THE EXHIBITION, WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED TO CLOSE 14 JUNE, HAS BEEN PROLONGED FOR ANOTHER WEEK UNTIL 21 JUNE 2009.
Information from the museum website, 8 June 2009
The Netherlands counts few important private collections of Old Master paintings. After all, works of museum quality are scarce and assembling a representative collection requires knowledge, ample financial means and even more patience. Moreover, leading collectors tend to avoid publicity. George and Ilone Kremer are an exception in this respect. They have consciously chosen to disclose their collection to the public. Not only because of the understandable pride they take in their seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, but primarily because of their eagerness to share their enthusiasm and the pleasure they derive from collecting art. That George and Ilone Kremer do not want to keep this passion to themselves is evidenced not only by the fact that they have given works on long-term loan to various Dutch museums, including the Frans Hals Museum and the Mauritshuis, but also by their decision to exhibit their entire collection in the Frans Hals Museum.
In addition to works by Rembrandt, the Kremer Collection comprises paintings by Frans Hals and Isack van Ostade, Ferdinand Bol, Adriaen Brouwer, Hendrick ter Brugghen, Adriaen Coorte, Gerard Dou, Meindert Hobbema, Pieter de Hooch, Philips Koninck, Judith Leyster, Michael Sweerts and many others. The Frans Hals Museum is delighted and honoured to present this remarkable collection with its many unique masterpieces.
A Childhood Dream
During a visit to the Rijksmuseum in 1960, the ten-year-old George Kremer was so struck by Rembrandt’s Jewish Bride that he began to fantasise about someday owning his very own Rembrandt. This dream finally came true in 1995, when Mr and Mrs Kremer acquired the Tronie of an Old Man with a Turban, attributed to Jacques de Rousseaux (c. 1600-1638), who had trained with Rembrandt shortly before 1630. After two years of intensive research by the authoritative team of the Rembrandt Research Project, the painting was convincingly given to Rembrandt. The couple’s pluck and discerning eyes were richly rewarded.
Information from Fondation Aetas Aurea
It is with great pleasure that we announce an exhibition of the Kremer Collection in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud in Cologne. During this exhibition, to be held from
July 11- 5 October 2008 (dates subject to change), all of the Old Masters in the collection will
be exhibited. The exhibition will be the first time that the collection will be shown in its entirety.
It will comprise the 39 works published in our catalogue in 2002, including Rembrandt’s Bust of
an old man with turban, Dou’s smallest known Self-portrait, and Sweerts’ Maidservant, as well
as recent acquisitions such as Van Honthorst’s Avaritia and others.
Although the FAA maintains an active loan program and many of its paintings have been to exhibitions all over the world, the Cologne exhibition will provide the opportunity to see a number of paintings that have either never been seen by the public or rarely. These include a.o. Theodoor Rombouts’ Musical company with Bacchus, Casper Netscher’s A lady washing her hands, Paulus Moreelse’s Shepherdess, Philips Koninck’s Panorama with travellers and herdsmen in the foreground, Abraham Janssens’ The Virgin and Child with the infant St John the Baptist, Hobbema’s A wooded landscape with a roadside cottage and Adriaen Hanneman’s masterpiece Selfportrait.
Publication
Rembrandt, een jongensdroom: 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse schilderkunst: de collectie Kremer
Quentin Buvelot, Peter van der Ploeg, Epco Runia and Ariane von Suchtelen, with contributions by Martin Bijl and Margaret Klinge and introductions by Andreas BlĂĽhm, Michael Eissenhauer, Karel Schampers and George Kremer
Catalogue of an exhibition held in 2008 in Cologne (Wallraff-Richartz Museum), 2008-09 in Kassel (Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe) and in 2009 in Haarlem (Frans Hals Museum)
240 pp., plates and illustrations in color and black-and-white, 23.6 x 28.5 cm., hardbound
Munich (Hirmer) 2009