K. & V. Waterman was one of the better-known Amsterdam art dealerships specializing in Old Masters during the 1980s and early 1990s. From its gallery at Rokin 116, the firm dealt in important Dutch and Flemish paintings and organized exhibitions with a distinctly art-historical character.[1]
Waterman’s significance therefore extended beyond the commercial art trade alone. The firm collaborated with art historians and brought together paintings from museum and private collections for exhibitions. The accompanying catalogues are still used today in art-historical and provenance research.
Old Master exhibitions
One of the most important exhibitions was Jan van Goyen 1596–1656: Conquest of Space, held in 1981. Works from museums and private collections were brought together and extensively documented for the occasion.[3]
A year later, Waterman organized Frozen Silence: Hendrick Avercamp 1585–1634, Barent Avercamp 1612–1679. The exhibition focused on both Hendrick Avercamp and his nephew Barent and brought together paintings from a range of public and private collections.[4]
In 1983, Waterman organized The Impact of a Genius: Rembrandt, His Pupils and Followers in the Seventeenth Century. The substantial catalogue included contributions by, among others, Albert Blankert, Ben Broos and Ernst van de Wetering. The exhibition was held from 22 April to 17 May 1983 and addressed not only Rembrandt himself, but also his pupils and the broader influence of his workshop.[5]
In 1984, the gallery continued this scholarly approach with Masters of Middelburg, an exhibition organized in honour of the art historian Laurens J. Bol. It focused, among other subjects, on seventeenth-century painters from Middelburg and Zeeland.[6]
These exhibitions illustrate how Waterman operated at the intersection of the art trade, connoisseurship and art-historical research.
Paintings handled by K. & V. Waterman
Several paintings handled by K. & V. Waterman are now held in major museum collections.
A notable example is Ferdinand Bol’s monumental Venus and Adonis, painted around 1658. The work measures 168 × 230 cm and was with Waterman in 1983. That same year, the Rijksmuseum acquired the painting directly from the dealership, with support from the Rijksmuseum-Stichting.[7]
Another interesting provenance concerns Johannes van Wijckersloot’s Allegory of the French Invasion of 1672. Waterman purchased the painting at a Sotheby’s auction in Monaco in June 1986 and subsequently sold it to the Amsterdam collector Joost R. Ritman. In 1995, the work returned to the art market and was acquired by the Rijksmuseum.[8]
Works by artists such as Jan de Braij, Jacob van Ruisdael and Hendrick Avercamp are also linked to the firm through documented provenance records.[2][9]
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Footnotes
[1] K. & V. Waterman B.V., Rokin 116, Amsterdam; see, among other sources, the publication details of The Impact of a Genius, Amsterdam, 1983.
[2] Provenance of Jan de Braij, Portrait of a Six-Year-Old Boy: Sotheby’s Amsterdam, 14 November 1990, no. 69; K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam; subsequently Otto Naumann Ltd., New York.
[3] Hans-Ulrich Beck et al., Jan van Goyen 1596–1656: Conquest of Space. Paintings from Museums and Private Collections, K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam, 1981.
[4] Albert Blankert et al., Frozen Silence: Hendrick Avercamp 1585–1634, Barent Avercamp 1612–1679. Paintings from Museums and Private Collections, K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam, 1982.
[5] Albert Blankert, Ben Broos, Ernst van de Wetering, Guido Jansen and Willem van de Watering, The Impact of a Genius: Rembrandt, His Pupils and Followers in the Seventeenth Century, K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam, 1983.
[6] N. Bakker, I. Bergström, G. Jansen, S.H. Levie and S. Segal, Masters of Middelburg: Exhibition in the Honour of Laurens J. Bol, Kunsthandel K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam, 1984.
[7] Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Ferdinand Bol, Venus and Adonis, inv. no. SK-A-4823; provenance: K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam; acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1983.
[8] Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Johannes van Wijckersloot, Allegory of the French Invasion of 1672, inv. no. SK-A-4910; provenance: Sotheby’s Monaco, 21 June 1986, no. 35; K. & V. Waterman; Joost R. Ritman; Rijksmuseum, 1995.
[9] National Gallery of Art, Washington, provenance record for Jacob van Ruisdael, Dunes by the Sea; including reference to K. & V. Waterman.