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G. Cramer Oude Kunst Gallery Records
2001.M.5
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Title: G. Cramer Oude Kunst gallery records
Date (inclusive): 1873-1998, bulk 1938-1998
Number: 2001.M.5
Creator/Collector:
G. Cramer Oude Kunst
Physical Description:
409.80 Linear Feet
(944 boxes)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The records of G. Cramer Oude Kunst in
The Hague in the Netherlands document the gallery's business since the early 1900s until the
late 1990s, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1938 to 1998. Of particular research
value are Gustav Cramer's WWII correspondence and sales receipts regarding his dealings with
Nazi agents for Adolf Hitler's museum in Linz. The archive may be the only uncensored dealer
archive documenting the international art market in Nazi-occupied Europe. It comprises over
sixty years of the gallery's correspondence and financial records. Also present is a portion
of the photographic archive, including circa 500 glass plate negatives, and sales catalogs.
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Language: Collection material is
predominantly in Dutch; Flemish, with some
material in English, French, or German.
Biographical / Historical Note
The gallery of the art dealers Gustav Cramer (1881-1961) and his son Hans Max Cramer (b.
1920) was one of the most renowned and influential galleries dealing in old master paintings
during the 20th century in Europe. The gallery was founded in Kassel in the late 19th
century by Gustav Cramer's grandfather, Max Cramer. In 1914 Gustav Cramer inherited the
gallery. After World War I Gustav Cramer moved to Berlin where for many years he worked at
the renowned Van Diemen gallery, in charge of the old masters section, or Alte Kunst. In
1933 he opened his own gallery in the Lennéstrasse in Berlin. In 1936, he was expelled from
the official artists' organization Reichskammer der Bildenden Künste (Reich Chamber of
Visual Art). In 1938, in order to escape the Nazi regime, the family moved to the
Netherlands and opened the G. Cramer Oude Kunst gallery in Javastraat 38 in The Hague. Under
the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands Gustav Cramer's son Hans Max Cramer became the
official owner of the gallery. While the son officially represented the gallery, the father
continued to be in charge of business. After Gustav Cramer's death in 1961, Hans Max Cramer
continued his father's business.
During World War II Gustav Cramer dealt on consignment in fine and decorative arts, mainly
with German dealers in Berlin. He also engaged as an intermediary in transactions between
Nazi agents collecting for Adolf Hitler's museum in Linz and Dutch collectors and dealers
who wanted their transactions with the Nazis to remain anonymous. After the war he continued
to sell decorative arts and old master paintings to a primarily Dutch and German clientele.
Between 1954 and 1959, the gallery eliminated decorative arts from its stock in order to
focus on old master paintings. Records from this period indicate that the firm also began to
engage in business more regularly with numerous museums and private collectors in the United
States. In 1960 Hans Max Cramer changed the business strategy again and began selling
paintings almost exclusively on consignment, a concept for which he was criticized during
the early 1960s. This approach turned out to be successful at a time when many private
collections were being sold and dispersed. Cramer was able to make substantial business
deals by representing some of the most important private collections in the Netherlands,
including H.E. ten Cate, the Becker collection, the C.J.K. van Aalst collection, the Sidney
van den Bergh collection, and numerous others. The pool of clientele expanded to include the
world's most significant old master collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery,
London, the National Gallery, Washington, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Toledo Art
Museum, and the collections of L.H. Gilbert, Armand Hammer, Norton Simon, Baron
Thyssen-Bornemisza, and many others.
Hans Max Cramer studied at the prestigious Dutch school for art history, the Rijksinstituut
voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in The Hague. He was head of the study-room for Dutch and
Flemish old masters, and wrote a great number of articles for the Dutch encyclopaedia
Winkler Prins. During the 1980s he curated the exhibition
Dutch Painting of the
Golden Age from the Royal Picture Gallery, Mauritshuis and the Galleries of Hans M. Cramer
and John Hoogsteder
, held in The Hague in 1986. It was the first publicly
sponsored exhibition curated by dealers.
Open for access by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
G. Cramer Oude Kunst gallery records, 1873-1998, (bulk 1938-1998), The Getty Research
Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2001.M.5
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2001m5
Acquired in 2001.
Alan Tomlinson processed the entire collection when it was acquired in 2001. Between 2011
and 2016 Isabella Zuralski-Yeager wrote the finding aid and performed additional processing.
Jasmin Larkin helped processing portions of Series II. Financial files. The collection is
now fully processed and the finding aid is nearly complete, except for names of
correspondents in Series I. Correspondence. Name indexes for Series I. are currently added
by Jade Finlinson, who continues the work of Isabella Zuralski-Yeager and Barbara
Selwyn.
