Hendricus Bremmer
Hendricus Bremmer had an interesting career. The multitalented artist was a taught draftsman and painter. In circa 1896 the young Bremmer gave up his professional career as an artist to work as an art journalist and art teacher. In the following years he became also active as an art agent, art dealer, publisher and curator. He had become one of the most influential figures within the art scene in the Netherlands in the first half of the twentieth century.
From 1893-95 the young painter Bremmer had his atelier at the attic of his parents’ hotel Hotel Rijnland in Leiden. By then Bremmer was already very much interested in contemporary French literature and poetry. He enjoyed debating life stance with others. His atelier became a cultural hotspot visited by national and international painters and writers a.o. Henry van de Velde, Theo van Rysselberghe, as well as writers Joséphin ‚Sar‘ Péladan and August Vermeylen. At the time Bremmer declined invitations to exhibit at the Salon de Rose + Croix and Les XX exhibitions. Some of his international visitors came on Toorop’s recommendation who worked in the early 1890’s in the artist colony of Katwijk aan Zee’s only a few kilometers from Leiden.
In 1896 Bremmer started to teach as a Leraar Praktische Aesthetica, a teacher in art and aesthetics. He taught small groups of students most of them coming from prominent elite families. Those lessons were an enormous success. His teaching material did not only consist of reproductions. He also showed original drawings, paintings and sculptures in his lessons. Some of the works belonged to his own art collection that he was putting together. The outspoken Bremmer challenged his students, who also enjoyed spending time together with like-minded peers, to look at and think about art. Within years Bremmer was teaching throughout the Netherlands and thus created a powerful network which constituted the basis of his work as an art advisor. Quite a few of his students got inspired and started to collect art. Bremmer advised them on their acquisitions. He operated as an art consultant and as an art dealer. The most famous student who became an art collector is Helene Kröller Müller. She was one of the wealthiest citizens in the Netherlands when she joined Bremmer’s lessons in 1909. Bremmer became her art agent and they assembled the most important collection of modern art in the Netherlands, nowadays the collection of the Kröller Müller Museum.
Bremmer was one of the first who understood and acknowledged the importance of Vincent van Gogh. He was at the top of list of artists that Bremmer promoted. Bremmer contributed to Van Gogh’s popularity and rising fame at the beginning of the twentieth century. He owned seventy paintings and drawings by Van Gogh in 1883. As a result of Bremmer’s advice The Kröller Müller collection now features ninety of paintings and hundred eighty drawings by Van Gogh. It is the second largest collection of works by this artist in the world.
Bremmer published several books and magazines on art throughout his career. His success, fame and influence lured many contemporary artists towards him. Among them were Bart van der Leck, Jan and Charley Toorop, Jan Sluiters, Chris Beekman, Johan Thorn Prikker, Dirk Nijland and many others. Many of them he supported. His help varied from giving advise, providing introductions, publishing about their art, selling their work or supporting them financially.
