Gerrit David Gratama (22 March 1874 – 20 August 1965), was a Dutch artist, writer, and director of the

Frans Hals Museum The Frans Hals Museum (formerly ''Stedelijk Museum van Haarlem'') is a museum in the North Holland city of Haarlem, the Netherlands, founded in 1862, known as the Art Museum of Haarlem. Its collection is based on the city's own rich collection, b ...

Biography

He was born in Groningen and was the brother of the architect Jan Gratama and painter Lina Gratama (1875-1946). He studied at the Hague Academy of art during the years 1892-1895, and afterwards during the years 1895-1897 he continued his studies at the Royal academy of art in Antwerp.Obituary of Hendrik van Borssum Buisman (1 January 1873 - 15 October 1951) in Jaarboek Haerlem 1951, by G.D. Gratama, pp. 31-32, De Erven F. Bohn N.V., Haerlem, 1951Gerrit David Gratama
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

He was a pupil in Antwerp of Albrecht De Vriendt and Henri Heymans and a friend of Hendrik van Borssum Buisman,

Simon Maris Simon Willem Maris (May 21, 1873 – January 22, 1935) was a Dutch painter best known as a portrait artist. He was the son of Dutch landscape painter Willem Maris of the Hague School. Life and work He was born in The Hague. Simon Maris was a s ...

, Toon Dupuis, Isidoor Opsomer, Walter Vaes and H.J. Wouter. In 1912 he was appointed director of the Frans Hals Museum, which meant that he oversaw the complete renovation of the former Oude Mannenhuis and the move of the collection from the upper floors of the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

.Obituary of Gerrit David Gratama (22 March 1874 - 21 August 1965) in Jaarboek Haerlem 1965, by Carla van Hees (C.A. de Goederen-van Hees), pp. 24-28, De Erven F. Bohn N.V., Haerlem, 1965 Among his tasks were organizing exhibitions and keeping the museum catalog up-to-date, and for his 25th anniversary as director, he organized a Frans Hals monograph exhibition to celebrate the 75th birthday of the Haarlem municipal museum and wrote the Frans Hals Exhibition catalog in 1937 together with J.L.A.A.M. van Rijckevoorsel. Gratama's work was included in the 1939 exhibition and sale ''

Onze Kunst van Heden Onze Kunst van Heden (Contemporary Artists/Our Art of Today) was an exhibition held in the winter of 1939 through 1940 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Due to the threat of invasion in the years leading up to World War II, the Netherlands' g ...

'' (Our Art of Today) at 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 S ...

in Amsterdam. He was hired not only as a curator and director, but was also artist-in-residence at the museum and kept a studio there. He was known for his portraits and still-life paintings. He retired officially in 1940, but was asked to stay on during the war and oversaw the storage of the collection highlights in the dunes. He did retire after 33 years in 1946, but he continued as a painter into old age. He was succeeded as director of the museum by

Henricus Petrus Baard Henricus Petrus Baard (1906 – 2000), was director of the Frans Hals Museum from 1946-1972. Biography He was born in Amsterdam as the son of Cornelis W.H. Baard, the director of the Stedelijk Museum, and though his father wished he would foll ...

. He died in Haarlem.

References

Photo of Gratama
with

Princess Juliana Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She r ...

during an opening at the Frans Hals Museum in 1931
Gerrit David Gratama
on

Artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City. It is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly-traded company based in Berlin that is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Ex ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gratama, Gerrit David 1874 births 1965 deaths Directors of museums in the Netherlands Artists from Groningen (city) Frans Hals Museum 20th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters 20th-century Dutch male artists