Ode to Henrietta Louise KoenenWhere has the rest of the collection gone?
Cover of Les femmes artistes (University of Amsterdam; Special Collections)
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Henrietta was born on 25 June 1830 in Nieuwe Amstel. She is the daughter of Cornelies Arien Koenen and Maria Antoinette Hoogkamer. Through her mother's family, Henrietta came into contact with engravers. This may also be how she met her husband. She married Johan Philip van der Kellen in Maarsen on 20 March 1861.
Johan was a stamp cutter (engraver of calibration, hallmark and seal stamps) and from his earliest youth a collector of prints (woodcuts, engravings, etchings and lithographs) by Dutch and Flemish masters. For this, he visited numerous print cabinets and private collections at home and abroad. Henrietta accompanied her husband on these trips. This is probably how Henrietta started her collection of women artists. And she did so with great passion.
After Johan's appointment as the first director of the Amsterdam Rijksprenten kabinet, the couple moved to Amsterdam.
On 6 March 1881, Henrietta died in their home on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Three years after her death, Johan sold Henrietta's collection to the Frans Muller firm. The firm immediately puts the collection up for sale. The catalogue describes the ‘Femmes artistes’ collection as 827 works by female artists and 85 portraits of female artists. A large collection in other words!
The Muller firm offered the collection for sale in its entirety for ten thousand guilders. Apparently, no buyers came forward because when the exhibition ‘National Exhibition of Women's Labour’ was held in 1898, the Muller firm loaned quite a few works of art from Henrietta's collection. Two years later, part of the collection was sold to Samuel P. Averij, founder print collector of New York Public Library.
But where did the rest of the collection go?
As far as is known, Henrietta was the first in the Netherlands to build a collection of female-made drawings and engravings. In doing so, she was far ahead of her time.
Source : Els Kloek 737
Period
1830– 1881
About
Ode by Maria Dubbeldam on behalf of the Zaak muurbloem,to Henrietta Louise Koenen.
Henrietta was a collector of prints and drawings by female artists
Henrietta Louise Koenen
Henrietta was a collector of prints and drawings by female artists. Daughter of Cornelis Ariën Koenen (1806-1836), domestic servant, sitter and office clerk, and Maria Antoinette Hoogkamer (1813-1850).