Michael Ripps

VORTRAG AM MONTAG, 13/05/2013

Michael Ripps, PhD, spricht über:

Wilhelm Bode and the London trade in Dutch old masters, 1881-1914: a documentary perspective

Datum: 13/05/2013, 18:15 Uhr
Ort: Raum A 111, Architekturgebäude der TU, Straße des 17. Juni 150/152, 10623 Berlin

ripps-bode

++Titel, Abstract und CV sind immer in der jeweiligen Vortragssprache wiedergegeben.++

Abstract: Although Wilhelm Bode held broad art-historical interests and considerable connoisseurship in many schools, his special enthusiasm for seventeenth-century Dutch painting was evident and between 1881 and 1914 he facilitated many major acquisitions for the Gemäldegalerie in that field.

Bode’s remarkable ambitions for the picture gallery in Berlin-which were financially underwritten in these dynamic years of the Kaiserreich through his carefully-cultivated circle of wealthy museum patrons–were deeply intertwined with his connections to the London picture trade.  Indeed, his associations with such illustrious firms as Agnew’s, Colnaghi, and Duveen’s (and equally eminent, now forgotten, dealers like Asher Wertheimer and A.J. Sulley) resulted in legendary acquisitions for the Gemäldegalerie.     AJS (Ashburton)

Michael Ripps’ doctoral thesis (‚Bond Street picture dealers and the international trade in Dutch old masters, 1882-1914,‘ Oxford 2010), to a notable degree, reflects on the significance of Bode’s role in the careers of these dealers, amongst others.  What has been less considered is the depth of the fruitful relationships Bode enjoyed in England, not only with renowned art dealers, but also with a group of ‚connoisseur-middlemen‘ or agents (such as Sir J.C Robinson, C. Fairfax Murray, and R. Langton Douglas) whom provided him key intelligence, early and often, on impending acquisition opportunities for Berlin.

The present paper, after reconstructing Bode’s ties to the English art market in broad strokes, will profile (through recourse to remaining correspondendence and daybooks in the Zentralarchiv) a series of key events in Bode’s relationship with the Bond Street dealers, both illustrious and less-well-known. These men, individually and collectively, kept Bode abreast of singular opportunities and aided him in his grand goals for his picture gallery.

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