Art Historians

Rooses, Maximilian

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Rooses, Maximilian

Other Names:

Max Rooses

Gender: male

Date Born: 10 February 1839

Date Died: 15 July 1914

Place Born: Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium

Place Died: Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium

Home Country/ies: Belgium

Subject Area(s): Dutch (culture or style)

Career(s): art critics and curators

Overview

First curator of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp; Rubens scholar; literary critic. Rooses earned a doctoral degree in philosophy and literature at the University of Liège in 1865. He was an active promoter of the Dutch language and the Flemish culture in his country. He taught Dutch language and literature at high schools (Athenaeum) in Namur and Ghent. In 1876 he settled in Antwerp to become the first curator of the Plantin-Moretus Museum, which opened to the public in 1877. It was, and still is, housed in the former residence and workshop of Christophe Plantin, the founder of the famous printing and publishing firm, the Officina Plantiniana (1555). In 1878 Rooses published a short description of the building and the collections, Le Musée Plantin-Moretus. Description sommaire des bâtiments et des collections. Rooses was also actively involved in the organization of the tercentenary Rubens exhibition in 1877, under the direction of Henri Hymans. On that occasion, the city of Antwerp awarded him the first prize for his book, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool (1879). In 1882 Rooses wrote a monograph on Christophe Plantin, Christophe Plantin, imprimeur anversois. He also was a contributor to the 9 volume edition of Correspondance de Christophe Plantin (vol. 1-3). In 1886 Rooses was elected corresponding member of the Académie royale de Belgique (classe des Beaux-Arts), and he was elected a member in 1889. Between 1886 and 1892 his monumental 5-volume work, L’oeuvre de P. P. Rubens, appeared. Rooses was a contributor to the yearbooks of the Rubens Bulletijn (1882-1910) and, with Charles-Louis Ruelens, he was the editor of the letters of Rubens and the correspondence on the life and the works of the painter (published between 1887 and 1909). In 1890 Rooses published a monograph on Rubens, first in German, Rubens’ Leben und Werke. Dutch and French editions appeared in 1903. In this impressive work Rooses brought together the findings from his research. Rooses also paid homage to two other important Flemish masters, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens. Following the 1899 Antwerp exhibition on Van Dyck, the paintings were published by Rooses together with commentaries and the biography of the artist. In an elaborate study on Jordaens, Jordaens’ leven en werken (1906), Rooses aimed to re-evaluate the works of this artist. Between 1898 and 1900 Rooses served as the editor of a 4-volume collection of monographs by a number of writers on modern nineteenth-century Dutch painters, Het schildersboek. Nederlandsche schilders der negentiende eeuw in monografieën door tijdgenoten. In 1913 he published an overview of the history of Flemish art, Flandre. Rooses retired in 1914, and died a few months later. Rooses’ critical catalog, L’oeuvre de P. P. Rubens, offers for the first time a broad documentation on all the works of Rubens. It was a significant step forward in the Rubens research of his time.

Selected Bibliography

[complete bibliography:] De Born, E. “Bibliographie van Max Rooses” Het Boek 4 (1915): 1-4, 97-112, 194; 462-463; Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1879; Christophe Plantin, imprimeur anversois. Antwerp: J. Maes, 1882-1883; and Denucé, Jean and Van Durme, Maurice. Correspondance de Christophe Plantin. 9 vols. Antwerp: J. E. Buschmann, 1883-1918; L’oeuvre de P. P. Rubens, histoire et description de ses tableaux et dessins. 5 vols. Antwerp: J. Maes, 1886-1892; and Ruelens, C. (eds) Correspondance de Rubens et documents épistolaires concernant sa vie et ses oeuvres. 6 vols. Antwerp: Veuve de Backer, 1887-1909; Rubens’ Leben und Werke. Stuttgart, Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1890; Het schildersboek: Nederlandsche schilders der negentiende eeuw in monographieën door tijdgenooten [etc.]. 4 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1898-1900; Dutch Painters of the Nineteenth Century. 4 vols. London: S. Low, Marston & Co., 1898-1901; Jordaens’ leven en werken. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1906, English, Jacob Jordaens, his Life and Work. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1908; Rubens’ leven en werken. Antwerp: De Nederlandsche boekhandel, 1903; French, Rubens, sa vie et ses oeuvres. Paris: Flammarion 1903, English, Rubens. London: Duckworth & Co., 1904; “Henri Hymans (1836-1912)” Bulletin de l’Académie royale d’archéologie de Belgique (1912): 123-156; Flandre. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1913, English, Art in Flanders. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1914.

Sources

Venne, Jef van de. “Max Rooses.” Mannen van beteekenis in onze dagen series 24. Haarlem: H. D. Tjeenk Willink, 1893, p. 225-278; De Seyn, Eug. Dictionnaire biographique des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts en Belgique. 2. Brussels: Éditions L’Avenir, 1936, p. 874-875; Bouchery, H. F. et al. “Max Rooses herdacht” De Gulden Passer 16-17 (1938-1939); Dictionnaire des journalistes-écrivains de Belgique. Brussels: Section Bruxelloise de l’Association Générale de la Presse Belge, 1960; Martin, John Rupert. The Ceiling Paintings for the Jesuit Church in Antwerp. Part I of Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. London and New York: Phaidon, 1968, mentioned, pp. ix-x.; Voet, Leon. The Golden Compasses. A History and Evaluation of the Printing and Publishing Activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp. 1, Christophe Plantin and the Moretuses: their Lives and their World. Amsterdam: Vangendt & Co, 1969, p. 408-410, 462-463; Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l’histoire de l’art: de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986, p. 504; Le nouveau dictionnaire des Belges. Brussels: Le Cri, 1992; [obituaries:] L[ionel] C[ust]. “Max Rooses.” Burlington Magazine 25, no. 137 (August 1914): 318; “Max Rooses in memoriam (10 Februari 1839 – 15 Juli 1914)” Het Boek 4 (1915): 185-193.

Contributors: Monique Daniels

Rookmaaker, Hans

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Rookmaaker, Hans

Other Names:

H. R. Rookmaaker

Gender: male

Date Born: 27 February 1922

Date Died: 13 March 1977

Place Born: The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands

Place Died: Ommeren, Gelderland, Netherlands

Home Country/ies: Netherlands

Subject Area(s): art theory, French (culture or style), nineteenth century (dates CE), painting (visual works), and Post-Impressionist

Overview

Scholar of Gauguin and 19th-century art; early interest in art theory. Rookmaaker was the son of Henderik Roelof Rookmaaker (1887-1945) and Theodora Catharina Heitink (1890-1971). Rookmaaker grew up traveling between The Hague and Sumatra, then part of the Dutch East Indies, where his father served as Governor (Resident) until his early retirement in 1936. After he finished high school in Leiden, Rookmaaker attended the Naval College in Den Helder. The Naval College closed at the outbreak of World War II and Rookmaaker became engaged to Riki Spetter (1919-1942) in 1940. While distributing leaflets for the Underground Resistance movement, he was arrested by the Nazis in March 1941 and imprisoned in Scheveningen, near The Hague. Though released in December, he was rearrested in April 1942, spending the next three years in Nazi POW camps in Poland and Germany. During those times of hardship Rookmaaker studied the Bible thoroughly and became interested in the work of the Reformed Christian philosopher, Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977). In the meantime, Rookmaaker’s fiancée, Riki, who was Jewish, died at the Auschwitz extermination camp in 1942 (a fact revealed only after Rookmaaker’s death). After the war Rookmaaker was baptized and became a member of the Reformed Church. He chose for a career in art history, with a view to exploring connections between art and his Christian convictions. Together with his recently widowed mother he moved to Amsterdam, where he enrolled at Amsterdam University to study art history. In 1949 he married Anky Huitker (1915-2003). Rookmaaker became an art critic for the daily newspaper Trouw, and after having received his B.A., he obtained an assistantship under I. Q. van Regteren Altena at his Alma Mater. He graduated in 1953 and taught the next three years at the Spinoza High School in Amsterdam. In 1957 he became an art critic for the bi-weekly Opbouw, and in addition was appointed assistant to Henri Van de Waal at Leiden University. In 1959, he obtained his doctor’s degree from Amsterdam University with a dissertation on Synthetist art theories, Synthetist Art Theories: Genesis and Nature of the Ideas on art of Gauguin and his Circle, written in English (republished in 1972 as Gauguin and 19th Century Art Theory), under the supervision of van Regteren Altena. Like his father Rookmaaker was an avid Jazz enthusiast. In 1960 he published the book Jazz, Blues, Spirituals. In 1961 he traveled to the USA and Canada on a grant from the Dutch government to study methodologies of art education at Boston University and various colleges in New York State. During this trip his contact with black music and in particular his meeting with Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) made a deep impression on him. Rookmaaker grew increasingly conservative in his outlook on modern art. In 1962 he published Kunst en amusement (Art and Entertainment). At his 1965 appointment professor of art history at the (Christian Reformed) Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam (VU), he delivered an inaugural lecture, “De kunstenaar een profeet?” (The Artist as a Prophet?), arguing that modern art should not necessarily be regarded as prophetic. In addition to his teaching in Amsterdam he often lectured at universities and conferences in the United Kingdom and the USA on modern art, popular music and culture. This was the basis for his 1970 publication, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. In 1971, Rookmaaker and his wife founded a Christian study center, Dutch L’Abri, in Eck en Wiel, in the province of Gelderland, modeled on L’Abri in Switzerland, created by their American friends Francis and Edith Schaeffer. The family moved to nearby Ommeren in 1975. Rookmaaker suddenly died in 1977. He is buried at the church at Eck en Wiel. The following year, Art Needs No Justification appeared. His wife donated his papers to Wheaton College, Illinois, where he had lectured in the 1970s. His daughter Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker edited his complete works in 6 volumes in 2002-2003. Rookmaaker, in his Synthetist Art Theories, was one of three principal art historians to write book-length treatises in English in the 1950’s on the art period known as Symbolism, along with John Rewald and Sven O. Lövgren, each taking a radically different approach to the subject. In his book, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture Rookmaaker firmly expressed his strong disapproval of what he saw as the irrational content of certain art works by artists like Picasso, and surrealists, including Dali, which in his view did not reflect the reality of the God-given creation, but represented a world of nihilism and absurdity. His conservative stance toward modern art draws similarities with Hans Sedlmayr, particularly Sedlmayr’s book Verlust der Mitte (Loss of the Center). Rookmaaker’s Modern Art and the Death of a Culture was acclaimed in certain Reformed Christian circles, but received negative reactions from Dutch art historians who were critical of the author’s views on art, which they saw as biased. His Amsterdam students complained that his approach to art was too speculative and too involved with theology.

