Around 1900 Thérèse Schwartze was one of the most important, female society painters. She was born in Amsterdam and educated by her father, portrait painter Johan Georg Schwartze and the academies of Munich and Paris. She was renowned for her sense of style and her ability to portray impressively the sumptuous dresses of the Amsterdam elite and got many commissions from home and abroad. The commissioners of Thérèse Schwartze reflected the fine fleur van Amsterdam, that is to say the ‘DNA’ of the CEOs of the administrative, financial, intellectual and cultural world of the era.
The exhibition visualizes whom belonged to these worlds, which positions they held and how they were related. Museum Van Loon has located over 35 portraits of the Amsterdam elite, among whom writers, scientists, actors and musicians, but also of the elite families Van Loon, Van Eeghen and Van Ogtrop.The portraits have remained mostly in the families’ private collections in The Netherlands, but also in America, Belgium and France, making this exhibition a unique opportunity to get acquainted with hitherto hidden masterpieces by Thérèse Schwartze.