home as a museum, with the promise that they would go to the city on his death. In

he wrote his books on

Jan Steen Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried 3 February 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour. Lif ...

and Rembrandt. He was embroiled in many controversial academical battles over various aspects of art history, such as attributions of paintings by Jan Steen and Rembrandt, or the proper way to present and build a museum collection. He was unable to work together with

, which is why the Museum Bredius is now totally separate from the RKD, which ironically has its roots in the same building today.

Paintings

Jan Steen - Tobias en Sarah bidden terwijl Rafael bindt de demon

The collection is represented by over 150 artists, with illustrious names such as

Aelbert Cuyp Aelbert Jacobszoon Cuyp () (20 October 1620 – 15 November 1691) was one of the leading Dutch Golden Age painters, producing mainly landscapes. The most famous of a family of painters, the pupil of his father Jacob Gerritszoon Cuyp (1594–1651 ...

, Anthony van Dyck, Melchior de Hondecoeter,

Adriaen van Ostade Adriaen van Ostade (baptized as Adriaen Jansz Hendricx 10 December 1610 – buried 2 May 1685) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, showing everyday life of ordinary men and women. Life According to Arnold Houbraken, he and his bro ...

Quiringh van Brekelenkam Quirijn or Quiringh Gerritsz van Brekelenkam (1622/29, Zwammerdam – 1669/79, Leiden),entry
in the

, and Rembrandt. Bredius only kept pieces which were of academic interest in the art history field, such as the only known landscape example by the seascape painter

Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen (c. 1576 – 29 December 1633) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography Van Wieringen was born and died in Haarlem. He was the son of a Haarlem captain, and drew, painted and etched with his friends Hendrick ...

, or a mutilated piece that was originally a biblical scene by

of the marriage of Tobias and Sarah, that had been cut down into two genre pieces in the 19th century and sold separately. He donated more than 46 paintings he attributed himself to the

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 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 Ste ...

. Bredius tended to only keep the ''masterpieces'', which were the first known work by many artists when they were accepted as a master into a local Guild of St. Luke.

Other objects

The museum contains a large collection of silver, including 70 examples by Amsterdam silversmiths from the 17th to 19th centuries. There is also a

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

collection with

Chinese blue Han purple and Han blue (also called Chinese purple and Chinese blue) are synthetic barium copper silicate pigments developed in China and used in ancient and imperial China from the Western Zhou period (1045–771 BC) until the end of the Han dy ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

pieces to offset the historical themes in

Delftware Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue ( nl, Delfts blauw) or as delf, is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands ...

References

* Blankert, Albert, Museum Bredius: catalogus van de schilderijen en tekeningen, Zwolle and The Hague 1991 (in Dutch)

External links