Selected Bibliography

[dissertation:] Synthetist Art Theories: Genesis and Nature of the Ideas on art of Gauguin and his Circle. University of Amsterdam, 1959, published, Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger, 1959, republished under the title Gauguin and 19th Century Art Theory. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1972; [complete works:] Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, Marleen (ed.) The Complete Works of Hans R. Rookmaaker. 6 vols. Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2002-2003; Jazz, Blues, Spirituals. Wageningen: Zomer & Keuning, 1960; Kunst en Amusement. Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1962; De kunstenaar een profeet? Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1965; Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1971; Art Needs No Justification. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1978; [collected essays:] The Creative Gift: Essays on Art and the Christian Life. Westchester, IL: Cornerstone Books, 1981.

Sources

Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. Modern Perspectives in Western Art History: An Anthology of 20th-Century Writings on the Visual Arts. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971, p. 4; Martin, Linette. Hans Rookmaaker: a Biography. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979; [on Rookmaaker’s esthetic] Begbie, Jeremy S. Voicing Creation’s Praise. Edinbugh: T & T Clark, 1991, pp. 127-141; Birtwistle, Graham. “H. R. Rookmaaker: The Shaping of his Thought” in Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, Marleen (ed.). The Complete Works of Hans R. Rookmaaker. 1. Art, Artists and Gauguin. Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2002, pp. xv-xxxiii; Gasque, Laurel. Art and the Christian Mind: the Life and Work of H. R. Rookmaaker. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005; http://www.wheaton.edu/learnres/ARCSC/collects/sc18/index.php! [obituaries:] “Bij het heengaan van Prof Dr. Rookmaaker” VU Magazine (April 1977); Jaffé, H. L. C. Lier en Boog (January 1978): 82.

Contributors: Monique Daniels

Romm, Alexander Georgievich

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Romm, Alexander Georgievich

Other Names:

Aleksandr Georgievich Romm

Gender: male

Date Born: unknown

Date Died: unknown

Home Country/ies: Russia

Subject Area(s): Marxism, Russian (culture or style), and twentieth century (dates CE)

Overview

Russian (Marxist) art historian of twentieth-century art.

Selected Bibliography

Boris Ivanovich Orlovskiĭ, 1793-1837. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1947; Ocherk istorii izobrazitel’nogo iskusstva Kirgiziskoĭ SSR. Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatell’stvo “Iskusstvo”, 1941.

