They Couldn't Resist Collecting
Why is it that people collect things? According to some, collecting is still in our DNA because we once had to gather food, clothing and other items in order to survive. Nowadays, collecting is also seen as a way to ensure that we are not forgotten after we die. It is therefore no wonder that—despite the popularity of Marie Kondo, who encourages many people to tidy up and get rid of things—there are still many enthusiastic collectors.
Popular items people collect these days include Pokémon cards, books, beer glasses and—still—stamps. You can also collect experiences, such as eating fries at every snack bar in Utrecht or visiting every capital city in Europe.
For some people, it is about keeping memories alive—that one sugar packet from that lovely café in Amsterdam reminds you of a fantastic day out. For hunter-collectors, the search for a rare object is the main reason for collecting. They are willing to go to great lengths to find it. The makers of Pokémon cards cleverly capitalize on this by issuing only a few copies of certain cards. It may be about completing your collection, but more often it is about the thrill of the hunt: once you have the object in your possession, the excitement of the chase fades. Collecting can also give you a sense of identity: it is not just about the objects themselves, but also about how those around you respond to your collection.
Vincent van Gogh, Undergrowth, 1887.
For brother and sister Josephina and Lambertus van Baaren, collecting art must have been motivated by a combination of the reasons mentioned above. Their collection is one of those that define the character of the Centraal Museum. In 1980, through the Van Baaren Foundation they had established, the museum received a large number of paintings, drawings and works of decorative art on long-term loan.
The Van Baaren family archive contains dozens of invoices for paintings and objects they purchased. These tell us that in 1926, Josephina van Baaren bought her first painting from Huinck, then located on Lucasbolwerk: Snowy Day by Henri van Daalhoff. Until the 1950s, almost all invoices were issued in her name. It is therefore quite possible that Josephina van Baaren was the driving force behind the decision to start collecting visual art. From the outset, they combined nineteenth-century French and Dutch art with contemporary works. Popular artists included François Bonvin, Vincent van Gogh, Félix Tobeen and Charley Toorop.
They were certainly not the only people in the Netherlands to collect works by these artists—quite the contrary. Thanks to the art connoisseur Hendricus Petrus Bremmer, who gave lectures and courses on ‘practical aesthetics’ throughout the Netherlands and also published the journals Moderne Kunstwerken and Beeldende Kunst, numerous similar collections, both large and small, were established. Bremmer believed that the artistic emotion expressed by an artist in a work was more important than the subject depicted. He had a strong preference for certain artists, and his considerable influence on the Dutch art world at the time resulted in a degree of uniformity in the composition of Dutch collections.
The Van Baarens were born and raised in Utrecht and lived on the Oudegracht for most of their lives. Their father was a carpenter-contractor and sworn real estate appraiser. Lambertus succeeded his father, and the company owned dozens of properties in Utrecht city centre. Josephina obtained two primary teaching certificates, namely Useful Needlework and Decorative Needlework —nowadays equivalent to a teacher-training degree with a specialisation in visual arts—but, as far as is known, she never taught. Both were active in the Roman Catholic Church. They therefore belonged to Utrecht’s upper middle class and were raised with music and art. Josephina played the piano, while her brother became proficient at the cello. Both were great admirers of the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra and regularly attended concerts. In addition, in 1919 they joined the Utrecht art society Voor de Kunst and regularly attended lectures and exhibitions of modern art. In this way, they became acquainted with the art of their own time. Through the society, they also met various artists, collectors, art connoisseurs and art dealers. Around 1926, they met Willem Christiaan Anthonius Huinck and later Willem Scherjon, who began working together in 1930 at the art dealership named after them. Huinck persuaded Josephina and Lambertus van Baaren to start buying art as well.
However, that does not mean that the Van Baarens were not discerning about what they bought. On several occasions, they exchanged works they had previously purchased for others. For example, some ten years later Josephina van Baaren traded the first work she had bought, Van Daalhoff’s Snowy Day, for the more modern Jean Metzinger painting The Card Game. Nevertheless, Bremmer’s views must have had an enormous influence, and it is hard to avoid the inevitable comparison with a Pokémon collector, with the Van Baarens seeking to acquire works by every artist on Bremmer’s approved list. However, they did not go about this very systematically and also seem to have been guided by what appealed to them. As a result, they regularly came home with works of art similar to pieces already hanging on their walls, whether in subject matter or artist. Consequently, the collection consisted largely of still lifes and landscapes. They owned dozens of works by artists such as Isaac Israels, Lydia Radda and Tjitske Hettinga Tromp. They also had a strong preference for realist art. One of their few abstract purchases, Sunflowers by Bart van der Leck, was traded in during the 1940s for more traditional works by artists including Anton Mauve and Floris Verster.
It is also possible that the Van Baarens wanted to measure themselves against other collectors of modern art. Josephina and Lambertus van Baaren were wealthy citizens, but their social standing certainly did not match that of the various Utrecht patrician families who belonged to the artists’ association Kunstliefde and were often also pupils of Bremmer. In 1938, this association merged with Voor de Kunst, of which the Van Baarens were members, bringing them into contact with members of these families at association meetings. In this way, they learned how other collectors went about building their collections.
Ultimately, it was another of Bremmer’s pupils, the collector Hélène Kröller-Müller, and her decision to transfer her collection to the Dutch state in 1935 that inspired the Van Baarens to place their collection and home in a foundation in 1955 and bequeath them as a museum. In the foundation deed, they explicitly referred to the Kröller-Müller Museum: ‘The interior should, to some extent, reflect that of the Kröller-Müller Museum on the Hoge Veluwe, with rooms decorated in a pleasant and welcoming manner and fresh flowers regularly placed in beautiful vases, thus avoiding the familiar musty museum atmosphere.’ From then on, the Van Baarens began making major purchases regularly, sometimes acquiring as many as twenty works in a single day. As a result, the collection grew sixfold in five years.
After their deaths, the house was converted into a museum and opened to the public in 1966. By establishing a museum, the Van Baarens ensured that they would not be forgotten, perhaps somewhat in the spirit of Beyoncé, who sang: ‘I want to leave my footprints on the sands of time / Know there was something that, something that I left behind / When I leave this world’.
Visit the exhibition
A beautiful selection of artworks from the Van Baaren Collection is on display in Collection Centraal, in the gallery Tastes Differ
Tastes Differ gallery in Collection Centraal.
Sources consulted
• Ernest Becker, René F.W. Diekstra (vertaler), De ontkenning van de dood. de ingeboren vrees voor de dood als drijfveer van het menselijk handelen, Amsterdam 1976
• Krzystof Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities. Paris and Venice, 1500-1800, Oxford 1990
• Renée Steenbergen, Iets wat zo veel kost, is alles waard. Verzamelaars van moderne kunst in Nederland, Amsterdam 2002
• Aukje Vergeest e.a., De collectie Van Baaren. De verzamelingen van het Centraal Museum Utrecht, Utrecht 1995
• Beyoncé, ‘I Was Here’, 4 (Album), 2011
