Acquisition Information
Publication Rights
Access
Biographical / Historical Note
Arrangement
Related Archival Materials
Scope and Content of Collection
Processing History
Preferred Citation
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: G. Cramer Oude Kunst gallery records
Creator:
Cramer, Hans M.
Creator:
Bloch, Vitale
Creator:
G. Cramer Oude Kunst
Creator:
Cramer, Gustav
Creator:
Smith College. Museum of Art
Creator:
Cranbrook School (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.)
Creator:
Allen Memorial Art Museum
Creator:
Toledo Museum of Art
Creator:
Wittmann, Otto, 1911-2001
Creator:
Detroit Institute of Arts
Creator:
Parks, Robert O.
Creator:
Held, Julius S. (Julius Samuel), 1905-2002
Creator:
Kamphuisen, P. W. (Pieter Wilhelmus), 1897-1961
Creator:
Grigaut, Paul L.
Creator:
Stechow, Wolfgang, 1896-1974
Creator:
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Hans Heinrich, Baron
Creator:
Getty, J. Paul (Jean Paul), 1892-1976
Creator:
Magriel, Paul, 1906-1990
Creator:
Henschel, Oscar Robert
Creator:
Henschel, Hildegard, 1909-
Creator:
Hackenbroch, Yvonne
Creator:
Müller Hofstede, Cornelius
Creator:
Grote-Hasenbalg, Werner, 1888-
Creator:
Dussler, Luitpold, 1895-1976
Creator:
Gelder, J. G. van (Jan Gerrit), 1903-1980
Creator:
Planiscig, Leo, 1887-1952
Creator:
Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham, Sir, 1913-1994
Creator:
Blunt, Anthony, 1907-1983
Creator:
Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit
Creator:
Posse, Hans, 1879-1942
Creator:
Göpel, Erhard
Creator:
Hartlaub, Gustav Friedrich, 1884-1963
Creator:
Haberstock, Karl, 1878-1956
Creator:
Cate, H. E. ten
Creator:
Gilbert, L. H.
Creator:
Erasmus, Kurt, 1880-
Creator:
Friedländer, Max J., 1867-1958
Creator:
Julius Böhler (Firm)
Creator:
Hannema, D. (Dirk), 1895-1984
Identifier/Call Number: 2001.M.5
Physical Description:
409.80 Linear Feet
(944 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1873-1998, bulk 1938-1998
Date (bulk): 1938-1998
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.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection.
Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is predominantly in Dutch, with some material in English, French, or
German.
Acquisition Information
Acquired in 2001.
Publication Rights
Access
Open for access by qualified researchers.
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.
Arrangement
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.
Related Archival Materials
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.
Processing History
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 with the
exception of additional material acquired in 2015. Name indexes for Series I. are in process, with indexing of material from
1938-1970 completed by Jade
Finlinson, who continued the work of Isabella Zuralski-Yeager and Barbara Selwyn.
Preferred Citation
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
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art dealers -- Correspondence
Art historians -- Correspondence
Art treasures in war -- Netherlands
National socialism and art -- Netherlands
Radiographs
Photographs, Original
Color photographs
Black-and-white photographs
Gelatin dry plate negatives
World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war
Art -- Private collections
Art dealers -- Archives
Cramer, Hans M.
Cramer, Gustav
G. Cramer Oude Kunst