Sources

Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. Modern Perspectives in Western Art History: An Anthology of 20th-Century Writings on the Visual Arts. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971, p. 80

Russian (Marxist) art historian of twentieth-century art.

Roland-Michel, Marianne

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Roland-Michel, Marianne

Gender: female

Date Born: unknown

Date Died: unknown

Home Country/ies: France

Subject Area(s): Rococo

Institution(s): Galerie Cailleux

Overview

Rococo; Rocaille

Selected Bibliography

Lajoue et l’art rocaille. Neuilly, 1984.

Sources

Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l’histoire de l’art; de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986 p. 193

Contributors: Lee Sorensen

Rococo; Rocaille

Rohault de Fleury, Charles

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Rohault de Fleury, Charles

Gender: male

Date Born: 1801

Date Died: 1875

Home Country/ies: France

Institution(s): École des Beaux-Arts

Overview

Selected Bibliography

Archéologie chrétienne: Les saints de lamesse et leurs monuments. 10 vols. Paris: Librairies-imprimeries réunies, 1893-1900.

Sources

KRG, 62 mentioned

Contributors: Lee Sorensen

Roh, Franz

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Roh, Franz

Other Names:

Franz Roh

Gender: male

Date Born: 21 February 1890

Date Died: 30 December 1965

Place Born: Apolda, Thuringia, Germany

Place Died: Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Home Country/ies: Germany

Subject Area(s): Modern (style or period)

Overview

Modernist art historian and critic, coiner of the term “magic realism.” Roh studied philosophy, literature, history and art history at the universities in Leipzig, Berlin under Adolph Goldschmidt, and in Basel. Between 1916-1919 he worked as the assistant to Heinrich Wölfflin in Munich in his famous Kunsthistorischen Seminars. He received his Ph.D. from Munich in 1920, writing his dissertation, Holländische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts under Wölfflin. He worked as a freelance critic and writer, and as an artist creating surrealist photo-collages. He also wrote art criticism for various newspapers and journals including Cicerone, Kunstblatt, Werk, and Die Kunst. This brought him into contact with many of the important artists of his generation, including George Grosz, Kurt Schwitters, Willi Baumeister and Max Ernst. In 1925 he published the first of two early important works on modernist art history, Nach-Expressionismus – magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten europäisches Malerei. The work was translated into Spanish in 1927 by the important esthetician Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) in his influential Revista de Occidente in Madrid. In 1929 his Foto-auge – 76 Fotos der Zeit, appeared with the artist Jan Tschichold. His positive stance on modern art put him at odds with the Nazi government at their assumption of power in 1933. He was forbidden to write and was briefly jailed. Roh spent the years of World War II in isolation working on a book about the phenomenon of misunderstanding artists. After the war in 1946 he married the art historian Juliane Bartsch (b. 1909), his second wife. His book appeared in 1948 as Das Verkannte Künstler: Geschichte und Theorie des kulturellen Mißverstehen. That same year he began teaching art history at the newly reorganized University of Munich, a position he held until his death. Roh continued to write art criticism and in 1951 he became the first president of the German branch of the International Association of Art Critics. He championed contemporary art at a time in the post-war years when other art historians were decrying contemporary art. He took on Vienna-school art historian (and his future Munich colleague) Hans Sedlmayr, in 1950 in the celebrated debate of post-war intellectuals known as the “Darmstädter Gespräch.” Sedlmayr’s 1948 book Verlust der Mitte had attacked modern art as “centerless,” i.e., unfocused and degenerate. Roh’s 1962 book, Der Streit um die moderne Kunst, reviewed many of the debates concerning the public acceptance of modern art, focusing particularly Sedlmayr. Athough an important historian of art, Roh’s claim to fame lies in his naming an artistic mode that returned to verisimilitude after the era of expressionism, “Magic Realism”. Roh saw this tendency as post-Expressionism, a return to figural representation and yet a departure from realism (de Chirico, Picasso, Grosz). Although the movement in art that Roh wrote about was eclipsed by Neue Sachlichkeit and Surrealism, the concept took hold in literature and film, an appellation for some of the most important creations of the twentieth century in those genres.

