Why are we organizing a beautiful exhibition on Dutch 19th century artists travelling to Paris?

The later famous Hague School artist Jozef Israëls and his friend Jacobus van Koningsveld had just returned to Amsterdam after a long sojourn in Paris between 1845 and 1847. They needed the support of their teacher Jan Adam Kruseman for the exhibition and sale of one their paintings (they painted it together) as it had the semblance of having been tainted with French influence. Kruseman wrote to the organizers of the exhibition: 'I take the freedom of introducing them both as being well-behaved, laudable, and real Dutch young men. They left from here on their own merit and have, for the love of art, suffered and sacrificed a great deal' (letter by J.A. Kruseman to J.B. Weenink 9 June 1847). Being Dutch and painting in the Dutch manner of the times was a big deal in nineteenth century Netherlands. 
Nevertheless it is remarkable that Kruseman had to stress that fact with such emphasis when one realizes that almost 25% of Dutch artists travelled abroad for a longer period of time for either study or career possibilities. And I am not even talking about shorter trips, visits to the Paris Salon des Beaux Arts for instance. A yearly exhibition where French and also foreign artists exhibited their latest paintings in the hope of winning a medal, being noticed by the newspapers and, ultimately, finding a buyer. Many Dutch artists made a trip of several weeks to see the art works on display and meet old and new friends and business acquaintances. 
However, until quite recently the focus within art history has been on the issue of nationality, ignoring the fact that the art world was - and still is - an amalgam of national and international elements. With this research we aim to tell the story of international artistic exchange focusing on The Netherlands and France. Which form did staying and working in Paris take for Dutch artists between 1800 and 1900? Where did they stay, whom did they meet, with which ideas did they return and what did that mean for Dutch art?
Answers to these questions will be presented from Autumn 2017 onwards in the form of an exhibition which can be seen in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam and then in the Petit Palais Museum in Paris. The show will be accompanied by an extensive catalogue and a wealth of information that we shall find during our research: all the source material, the art works, biographical information, the letters and other ego documents will be published online via www.rkd.nl.

Artists such as Gerard van Spaendonck - around 1800 - and Ary Scheffer - around 1830 - had both played important roles within the French academic art world as court painters. Claude Monet  gave the Dutch artist Johan Barthold Jongkind the honorary title 'father' of the impressionists. Many artists of the Hague School with their so-called typical Dutch style and subject matter, were actually inspired by their French Barbizon predecessors, who in turn had looked closely at the realistic paintings of the Dutch 17th century artists. Jacob Maris, who was widely succesful with his mighty Dutch landscape depictions, wouldn't have been able to paint this beautifully had he not stayed in Paris to finish his education. Vincent van Gogh's first ambition was to become a peasant painter in the style of Jean François Millet, but he radically changed his mind after arriving in Paris and seeing the latest developments in the art scene: from then on he was set on capturing colour in all it's forms.
George Hendrik Breitner and Isaac Israels were impressed by Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, who, by the way, was married to a Dutch woman. And how about Kees van Dongen and Jan Sluijters who, together with Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, provoked the crowds with their wild, expressionistic style and sensual depictions of women? Piet Mondriaan, Conrad Kickert and Lodewijk Schelfhout also found themselves in avantgarde company: together with Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy and Fernand Léger they developed Cubism which they introduced in Holland just before the first world war. These are just a few examples of which there are many.  


This blog will give an account of the work in progress, of our experiences in doing art historical research and compiling an exhibition.  I shall also post stories that are not relevant for the big picture but are so interesting it would be a pity not to have written them down somewhere. Expect posts about the food and the traffic in 19^th century Paris, the fascination with elephant Marguerite or Parky, originally owned by the Dutch stadholder Willem V, who lived in the Jardin des Plantes from 1798 onwards, and the service entrance of Musée d’Orsay, to name just a few.