Clemens de Jonghe (ca. 1624-1677) : kunstverkoper in de Gouden Eeuw

Abstract

Clement de Jonghe (ca. 1624-1677) was born in the coastal area of northern Germany. Forced by war and economic factors, he moved to the city of amsterdam around 1643. This proved to bea succesful move. The liberal Dutch Climate allowed him to become one the largest printpublishers/artdealers of his day. In a period of twenty years he expanded his firm by publishing and selling large numbers of prints, books and maps. Out of a stock of over 3000 copperplates and a constant supply of around 60000 prints one could buy prints by almost all known artists, including Rembrandt van Rijn. In this study an attempt has been made to identify the stock by means of archivematerial and printresearch. Together with research into the provenance of plates and prints, this gives an insight into the trade, taste and popularity of printed images in the 17th century. Watermarkresearch with a new digital method has made it possible to determine the paper used by De Jonghe and provides also new information about the papertrade in this period. Newly found archivematerial gives information about the daily life of a printpublisher/artdealer in the Golden Age in the Netherlands