Teunis Wollesen’s art dealership was based in the German town of Bad Oeynhausen and was particularly active around the 1970s. Wollesen dealt, among other things, in Old Master paintings and nineteenth-century art and was active within the West German art market of the period.
Today, his name is of particular interest from the perspective of provenance research: the reconstruction of an artwork’s history of ownership and transmission. Old labels, inventory numbers, and references to art dealers can provide important clues to the history of a painting.
The West German art market
Around 1970, West Germany developed into an important European market for art and antiques. Art fairs brought together dealers, collectors, and museum professionals from different regions.
Wollesen participated in the Westdeutsche Kunstmesse in Düsseldorf, a fair at which Old Master works as well as nineteenth- and twentieth-century art were offered. Participation in such fairs demonstrates that his dealership formed part of the broader professional art market.
Ferdinand Bol: Venus and Adonis
One particularly important work that can be securely linked to Teunis Wollesen is Venus and Adonis by Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680). The monumental painting was executed around 1658 and measures 168 × 230 cm. It is now part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
The Rijksmuseum’s official provenance records state that the painting was with Teunis Wollesen in Bad Oeynhausen in 1970. By around 1972, it had entered the collection of Freiherr von Lucius in Frankfurt am Main. The painting was ultimately acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1983 through the Amsterdam-based art dealership K. & V. Waterman.[1]
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Footnotes
[1] Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, collection record for Ferdinand Bol, Venus and Adonis, inv. no. SK-A-4823; provenance listing Teunis Wollesen, Bad Oeynhausen, 1970, Freiherr von Lucius, Frankfurt am Main, 1972, and acquisition by the Rijksmuseum in 1983.