Kunstgalerij Albricht
Kunstgalerij Albricht
In the heart of Oosterbeek, a village renowned for its artistic heritage and wartime history, sits one of the Netherlands’ most respected private art galleries. Kunstgalerij Albricht is housed in a grand 19th-century town hall, just an hour east of Amsterdam. Today, this elegant building is a trove for 19th and early 20th-century Dutch and French master paintings–but in September 1944, it served as a command post and police station during the pivotal Battle of Arnhem.
“It’s an honour to work in such an important place,” says gallery owner Bob Albricht, who joined the family business in 1997 and now celebrates his 28th year as an art dealer. “Oosterbeek, is such a historical place in the Netherlands. Not only as an artists’ colony but also as one of the most important places of the Second World War.”
The gallery was founded in 1973 by Bob’s father, a passionate collector who turned his love for art into a job. “My father started collecting art as a lover; paintings, antiques, everything” says Bob. “Over the years he traded so much art that at one point he made it his profession.” The business evolved, but its core remained steady: “The basis is still the same as it was 53 years ago: Nineteenth-century Dutch art and early twentieth-century art. Nowadays the focus is a bit more on Impressionism and Modernism.”
Clients–both private collectors and museums from Europe and North America–come to Albricht for guidance not only in buying and selling, but also for appraisals, loans, and advice on shaping their collections.
The works on sale span a broad range, from 19th century masters of the Dutch Hague School to early 20th-century painters such as Jan Sluijters and Kees van Dongen, representing the vibrant evolution of Dutch art into Modernism. “The Netherlands has produced many pioneers. I think the entrepreneurial nature is in our DNA–then and now,” says Bob.
This pioneering mindset is closely tied to what he calls the “Dutch eye”, a unique way of seeing the world that he says has “Dutch common sense as its basis, combined with an incredible urge to discover.” “The Netherlands has always been a country that has produced innovators, from Rembrandt–the greatest artist that the Netherlands has produced–to Van Gogh and Mondrian. Look at the innovation of Van Gogh; his brushwork, colour and composition choices–unsurpassed and very progressive for his time.”
Other periods in Dutch art are also due for a revival he believes; in particular works by the Dutch Romantics like Barend Cornelis Koekkoek and Cornelis Springer as well as those by Dutch Impressionists like Isaac Israëls whose vibrant beach scenes and bustling urban views, rendered with the dynamic brushwork and naturalistic colour of their French counterparts, captured the fading glamour of fin de siècle elegance.
Bob is particularly excited to be bringing a vibrant and theatrical Fauvist 1909 painting of a dancer in Paris by Kees van Dongen to this year’s Fair, but will also be showing works by the country’s groundbreaking artists from the 1940’s onwards. Movements like CoBrA, which included Dutch artists such as Karel Appel show how deeply Dutch artists have participated in and shaped pan-European conversations in art. “Artists always look back in time and get inspired,” Bob reflects. “The current generation of artists will certainly do that too.”
Through it all, Kunstgalerij Albricht remains a bridge between past and present, local and international. “We are proud of the fact that we bring almost exclusively Dutch artists to the Treasure House Fair; but of international allure!” says Bob. That combination of historic integrity and global ambition has kept the gallery relevant for over 50 years–and ensures that its legacy, like the building it occupies, remains as significant as ever.
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