Symposium Dutch Bargains and Belgian Sales

Making a Market for Art from the Low Countries in the Americas, c. 1840-1920

Together with the Radboud University Nijmegen and the University Antwerp, RKD will host an online symposium about the contemporary art trade from the Netherlands and Belgium with the United States on Thursday, 20 June and Friday, 21 June.

The late 1840s and early 1850s were, indeed, a most promising time for art dealers and other agents from Europe: they heralded in an age of mass-importation of European art that brought tens of thousands of work art from the so-called old world to the new one and had a lasting impact on collections in America, both public and private. Research on the Transatlantic art trade, however, has been limited in scope: most scholars have concentrated their efforts on a small number of star collections, generally focussing on the trade in famous Old Master and contemporary French art (both academic and avant-garde). The import of contemporary art from the Low Countries – Belgium and the Netherlands – has received very little attention. Through this symposium, we seek to address and change this.

View the programme here.

The symposium is organised by Jan Dirk Baetens (Radboud University Nijmegen), Evelien de Visser (RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History) and Ulrike Müller (University of Antwerp / Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium).

General information

• Tickets: free
• Registration: please email Evelien de Visser on devisser@rkd.nl before 16 June 2024, with name and affiliation.
• You will receive the full program with abstracts and bios as well as a Teams-link on 19 Jun 2024 at the latest.