Selected Bibliography

[dissertation:] Holländische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts. Munich, 1920, published as, Holländische Malerei. Jena: E. Diederichs, 1921; Nach-Expressionismus [und] magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten Europäischen Malerei. Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1925, English [translation of the expanded Spanish text], “Magic Realism: Post-Expressionism (1925).” in Zamora, Lois Parkinson, and Faris, Wendy B., eds. Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995, pp, 15-31; Streit um die moderne Kunst: Auseinandersetzung mit Gegnern der neuen Malerei. Munich: List 1962.

Sources

Wendland, Ulrike. Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthistoriker im Exil: Leben und Werk der unter dem Nationalsozialismus verfolgten und vertriebenen Wissenschaftler. Munich: Saur, 1999, vol. 2, pp. 557-563; Zamora, Lois Parkinson, and Faris, Wendy B. [Editor’s Note of] “Franz Roh: Magic Realism: Post-Expressionism.” Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995, p. 15; Stonard, John-Paul. Art and National Reconstruction in Germany 1945-55. Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 2004, p. 265.

Contributors: Lee Sorensen

Roggen, Domien

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Roggen, Domien

Other Names:

Domien Engelbert Roggen

Gender: male

Date Born: 1886

Date Died: 1968

Place Born: Halle-Booienhoven, Vlaams-Brabant, Flanders, Belgium

Place Died: Halle-Booienhoven, Vlaams-Brabant, Flanders, Belgium

Home Country/ies: Belgium

Overview

Professor of Art History at Ghent State University. Domien Roggen attended high school at Hoogstraten and Tienen. He studied Germanic languages and literature at the faculty of Arts of the Catholic University of Louvain, where he obtained his first doctoral degree in 1909. He became a teacher at various high schools in Belgium, eventually in Ghent, in which city he combined his teaching with his art history study at the Rijksuniversiteit (State University) of Ghent. In 1924, he completed his studies with a doctoral dissertation on a Flemish painter living in Ghent between 1600 and 1646, Nicolas de Liemaker dit Roose et les principaux peintres gantois de son époque. His advisor was Georges Nicolas Marie Hulin de Loo. From 1925 onward, he held different teaching positions at the Institute of Art History and Archaeology and at the Faculty of Arts of Ghent University. In 1934, he became honorary professor and in 1936 full professor. In 1934, he founded Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis, a periodical he directed until 1956. He made several study trips through Europe. His research in the field of ancient Netherlandish art resulted in numerous articles on painting, sculpture and architecture, which appeared in the Allgemeines Lexikon of Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, in Gentse Bijdragen, and in other publications. His broad interests included the sculptor Klaas (Klaus) Sluter, the artist of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in Dijon. In 1937, the Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon honored him with a foreign membership. In 1939, the University of Bonn invited him for a visiting professorship. In the same year, he was elected an active member of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België (Royal Flemish Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts), followed in 1956 by his election as corresponding member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. He was a member of several other institutions as well, including the Academia Nacional de Belas Artes of Portugal. He was the president of the Centrum voor de studie van de Vlaamse kunst in Spanje (Center for the study of Flemish art in Spain). When he retired in 1956, his European and American colleagues contributed in several languages to his Festschrift, Miscellanea Prof. Dr. D. Roggen. His students included Jozef Duverger and Elisabeth Dhanens.

Selected Bibliography

[complete bibliography:] Pauwels, Henri. “Prof. Dr. D. Roggen. Bibliografie.” Miscellanea Prof. Dr. D. Roggen. Antwerp: de Sikkel, 1957, pp. xv-xxi; De rouwstoet van het praalgraf van Philips de Stoute te Dijon. Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1936; French translation: Les pleurants de Klaas Sluter à Dijon. Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1936; De grafkapel van de H. H. Eucherius en Trudo in de oude abdijkerk te St. Truiden. Antwerp: Standaard-Boekhandel, 1943; and Lemaire, Raymond, and Leurs, Stan. Bij het ontstaan der Brabantsche Hooggotiek. Brussels: Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie, 1944; “Rubens, van Eyck en de Carravaggisten.” In Mededeelingen over P.P. Rubens: op de openbare vergadering van 28 juli 1946 te Antwerpen, bij de opening van het Rubenshuis. Brussels: Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, 1946-1951.

Sources

Keyser, Paul de. ‘Prof. Dr. D. Roggen. Leven en werk.’ Miscellanea Prof. Dr. D. Roggen. Antwerp: de Sikkel, 1957, pp. ix-xiv; [In Memoriam] in Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis en de Oudheidkunde. 21 (1968), 275-276.

