the ailing, 80-year old Michaelis.67 Scholten outlived both of his fellow new arrivals at the
museum and passed away in 1907, at age 82.
To some extent the fact that Teylers Museum was increasingly perceived as an art museum
can be seen as the result of the trend that was already described in the introductory section to
this chapter, i.e. the increasing incomprehensibility and inaccessibility of scientific research to
laypeople, which in turn led to a gradual removal of science from the public domain. This
meant visitors would inevitably have focused more on that part of the museum which they
found comprehensible, i.e. the display of fine art. But what is just as important - and only
served to enhance this trend *gis that at the very same time art exhibitions and public
museums were increasingly taking on a role as core constitutive elements of the overall fabric
of public life.
It was already mentioned in the previous chapter that collecting paintings by contemporary
artists became fashionable in the early 19th century; presumably as a result, the 1830s and
even more so the 1840s saw a significant increase in the amount of public art exhibitions held
in the Netherlands. Whereas, on average, about one exhibition per year with works of art by
contemporary artists from all over the Netherlands had been held in the aftermath of the first
art exhibition organised by Louis Napoleon in 1808, avid art lovers could have attended about
two every year between 1830 and 1840 and a total of 32 such exhibitions between 1840 and
1850.68 Interestingly, some of these exhibitions were purely commercial, i.e. had the express
purpose of attracting custom for painters, whereas others were organised or at least
coordinated with the help of the government.69 The aim of the exhibitions in which the
government was involved was more educational in nature, i.e. to provide the public with an
opportunity to keep abreast of the newest developments in the art world.70 These exhibitions
thereby inevitably also provided a benchmark for taste, and could serve to inspire other artists.
In addition to these temporary exhibitions of contemporary paintings, permanent public
displays of works by living artists were becoming more common too. The first such exhibition
was actually the display of the Teyler Foundation’s collection of paintings at Teylers Museum
after 1826 — although this only took on serious proportions upon the completion of the First
Art Gallery in 1839. Even if it was not huge, the Gallery at Teylers Museum did not have to
fear comparison with the venues where the official (i.e. non-commercial) temporary
exhibitions were held, such as for example the premises of the Academy of Arts in The
Hague.71
But that very same year also saw the transferral of all paintings by contemporary artists from
the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam^ where up until then they had been on
display alongside all the other paintings at the Trippenhuis, a former merchant’s house that
was also home to the Dutch Royal Academy and is situated on one of Amsterdam’s most
67 “Directienotulen”, 24.10.1856, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 9.
68 Annemieke Hoogenboom, De stand des kunstenaars: de positie van kunstschilders in Nederland in de eerste
helft van de negentiende eeuw (Leiden: Primavera Pers, 1993), 147.
69 For examples see: Ibid., 142ff.
70 Ibid., 143.
71 For a depiction o f these premises in 1839 see for instance: Ibid., 82.
prestigious canals - to Haarlem. More specifically, they were put on display at Paviljoen
Welgelegen, the country manor where the banker Henry Hope had stored his extensive art
collection at the end of the 18th century and which had subsequently served as Louis
Napoleon’s palace for a few months.72 This choice of venue was later mocked as having
arisen from purely financial considerations and not being at all suitable for an appropriate
hanging of the pictures on display, and they were returned to Amsterdam in 1885.
Nevertheless, after 1839 the town of Haarlem was home to two permanent, public museums
of contemporary art.
So around the middle of the 19th century both temporary and permanent displays of
contemporary art were in no way out of the ordinary. Exhibitions were no longer the reserve
of large towns either, with many of the temporary ones being held in smaller towns too. In
1849 for instance one of the first provincial museums of the Netherlands opened in Dordrecht
and was dedicated to works of living local artists.
It is worth noting that the rising popularity of art exhibitions coincided with a change in status
of the artist’s profession. The most pertinent symbol of these changes was the setting up of a
monumental statue to Rembrandt in Amsterdam in 1852. This underscored a romanticised
image of him as a genius who had brought fame and glory to the Dutch nation with nothing
more than his inspired handling of the paintbrush, canvas and palette. It also ensured this
image was spread beyond the artists’ community, giving its members a reference point and
symbol to rally around.
There were other, less abstract manifestations of a new found confidence amongst artists as
well, such as the establishment of artists’ associations. Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam and
Pulchri Studio in The Hague are the most prominent examples. They were founded in 1839
and 1847 respectively, having evolved out of a series of earlier, less successful societies.
Interestingly, both associations maintained premises where they could hold exhibitions of
their own, usually featuring the work of members.
72 M.W. Kok, “De musea in Paviljoen Welgelegen,” in Paviljoen Welgelegen 1789-1989: Van buitenplaats van
de bankier Hope tot zetel van deprovincie Noord-Holland (Haarlem: Schuyt l9 8 9 ),139^ 50- . .. !
73 Frederik J. Duparc, Een eeuw strijd voor Nederlands cultureel erfgoed (The Hague: Staatsuitgevery, 1975)
59-60 & 141-143 Despite the apparent inadequacy o f the premises, figures provided by Duparc suggest that
around 1880 almost three times as many visitors attended the exhibition in the Paviljoen as did Teylers Museum.
However, it is questionable just how reliable the available source material on visitor numbers really is^
74 Hoogenboom, De stand des kunstenaars: de positie van kunstschilders in Nederland in de eerste helft van de
” Ibid!! 22-23. Hoogenboom gives 1848 as the year in which Pulchri Studio was founded on these pages, but
1847 on p. 86.