Letter archive E.E. Bouwman
Recently, the RKD received a collection of letters from art collector E.E. Bouwman (1990-1991). This letter archive covers the period between 1930 and 1955, and contains interesting correspondence. During this period Bouwman was in contact with artists such as Bart van der Leck and Charley Toorop, so with this donation the RKD now has a number of previously unknown letters from these artists in its collection.
Factory owner from Leiden
E.E. Bouwman built up the bulk of his art collection around the time of World War II: during the 1930s, 40s and 50s. This was a prosperous time for Bouwman, who was the owner of a factory in Leiden that developed machinery for the textile industry. In Leiden, he was part of a well-to-do and intellectual milieu that valued fine art and literature. In these circles, it was customary to follow courses aimed at cultural enrichment, something Bouwman had also started doing shortly before the onset of World War II. He took these coursed with Wim Feltkamp, nephew and successor of ‘art pope’ H.P. Bremmer. Both Bremmer and Feltkamp also acted as advisors and mediators on art purchases, through which they enacted their clear preference for certain artists who were in line with their perspective. Thus, their views on art had a great influence on the collections of many art-loving and wealthy Dutch people from this time.
A Bremmerian art collection
Under Feltkamp’s supervision, Bouwman’s art collection would also grow into a characteristically ‘Bremmerian’ collection. By the 1950’s, his collection compromised 75 paintings and sculptures, including many works by artists favoured by Bremmer and Feltkamp, such as Bart van der Leck, Charley Toorop, Raoul Martinez and John Rädecker. The letter archive contains correspondence with these four artists, mainly revolving around the purchase of artworks. Wim Bouwman, son of E.E. Bouwman and until recently owner of art gallery Aalderink in Amsterdam, which closed in 2023, characterises his father as a better engineer than businessman. In his enthusiasm, Bouwman would get swayed by Feltkamp to purchase certain artworks. That he wasn’t the most shrewd businessman is also evident from a loan of five thousand guilders he took out from Bremmer in 1948, with the painting Meisje gaat fluitend met een geitje (Girl goes whistling with a goat) by Bart van der Leck as collateral. When Bouwman was unable to honour the payment arranged in 1951, Bremmer collected the work from him, according to a letter from Bremmer’s archive.
2. Letter from E.E. Bouwman to Charley Toorop, 16 December 1942, collection RKD, E.E. Bouwman archive
Charley Toorop’s tragedy of war
The enthusiasm with which Bouwman acquired artworks is reflected in the way he corresponds with artists, as well as his interest in certain imagery. One particular example is a purchase Bouwman made during the war, of two paintings by Charley Toorop: Clown in front of the Ruins of Rotterdam (1940-1941) and Working-Class Woman (1943). Both works show the ruins of Rotterdam in black and white, with, respectively, a clown and woman with folded hands in the foreground. Toorop regarded these as each other’s counterparts, meant to convey the tragedy and absurdity of war. It was this political charge that seems to have appealed so much to Bouwman, given his response to Toorop after seeing the work with the clown in 1942: ‘We had often talked about it, that we could not understand that there were no artists, who portrayed the tragedy of these times; and lo and behold: an image such as we could not have dreamed of, so poignant and beautifully and powerfully painted, that my admiration cannot be put into words.’ Bouwman bought the work the same day, despite the fact that the art dealer who owned the work, Nieuwenhuizen Segaar in The Hague, did not intend to sell it and wanted to keep it in storage until after the war.
4. Charley Toorop, Working-Class Woman, 1943, oil on canvas, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The homeless clown
However, the tragedy of this clown was not constricted to the canvas. Indeed, the person that modelled for Toorop was clown Bimbo from Rotterdam, who had lost all his possessions during the bombing of the city. To provide himself with shelter, the old clown posed for various artists during the war, where he could then stay for a few days at a time. Similarly, Rädecker made two drawings of the clown, which Bouwman had expressed interest in but was ultimately unable to purchase. He did, however, have Rudolf Bremmer’s chalk drawing of Bimbo in his possession. Bouwman was also briefly in contact with Bimbo himself, and the letter archive contains six postcards from the clown. These are characterised by a lament about the state of society, with which Toorop's tragic depiction of the clown does not seem so far removed from reality. The painting Clown in front of the Ruins of Rotterdam is currently in the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum.
The letter archive of E.E. Bouwman is a valuable addition to the RKD's collection, which already holds the archives of W.C. Feltkamp, H.P. Bremmer, Bart van der Leck and the Toorop family. This archive not only enriches the existing collection, but also opens up new possibilities for research into this relatively unknown art collector and his network.