The art gallery Frans Buffa & Zonen was founded by the Italian printseller Frans Buffa. At the end of the eighteenth century Frans Buffa from Pieve Tessino, Italy arrived in Amsterdam. He opened a small print and art shop in 1808 at the Kalverstraat 221 (this changed to no. 39 in 1875). In 1820 he moved back to Italy and handed his company Frans Buffa over to his sons Jan and Sebastiaan Buffa, who renamed the company into Frans Buffa & Zonen (Frans Buffa and Sons/ François Buffa et fils). They mostly sold European prints and books and sometimes works of art that they bought at auctions. Pierre Beguin and Alberto Caramelli took over the buisiness in 1836 and started to publish prints. These prints were for example bought by the Dutch royal family, the Rijksmuseum and Teylers Museum. From 1872 till 1895 was Filippo Tessaro part of Frans Buffa & Zonen. From this period the focus switched increasingly to paintings from the Hague School, such as Jozef Israëls, J.H. Weissenbruch and the Maris brothers, and by Charles-François Daubigny and others of the French School of Barbizon. The gallery prided itself on always having something new on show, and every two months it organised exhibitions, mainly of new work by contemporary Dutch and international artists. Passers-by regularly stopped at the gallery’s window to inspect the new weekly acquisitions. Jacobus Slagmulder became the owner in 1895. After his death in 1921 the business was taken over by Joop Siedenburg, later with help of his son Hein Siedenburg and his son in law Bob van Royen. Under the supervision of Joop Siedenburg the stock was extended by Amsterdam Impressionists like George Hendrik Breitner and Isaac Israels, as well as Kees van Dongen, Jan Sluijters, Leo Gestel and other modernists. At the end of the century, Buffa also started taking the financial lead in putting together a few major exhibitions elsewhere, such as the famous Rodin exhibition of 1930 in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. The art gallery Frans Buffa & Zonen remained located at the Kalverstraat 39 until 1951.