Contributors: Monique Daniels

Roever, Nicolaas de

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Roever, Nicolaas de

Gender: male

Date Born: 1850

Date Died: 1893

Place Born: Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

Place Died: Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

Home Country/ies: Netherlands

Overview

Co-founder with Adrianus Daniël de Vries of the art periodical Oud Holland, 1883. De Roever was the son of Andries de Roever and Anna Maria Louise Elisabeth Kluytenaar. After his primary education, he served, from 1867 to 1869, at the office of notary A. A. J. Schouten. Between 1871 and 1877 he studied law, first at the Athenaeum Illustre in Amsterdam (the predecessor of the University of Amsterdam), where met a fellow pre-law student Adrianus Daniël de Vries. He later attended Leiden University and finally at the University of Utrecht. After his graduation, in 1877, he was appointed assistant archivist of Amsterdam. In 1878 he earned his doctoral degree from Utrecht University with a dissertation on the Amsterdam Orphans’ Court, De Amsterdamsche Weeskamer. The same year he was sworn in as an Advocate (defense lawyer). In addition, in 1882, he became lecturer in Old Dutch Law at the University of Amsterdam. In 1882 he married Johanna Louise van der Goes. He was appointed city archivist of Amsterdam in 1885, a position he held until his death in 1893. Roever had a special interest in the social and economic history of Amsterdam, and in the artistic heritage of the city. He broadened the drawings and prints collection of the Historisch-Topografische Atlas of Amsterdam. With his friend, de Vries, now Amsterdam Rijksprentenkabinet (National Print room), de Roever wrote the catalog for the 1880 exhibition of gold- and silverware held in “Arti et Amicitiae” in Amsterdam. They were the co-founders, in 1883, of the periodical Oud-Holland, which specialized in archival information concerning Dutch art, literature, industry, etc. After De Vries’ death in 1884, Abraham Bredius joined as co-editor in 1886. De Roever’s writing focused mainly on social history, trade and the applied arts. With Bredius, he published a series on the life of Rembrandt, “Rembrandt, nieuwe bijdragen tot zijne levensgeschiedenis” (Rembrandt, New Contributions to the History of his Life). Bredius’ work for the magazine added a standard of excellence during his sixty year service. De Roever also edited the periodical Amsterdamsch Jaarboekje between 1888 and 1891. He collected and reworked his contributions to the weekly De Amsterdammer into Onze oude Amstelstad in four installments. He served as secretary of the Vereeniging Rembrandt and of the Supervisory Committee of the newly built Rijksmuseum. The Gothic style in which the Museum was finally built, with its connotations of medievalism and Catholicism, caused controversy. His disagreements with Victor Eugène Louis de Stuers, the head of the Department of Art and Sciences of the Ministry of the Interior over the building of the Rijksmuseum were public and summarized in his Het schijnconcours voor ‘s Rijks-Museum. In 1892 De Roever traveled to Germany and Austria with Adriaan Willem Weissman (1858-1927), the architect of the Municipal Museum of Amsterdam (founded in 1885), to study museum design abroad. De Roever’s wife died before his return; he suddenly died a year later, in 1893.

Selected Bibliography

[complete bibliography:] Veder, W. R. “De Roever’s geschriften.” in Jaarboek Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde 1893: pp. 388-399; [dissertation:] De Amsterdamsche Weeskamer. Amsterdam: De Roever- Kröber-Bakels, 1878; and De Vries, A. D. Catalogus van de tentoonstelling van kunstvoorwerpen in vroegere eeuwen uit edele metalen vervaardigd. Amsterdam: Van Munster, 1880; Onze oude Amstelstad. Schetsen en tafereelen betreffende de geschiedenis der veste, het leven en de zeden harer vroegere bewoners. Amsterdam: S. L. Van Looy, 1890-1897; Van vrijen en trouwen. Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van oud-vaderlandsche zeden. Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn, 1891; Het schijnconcours voor ‘s Rijks-Museum: de waarheid volgehouden tegen Jhr. Mr. Victor de Stuers. Amsterdam: S. L. van Looy, 1892.

Sources

Bredius, Abraham. “In memoriam Mr. N. De Roever. Geboren 3 December 1850, Overleden 11 Maart 1893” Oud Holland 11 (1893): 1-6; Veder, W. R. “Levensbericht van Mr. Nicolaas de Roever” Jaarboek Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde 1893: pp. 369-399; Van Thiel, P. J. J. “Oud Holland over the past hundred years” Oud Holland 100 (1986). Index to Oud Holland. The First 100 Years, 1883-1982. pp. 2-13.

