Generous givers

The donations of private individuals are of inestimable value to the Mauritshuis. One of the largest bequests was made by the Hague collector Arnoldus Andries des Tombe (1818-1902), who gave the museum the Girl with a pearl earring by Vermeer and another 11 paintings, including a flower still life by Ambrosius Bosschaert and Govert Flinck’s Girl by a high chair.

Roelant Savery, Peasants dancing	Gerard ter Borch, Woman writing a letter

The museum is especially indebted to Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), who – as director of the museum from 1889 to 1909 –succeeded in acquiring a great many paintings for the collection. Not only that, but after his death in 1946 he was found to have bequeathed 25 paintings to the museum, including no fewer than three works by Rembrandt: Andromeda, Homer and Saul and David.

In 1936 Sir Henri Deterding (1866-1939) donated five important paintings to the museum, including Jan Steen’s Oyster eater and Woman writing a letter by Gerard ter Borch. Mrs Louise Thurkow-van Huffel (1900-1987) bequeathed three paintings, one of which is a seascape by Salomon van Ruysdael.

Since 2002 these generous patrons include Willem baron van Dedem (1929), who gave the Friends of the Mauritshuis five paintings, including a still life by Willem Kalf, a Brazilian landscape by Pieter Post and Peasants dancing outside a Bohemian inn by Roelant Savery.

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See also Benefactors