Albertus Brondgeest

Albertus Brondgeest was born in Amsterdam. He was a Dutch art dealer, draftsman, painter, copyist and engraver based in the city of his birth. He was also known as a landscape painter.

Brondgeest came from a prosperous family. At a young age he aspired to be an artist, going against the wishes of his parents, who ultimately agreed to allow their son to fulfill his dreams. He became the pupil of painters Pieter Cornelis van Os and Wouter Johannes Troostwijk. At the same time, he began collecting paintings. In 1817 Brondgeest launched his own art dealership. He earned enough money though this business to purchase a country house outside Haarlem.

He married Anna Barbara Ratelband in 1828. They had three sons and three daughters.

Brondgeest was an active member of several artistic institutions. He belonged to the Amsterdam drawing society Zonder Wet of Spreuk (“without law or motto”). From 1816, he was a member of the Fourth Class of the Koninklijk Nederlandsch Instituut (Royal Dutch Institute) and a member of the Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam (Royal Academy of Visual Arts) as well as the Koninklijke Academie te Antwerpen (Royal Academy of Antwerp).

On 15 May 1832, Brondgeest attended the Saportas sale and acquired Caspar Netscher’s Jeunes artistes – then attributed to Godfried Schalcken. It eventually entered the collection of Adolphe Schloss. After the Germans seized the Schloss Collection in April 1943, they catalogued the Netscher painting as “Schloss 160”.

For more information see: Hoogenboom, A. “Art for the market: contemporary painting in the Netherlands in the first half of the nineteenth century”, Simiolus: _Netherlandish Quarterly for the History of Art _vol. 22 nr. 3, (1993-1994), pp. 129-147; p. 145. Hoogenboom, A. De stand des kunstenaars: de positie van kunstschilders in Nederland in de eerste helft van de negentiende eeuw. Primavera Press, 1993. Priem, P. “Veilinghouders: de firma Roos en Jeronimo de Vries’”. RKD Bulletin 1996, nr. 2, pp. 7-10. Nederland in de eerste helft van de negentiende eeuw. Primavera Press, 1993, p. 204. Jonkman, Mayken (ed.), Eva Geudeker. Mythen van het atelier: werkplaats en schilderpraktijk van de negentiende-eeuwse Nederlandse kunstenaar. d’Jonge Hond 2010, p. 57. [about:blank https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/artists/record?query=albertus+brondgeest&start=0] Accessed 4 June 2021.