Interview with Hans Cramer, 2004 April 1-2. Special Collections Accession no.
2004.M.26.
Scope and Content of Collection
The archive of the gallery G. Cramer Oude Kunst in The Hague in the Netherlands is a rich
resource for the study of the international market in old master paintings from the late
1930s through the end of the 20th century. It contains the gallery's complete business
records from 1938 to 1998. Of particular research value is the documentation of the
activities under Nazi occupation during WWII, especially correspondence and receipts
regarding the gallery's dealings with Nazi agents for Adolf Hitler's museum in Linz. It may
be the only uncensored dealer archive documenting the international art market in
Nazi-occupied Europe.
Series I consists of 347 boxes of correspondence with major art museums all over the world,
but mainly in Europe, the United States, and Canada, numerous art dealers, private
collectors, auction houses, conservators, editors of art magazines, and renowned art
historians, and also with insurance agencies, transport firms, financial institutions, and
lawyers. The letters regard predominantly acquisition, shipment, conservation, and sale of
paintings. Frequently they provide commentary on current trends in the international art
market, prices, aesthetics, and collecting. Also present are personal exchanges between
various members of the Cramer family and friends, especially extensive from the late 1930s
until the late 1940s. A portion of the correspondence in the postwar period, continuing well
into the 1960s, deals with restitution issues and Nazi business dealings for the museum in
Linz.
Series II is the most extensive portion of the archive. It consists of 558 boxes housing
the firm's complete financial records dating from the 1920s until 1998. The most substantial
portion is comprised of account files and bank statements. Also present are tax records,
sales reports, commission books, and insurance records.
Series III consists of 29 boxes predominantly of photographs of paintings and decorative
arts, and photographs of the gallery. Also present are photographs received from clients,
and x-rays of paintings. This series comprises only a portion of the gallery's vast photo
archive, most of which was donated to the Rijksdienst voor Kunsthistorische Dokumentatie
(RKD).
Series IV consists of 11 boxes with circa 500 glass plate negatives of art that passed
through the gallery during the late 1950s and the 1960s.
Series V. comprises additional prewar and postwar business correspondence of Hugo Cramer,
Gustav Cramer, and Hans Max Cramer; personal correspondence and documents concerning the
Cramer family; lists of artworks; some financial documents such as invoices, sales
agreements, and commission agreements; documents of Hans Max Cramer's dealings with the
Association of Art Dealers in the Netherlands, CINOA [International Confederation of Art and
Antique Dealers'], and the Rotary Club; and various publications, such as annotated auction
catalogs, the gallery's sales catalogs, a collection of newspapers and magazines from the
time of World War II, and a collection of press clippings.
Organized in five series:
Series I. Correspondence, 1876-1998;
Series II. Financial
records, 1920-1998;
Series III. Photographs,
undated;
Series IV. Glass plate
negatives, undated;
Series V. Miscellaneous
papers, 1873-1998.
Cramer, Hans M.
Cramer, Gustav
G. Cramer Oude Kunst
Art dealers -- Correspondence
Art historians -- Correspondence
Art treasures in war -- Netherlands
National socialism and art -- Netherlands
World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war
Art -- Private collections
Radiographs
Photographs, Original
Color photographs
Black-and-white photographs
Gelatin dry plate negatives
Cramer, Hans M.
Bloch, Vitale
G. Cramer Oude Kunst
Cramer, Gustav
Smith College. Museum of Art
Cranbrook School (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.)
Allen Memorial Art Museum
Toledo Museum of Art
Wittmann, Otto
Detroit Institute of Arts
Parks, Robert O.
Held, Julius S (Julius Samuel)
Kamphuisen, P. W. (Pieter Wilhelmus)
Grigaut, Paul L.
Stechow, Wolfgang
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Hans Heinrich, Baron
Getty, J. Paul (Jean Paul),
1892-1976
Magriel, Paul David
Henschel, Oscar Robert
Henschel , Hildegard
Hackenbroch, Yvonne
Müller-Hofstede, Cornelius
Grote-Hasenbalg, Werner
Dussler, Luitpold
Gelder, J. G. van (Jan Gerrit)
Planiscig, Leo
Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham, Sir
Blunt, Anthony
Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit
Posse, Hans
Göpel, Erhard
Hartlaub, Gustav Friedrich
Haberstock, Karl
Cate, H. E. ten
Gilbert, L. H.
Erasmus, Kurt
Friedländer, Max J.
Julius Böhler (Firm)
Hannema, D (Dirk) ( )