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Since its founding in 1951, the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, has grown into one of the finest encyclopedic collections in the American Southeast. Its small collection of Dutch and Flemish art consists of about 30 paintings, about 45 prints and drawings, and a handful of decorative arts, including works by Jacob van Ruisdael, Ludolf Backhuizsen, and Ferdinand Bol. The collection grows steadily through gift and purchase. In recent years, the museum has acquired paintings by Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Jan Weenix, and Jan van Kessel, among others, as well as a tulip vase from the “Greek A” Factory and a set of landscape prints by Magdalena de Passe. A recently acquired still life by Juriaan van Streek, which features an African man, allows the museum to better tell long-neglected stories of colonial expansion and global trade, including Dutch involvement in the slave trade. Information on individual works in the collection can be found on the museum’s website, which is constantly being expanded.
Robert Schindler, The Fariss Gambrill Lynn and Henry Sharpe Lynn Curator of European Art (January 2020)
Related CODART publications
Robert Schindler and Lloyd DeWitt, “Diversifying the Collection: New Acquisitions from the Birmingham Museum of Art and Chrysler Museum of Art”, CODARTfeatures, December 2020.