Claude Monet
The museum owns a superb collection of French Impressionists, including five pieces by Monet.
La maison du pêcheur,
Varengeville, 1882
Oil on canvas, 60 x 78 cm
Inventory number: 1544 (MK)
That the museum owns this masterpiece by Claude Monet is thanks to the special relationship it developed with the Rotterdam-base cabinetmaker and collector J.P. van der Schilden (1851-1925). His main field was classical and contemporary applied arts but he also admired the painters of the Hague School. Van der Schilden was devoted to the museum, regularly donating works of art but also serving the institution in a more practical way: he was treasurer of the museum's committee from 1907 and was present each week to pay the museum's staff in person.
Van der Schilden remained a lifelong bachelor and was particularly careful with his money and personal affairs. When he died in 1925 he left the museum no only his art collection but also a large share of his considerable fortune, which was used to finance acquisitions such as this painting by Monet in 1928. Three years later the remainder of his bequest contributed to one of the museum's most spectacular purchases: The Pedlar by Hieronymus Bosch.
Champ de coquelicots, 1881
ROOM 25
