Sold during the war

Portrait head sculpture of Crown Princess Juliana

In the second half of 1941 someone offered to sell an art object to the Rijksmuseum for 200 guilders. It was an actual-size bronze portrait head sculpture of a young woman. The subject of the portrait was Juliana, the then Crown Princess of the Netherlands. The sculpture was produced in a very limited edition, and another copy had already, in 1936, been offered to the Rijksmuseum for a lower price. On that occasion the museum chose not to buy it, possibly because the work was too modern. But in 1941 the Rijksmuseum bought this copy of the sculpture. Why the change of heart?

Changing circumstances

Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, and four days later, following a devastating air bombardment of Rotterdam, the Dutch military surrendered. Queen Wilhelmina and Crown Princess Juliana then fled to London, along with the government. The Nazi occupiers soon banned portraits of the royal family from government buildings, so the Rijksmuseum’s purchase of a portrait sculpture of Juliana in the second year of the war was possibly a subtle expression of support for the Dutch royal family.

Journalist Nathan Wolf

The story doesn’t end there, however. Documentation of the Rijksmuseum collection reveals that the seller of the portrait head was Nathan Wolf, a journalist and art critic, and the founder and chief editor of art magazine De Kunst. He lived with his family on Koninginneweg in Amsterdam. To mark the 25th anniversary of his magazine, in the mid-1930s he commissioned the renowned sculptor Gerrit van der Veen to make a portrait of Juliana. So although the portrait was made in series, this particular copy was of interest because it was owned by the man who commissioned the work.

Persecuted

From 2 May 1941, journalists in the Netherlands were obliged to join the Association of Dutch Journalists, part of the Chamber of Culture set up by the Nazi occupiers. Jewish people were barred from membership of the association, and Nathan Wolf was Jewish. This effectively forced him to cease practising his occupation and publishing De Kunst. He sold the portrait sculpture to the Rijksmuseum that same year, possibly between June and October.

Wolf would presumably have been able to support himself for some time with the money from the sale of the portrait. It is also possible that he wanted to protect the sculpture from confiscation or destruction. It was a realistic fear, unfortunately, and about a year later, on 8 October 1942, the occupiers emptied Wolf’s home of his belongings. Nathan Wolf and his wife Nannette Wolf-Kaufmann had been deported two weeks earlier, and were murdered just days later at Auschwitz.

Sculptor Gerrit van der Veen

Another intriguing aspect of this story is that the portrait’s sculptor Gerrit van der Veen was an important member of the resistance. He was open in his opposition to actions taken by the occupiers, so it is possible that the Rijksmuseum was already aware of his reputation by late 1941. It was thanks to his involvement in the production and distribution of forged identity papers that thousands of people escaped the clutches of the occupying forces. Van der Veen himself went into hiding in 1942. Later in the war, on 27 March 1943, Van der Veen took part in the resistance attack on Amsterdam’s civil registry, which was carried out to prevent Jewish people being identified, found and deported.

Key resistance figure

Gerrit van der Veen was arrested at his hiding place in 1944, and shot by a Nazi firing squad soon afterwards. The important and multifaceted role he played in the resistance earned him lasting fame – a fame that has somewhat overshadowed his merits as a sculptor. Many streets and schools in the Netherlands bear the name of this celebrated resistance figure. They include Amsterdam’s former Euterpestraat, home during the occupation of the much-feared Nazi Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst) – this street was renamed Gerrit van der Veenstraat soon after the war ended.

Connected stories

Several other copies of the portrait sculptures of Juliana are held in Dutch collections, but only this one truly embodies the drama of the Second World War: the Dutch royal family became a resistance symbol during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands; the portrait’s former owner and patron Nathan Wolf became one of the more than 100,000 Dutch victims of the Holocaust; and its sculptor Gerrit van der Veen paid for his resolve with his life. As well as a physical object in our collection, this bronze sculpture is part of the history and the stories with which it is connected.

Photo credits

• Photo Nathan Wolf: NIOD
• Photo Gerrit van der Veen: Stadsarchief Amsterdam / photographer unknown
• Photo honouring Nathan Wolf: Stadsarchief Amsterdam / Internationaal Persfoto Bureau N.V.