Contributors: Monique Daniels

Co-founder with Adrianus Daniël de Vries of the art periodical Oud Holland, 1883. De Roever was the son of Andries de Roever and Anna Maria Louise Elisabeth Kluytenaar. After his primary education, he served, from 1

Roethlisberger, Marcel Georges

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Roethlisberger, Marcel Georges

Other Names:

Marcel Roethlisberger

Gender: male

Date Born: 1929

Place Born: Zürich, Switzerland

Home Country/ies: Switzerland

Subject Area(s): Baroque and Northern European

Overview

Claude Lorrain, Jean Etienne Liotard and northern baroque scholar; professor of art history in the United States and the University of Geneva. Roethlisberger followed the model of many European students, attending lectures throughout Europe in order to shape an intellectual experience. He attended the University of Bern 1948-1950 studying law, economics, and then history of art and music, archaeology, (where a fellow student was Florens Deuchler), then the university of Cologne 1950-1951, focusing on art history and archaeology under Hans Kauffmann, then Paris 1951-1952 (under André Chastel, et al), next to Florence and the lectures of Roberto Longhi, 1952-1953, Pisa with Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, 1953-1954, where he was awarded the (French) state diploma for museum curator, Ecole du Louvre, in 1953. Roethlisberger became a fellow of the British Council at the Courtuald Institute in London under Anthony Blunt 1954-1956. He returned to Bern, writing his doctoral thesis on Jacopo Bellini, under Hans R. Hahnloser. His Ph.D. was granted in 1955 summa cum laude. Roethlisberger taught at Yale University 1956-1960. He was a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1960-1961, completing his book Claude (Gellée) Lorrain. He married the art historian Biancamaria Bianco in 1962, receiving an appointment of assistant professor at University of Toronto the same year. The following year, 1963, Roethlisberger was appointed associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He rose to full professor in 1968. By that year Roethlisberger distinguished himself at one of the major Claude scholars, with his two-volume catalogue raisonné of Claude’s drawings. That year, too, Roethlisberger accepted the Unidel professorship at the University of Delaware. He returned to Switzerland in 1970 and the University of Geneva as professor or art, chairing the department. His colleague, Deuchler, had also returned from the United States to teach at the university. He and Renée Loche wrote the first of their catalogs on Jean Etienne Liotard in 1978. Roethlisberger returned to the United States in 1980 as Senior Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC for that year. He stepped down as chair of the department in Geneva in 1983, holding a series of visiting professorships, Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Delaware, 1983; Clark Professor, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown MA, in 1984, and Professor in residence, Center for Renaissance and Baroque Studies, University of Maryland, in 1985. Roethlisberger held the Senior Scholar position at The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, in 1990. His book, Abraham Bloemaert and his Sons appeared in 1993. After an Appleton Eminent Professorship, Florida State University, in 1995, he retired from Geneva in 1998. In retirement he authored with Renée Loche a catalog on the paintings of Liotard. Roethlisberger was known for his connoisseurship. He discovered Claude drawings (one celebrated case at auction in 1996) and authenticated a lost Liotard painting in 2004.

Selected Bibliography

Claude Lorrain: The Paintings. 2 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1961; Claude Lorrain: the Drawings. 2 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968; European Drawings from the Kitto Bible: an Exhibition at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. San Marino, CA: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 1969; Bartholomäus Breenbergh: Handzeichnungen. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1969; Cavalier Pietro Tempesta and his Time. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1970; The Claude Lorrain Album in the Norton Simon Inc. Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1971; and Deuchler, Florens , and Luethy, Hans. Schweizer Malerei. Geneva: Skira, 1975, English, Swiss Painting: from the Middle Ages to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century. New York: Rizzoli, 1976; and Loche, Renée. L’opera completa di Liotard. Milan; Rizzoli, 1978; Bartholomeus Breenbergh: the Paintings. New York: de Gruyter, 1981; Im Licht von Claude Lorrain: Landschaftsmalerei aus drei Jahrhunderten: Haus der Kunst München. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1983; Abraham Bloemaert and his Sons: Paintings and Prints. 2 vols. Doornspijk: Davaco, 1993; and Loche, Renée. Liotard. 2 vols. Doornspijk: Davaco, 2008.

