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Vermeulen, Frans Andé Jozef

    Full Name: Vermeulen, Frans Andé Jozef

    Other Names:

    • F. A. J. Vermeulen

    Gender: male

    Date Born: 1883

    Date Died: 1961

    Home Country/ies: Netherlands


    Overview

    Vermeulen studied art history at Utrecht University under Willem Vogelsang. From 1920 onward, he began his research in architectural history. At the same time, he was employed at the Rijksbureau voor de Monumentenzorg, an organization responsible for the description and conservation of monuments. His tasks included the description of monuments of the Tielerwaard, in the province of Gelderland. In 1938, he obtained his doctoral degree with a dissertation on classicist-baroque architecture in The Netherlands, Bouwmeesters der Klassicistische Barok in Nederland. Between 1928 and 1941, his three-volume handbook on the history of architecture in The Netherlands appeared, Handboek tot de geschiedenis der Nederlandsche bouwkunst. This informative work was based on innovative research. The delayed third volume, published in 1941, abruptly ends in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The publisher, Wouter Nijhoff (1866-1947), very dissatisfied at not getting copy in time, notified the readers that this part also would be the last one. He probably had other reasons as well to finish with Vermeulen. During World War II, Vermeulen became an active supporter of the Nazis and as a result neglected much of his work. In 1942, he quit the Rijksbureau and accepted a leading position at the ‘Afdeeling voor Kultureele Propaganda’, a section of the ‘Departement van Volksvoorlichting en Kunsten’. In 1944, he fled to Germany. After the liberation, he was interned as a Nazi collaborator in The Netherlands for more than two years. The Rijksbureau voor de Monumentenzorg prepared his description of the monuments of the Tielerwaard for publication (1946). Vermeulen’s race related theories on style reveal his sympathy for National Socialism. This already is apparent in some sections of his Handboek, and, more outspokenly, in his 1942 publication on the new Adolf Hitler-style in German architecture.


    Selected Bibliography

    [dissertation:] Bouwmeesters der Klassicistische Barok in Nederland. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1938; Handboek tot de geschiedenis der Nederlandsche bouwkunst. 3 vols. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1928-1941; [reviewed] Henkel, M.D. Oud Holland 46 (1929): 142-145 and Oud Holland 49 (1932) 237-239; “De nieuwe Duitsche bouwkunst als uitdrukking der Duitsche wereld beschouwing” De Schouw (1942): 20-30; Geïllustreerde beschrijving van de monumenten van geschiedenis en kunst. De provincie Gelderland, 1ste stuk: Het kwartier van Nijmegen, de Bommeler- en de Tielerwaard. Tweede aflevering: de Tielerwaard. The Hague: 1946.


    Sources

    Van Laanen, Dirk. “Aangehouden zorg: Rijksdiensten voor de monumenten 1939-1947” in Monumenten en oorlogstijd. Jaarboek Monumentenzorg 1995. Zwolle: Waanders, 1995: 16; De Vries, Aart. “‘Kulturfreundlich’ of ‘Kulturfeindlich’: het lot van monumenten in oorlogstijd” in Monumenten en oorlogstijd. Jaarboek Monumentenzorg 1995. Zwolle: Waanders, 1995: 231; Bosman, Lex. “De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse architectuurgeschiedenis: middeleeuwse bouwkunst” in Hecht, Peter; Hoogenboom, Annemieke, and Stolwijk, Chris, eds., Kunstgeschiedenis in Nederland. Negen opstellen. Amsterdam: Prometheus, 1998, pp. 70, 73-76, 80-82;




    Citation

    "Vermeulen, Frans Andé Jozef." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/vermeulenf/.


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