An energetic mastermind in Germany’s emerging coal and steel industry, a cosmopolitan banker and a multilingual alderman – Barthold Suermondt (1818 – 1887) was one of the most important industrialists during the so-called “founder years” in the Aachen-Liège region. And he was also a distinguished connoisseur of the arts who collected paintings and drawings of the highest quality.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth, the Suermondt Ludwig Museum pays homage to the activities of this entrepreneur as an art collector, the man after whom, in gratitude for his generous donations, the museum was first named. From8th March to 17th June 2018, the exhibition Meeting Suermondt – A New Taste for the Arts will reunite 60 paintings and 22 drawings from Suermondt’s original collection, items which are now part of the inventories of the “Gemäldegalerie” and “Kupferstichkabinett” in Berlin and of the Suermondt Ludwig Museum in Aachen. The exhibits include works by Holbein, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Rachel Ruysch, Jan Steen, Judith Leyster and many others.
For more information: http://suermondt-ludwig-museum.de/
Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael, Landscape with a View of Haarlem, 1670-1675 (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie).