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Person

Frederik Schmidt-Degener

Frederik Schmidt-Degener

Life dates
1881 - 1941

Frederik Schmidt-Degener was an art historian, museum director and poet. He was born to Johann Diederich (Diederik) Schmidt-Degener and Maria Juliana Kamerling. His family owned a fashion business in Rotterdam where he attended the Erasmiaans Gymnasium. Schmidt-Degener already showed an affinity to aesthetics and poetry while in secondary school. In 1903, after his final exams and on the advice of Dr A. Bredius, Schmidt-Degener went to Berlin to study art history. He left Berlin after one year and settled in Paris where he attended the Sorbonne. In 1905, Schmidt-Degener interrupted his studies and returned home after the sudden death of his father.

Back in Rotterdam, Schmidt-Degener wrote art-historical essays. In 1906, together with Dr Bredius, he edited a description of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg Collection. He published Rembrandt, marking the tricentennial of Rembrandt’s birth, which became one of the most popular treatises on the artist. In the same year, Schmidt-Degener wrote two articles on Rembrandt for the Gazette des Beaux-Arts that earned him a certain renown. In 1908, he became the director of the Boijmans Museum, and in the same year he published a monograph on Adriaen Brouwer, in which he included a careful examination of the artist’s paintings from the Schloss Collection.

At the Boijmans Museum, Schmidt-Degener successfully restructured the exhibition space and decluttered displays by focusing on high quality objects. The objects that were not displayed were stored in a specially designed study depot.

In 1919, as a result of successful changes to the visual display at the Boijmans Museum, Schmidt-Degener becamethe vice-president of the newly-founded Rijkscommissie voor het Museumwezen (State Commission for Museum Affairs), a national advisory committee for the reorganisation of the museum system in the Netherlands. In 1921, he was appointed director of the Rijksmuseum, where he changed display conventions using the same methodology as previously employed in Rotterdam. Schmidt-Degener published articles on foreign and Dutch art in De Gids, The Burlington Magazine and in Gazette des Beaux-Arts. He continued to write essays and monographs on his preferred painters: Rembrandt, Adriaen Brouwer, Frans Hals and, with H.E. van Gelder on Jan Steen. Schmidt-Degener achieved an international reputation in exhibition organisation such as the 1929 exhibition of Dutch art at Burlington House in London.

At the onset of the Second World War, Schmidt-Degener organised the safekeeping and evacuation of the Rijksmuseum’s most valuable holdings.

Sources:

Sorensen, Lee, ed. "Schmidt-Degener, Frederik." Dictionary of Art Historians. Accessed 30 June 2021.

https://arthistorians.info/schmidtdegenerf

F. Schmidt-Degener. Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren. Accessed 30 June 2021.

https://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=schm005

van Gelder, H. Enno. “Frederik Schmidt-Degener.” Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, 1945. pp. 207-224. Accessed 30 June 2021.

https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_jaa003194501_01/_jaa003194501_01_0016.php

Schmidt-Degener, F. “Adriaen Brouwer”. Onze kunst. 7. 1908. DBNL. https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_onz021190801_01/_onz021190801_01_0001.php.