The Dutch Old Master Art Dealer
Title: Still Life with Cheeses, Candlestick, and Smoker’s Accessories,
Artist: Floris Gerritsz van Schooten (Dutch 1585/88-1656)
Medium: Oil on Panel
Dimensions: 35.5 x 54 cm
Marei von Saher, the heir of Jacques Goudstikker
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
Reparation of stolen art is another legacy from the brutality of the Nazi Regime. The preeminent Dutch dealer of
Old Master paintings was Jacques Goudstikker. He fled the Nazi invasion in May of 1940 with his wife Desi and their son
Edo. Their escape method was ship, and sadly Jacques Goudstikker was killed in an accident during the voyage. He had little choice
but to leave his 1,400 works of art behind, pieces that the Nazis looted.
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Title: Louise-Marie Gonzaga de Nevers (1611-1667), Queen of Poland?,
Artist: Ferdinand Bol (Dutch 1616-1680)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 126.5 x 102 cm
Marei von Saher, the heir of Jacques Goudstikker
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
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After the second World War ended nearly 300 paintings were returned to the Dutch authorities who kept them in their National Collection.
In 1997 Marei von Saher, Goudstikker's daughter-in-law and sole living heir, began a long legal battle to recover the paintings. The Dutch
Government decided to return 200 pieces of art to her in 2007.
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Marei von Saher contacted Peter C. Sutton, Executive Director of the Bruce Museum requesting his help in organizing
an exhibition of these works for an international touring exhibition that will open at the Bruce Museum on May 10, 2008.
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Title: Photograph of Jacques Goudstikker (1897-1940) inspecting a painting,
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
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Title: Sailing Vessels in a Thunderstorm,
Artist: Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael (Dutch 1628/29-1682)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 35.5 x 44.5 cm
Marei von Saher, the heir of Jacques Goudstikker
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
Thirty-five works from the exhibition selected to be representational of the impressive private art collection.
“Works in Jacques Goudstikker’s collection reflect the gallerist’s wide-ranging tastes,” said Dr. Sutton.
“The collection includes some of the most important Old Masters pictures ever restituted. Many have not
been seen in over sixty-five years and offer a broad overview of the variety of Dutch painting, from important
landscapes and still lives to history paintings. Goudstikker’s fifteenth and sixteenth century
Netherlandish, German and Italian works are representative examples of the kinds of work
that were on the market in the ‘20s and ‘30s when many major institutions and collectors
were collecting. To view these works in the aggregate is to glimpse a time capsule that
includes building blocks of many of the great collections in our public institutions.”
Jan Steen
Title: The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, 1671
Artist: Jan Havicksz Steen (Dutch c. 1626 - 1679)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 135 x 173 cm
Marei von Saher, the heir of Jacques Goudstikker
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
Steen's Sacrifice of Iphigenia is a key component of the Goudstikker collection. The Dutch artist favored warm-hearted family settings and these
works are so popular that his countrymen use the phrase, "a Jan Steen Household" to describe a lively home.
While true, it presents just one aspect to the multi-faceted Steen genre. Historical, religious and mythological works were part of his output.
Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde
Title: View of the Plaats and the Buitenhof in The Hague,
Artist: Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde (Dutch 1638-1698)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 53.5 x 64 cm
Private Collection
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
Town views were the preferred subject of Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde. He studied with Frans Hals
and with his brother Job. Berckheyde
At the age of 60 he drowned in the Brouwersvaart Canal in Haarlem.
Charles Le Brun
Title: Allegorical Female Figure with Two Putti,
Artist: Charles Le Brun (French 1619-1690)
Medium: Oil on Panel
Dimensions: 24 x 30 cm
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
Louis XIII, Pope Urban VIII and Anne of Austria were all patrons of 17th Century
French artist Charles Le Brun. It was the Sun King, Louis XIV, who made Le Brun the "First
Painter to the King" in 1664.
The French monarch had a legacy to ensure and needed resplendent palaces lavishly decorated. For that
he needed an artist his first choice Nicolas Poussin rejected the impossible task. Louis may have
had grandiose dreams but he also had a budget and an voracious appetite for beauty.
Charles Le Brun accepted the post and went on to decorate the royal Palaces at
Versailles, Vaux and Hesselin. Le Brun founded Royal Academy of Painting and the French Academy in Rome.
Pietro Antonio Rotari
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Title: Young Woman with Black Collar and Flowers in Her Hair, Known as “The Frivolous Girl”,
Artist: Pietro Antonio Rotari (Italian 1707-1762)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 45.5 x 35 cm
Marei von Saher, the heir of Jacques Goudstikker
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
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Verona native Pietro Rotari studied with Antonio Balestra. He went on to work in the studios
of Franceso Trevisani and Francesco Solimeno. Like Charles Le Brun, Rotari, also became
First Painter of a Royal Court that of Empress Elizabeth of Russia.
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Jacques Goudstikker sadly had to leave behind these magnificent master works as he fled the Nazis
prior to the invasion of Holland in 1940. A few days after Goudstikker escaped the Nazis Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering
arrived at the gallery and ordered the sale of the works for a fraction of their value, with
Goudstikker's widow having little choice but to comply with the forced sale.
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Title: Still Life with Flowers in a Vase, 1650-75
Artist: Hieronymus Galle (Flemish 1625-after March 18, 1679)
Medium: Oil on Panel
Dimensions: 46.7 x 34.7 cm
Marei von Saher, the heir of Jacques Goudstikker
Image Courtesy: Bruce Museum
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It is a sad tale and despite the return this doesn't remove the tragedy that will be attached to these
master pieces. Goudstikker was among the most important Old Master art dealers in Holland prior to the
onset of the Second World War.
Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker
Bruce Museum:
May 10 – September 7, 2008
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