Sources

Gage, John. “Professor Michael Kitson.” The Independent (London), August 11, 1998, p. 6; personal correspondence, Marcel Roethlisberger, January 2010.

Contributors: Lee Sorensen

Röell, David Cornelis, jonkheer

November 8, 2023March 29, 2024

Full Name: Röell, David Cornelis, jonkheer

Gender: male

Date Born: 1894

Date Died: 1961

Place Born: Utrecht, Belgium

Place Died: Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

Home Country/ies: Netherlands

Subject Area(s): Dutch (culture or style), Modern (style or period), and museums (institutions)

Career(s): directors (administrators) and museum directors

Institution(s): Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Overview

Director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam between 1936 and 1945, and director-in-chief of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, 1945-1959. Röell attended the Gymnasium in Leiden and The Hague. Between 1913 and 1919, he studied law and art history at Utrecht University. In 1919, he went to Paris, where he continued his art history study at the Sorbonne and the École du Louvre. However, he did not complete his dissertation, when F. Schmidt-Degener, the new director of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, in 1922 offered him a position as assistant at the department of paintings. Three years later, Röell was appointed curator of the department. In this position, he created the 1934 catalog of all the paintings in the Rijksmuseum, one of his rare individual publications. In 1936, he left the Rijksmuseum to become the director of the municipal museums of Amsterdam, including the Stedelijk Museum, devoted to art of the nineteenth and twentieth century, and the Amsterdams Historisch Museum. Assisted by the curator, Willem Jacob Henri Berend Sandberg (1897-1984), and in collaboration with the architect F.A. Eschauzier (1889-1957), he reorganized and modernized the Stedelijk Museum, and prepared various exhibitions on modern art. After the war, he returned to the Rijksmuseum, where he obtained the position of director-in-chief, as the successor of Schmidt-Degener, who had died in 1941. Between 1946 and 1950, he combined this position with the directorship of the department of paintings. Röell’s most important task for the coming years was the rearrangement and the renovation of the Rijksmuseum, which had been dismantled and partly damaged during the war. By 1952, the whole museum was reopened. In collaboration with Eschauzier, the interiors of the galleries had received a modern outfitting. Against a neutral background, the works of art were given full attention. The mixed display, introduced in the 1920s by Schmidt- Degener, was no longer in favor. This first renovation was followed by other rebuilding projects. At the same time, Röell aimed to attract the public with appealing exhibitions. From 1945 until 1959, 21 shows were held in the Rijksmuseum. The Rembrandt exhibition in 1956 was very successful, with more than 450,000 visitors. At the 1958 exhibition, Middeleeuwse kunst der Noordelijke Nederlanden (Medieval Art in the Northern Netherlands), loans from all over the world were on display. In 1958, the Faculty of Arts of the University of Amsterdam awarded Röell a doctorate honoris causa. Although not a very productive writer, Röell was elected a member of the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden. After a successful career in the museum world, he retired in 1959. He was still active and involved in many activities when he suddenly died, in 1961, at the age of 67. By that time, the rebuilding of the department of sculpture and applied arts in the western inner court of the museum was still in progress. This part of the renovation was realized in 1962, under his successor, Arthur F. É. Van Schendel.

Selected Bibliography

“Geschiedkundig overzicht der verzamelingen…” in Catalogus der schilderijen, miniaturen, pastels, omlijste teekeningen, enz. in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam. Amsterdam, 1934, pp. xix-xxxiv.

Sources

Van Schendel, A. “Bij het afscheid van de hoofddirecteur Röell.” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum. 7 (1959): 51-52; Staring, A. [obituary] “D.C. Röell.” The Burlington Magazine. 104 (1962): 162-163; Van Lennep, F. “David Cornelis Röell.” in Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden 1962-1963, pp. 155-162; Pieter J.J. van Thiel a.o. (eds.) All the Paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: a completely illustrated catalogue, by the department of Paintings of the Rijksmuseum. Maarssen: G. Schwartz, 1976, pp. 41-44; Meijer, Th.J. in J. Charité (ed.) Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland. 2. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1985, pp. 459-460; Jansen van Galen, John and Schreurs, Huib. Het huis van nu, waar de toekomst is. Een kleine historie van het Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1895-1995. Naarden, 1995; Van der Ham, Gijs. 200 jaar Rijksmuseum. Geschiedenis van een nationaal symbool. Zwolle: Waanders, 2000, pp. 290-300, 309-330.

Contributors: Monique Daniels

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