Dr Elie van Rijckevorsel - A collection of collections

This autumn several museums in Rotterdam are organising exhibitions about the Rotterdam-based patron, scientist and globe-trotter Dr Elie van Rijckevorsel (1845-1928). During his travels to remote parts of the world as a physicist he collected objects from a variety of cultures. A selection of these objects will be displayed in various museums in Rotterdam this autumn.

Dr Elie van Rijckevorsel was an important patron of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. From 1910 he donated parts of his extensive collections of European glass (15th and 19th centuries) and Chinese and Japanese porcelain (17th and 19th centuries). The museum also benefited from his bequest in 1928. In 1911 Van Rijckevorsel established the Erasmus Foundation to promote the arts, education and science.

Click here to see the video 'Biography of a glass' on arttube.boijmans.nl.

Van Rijckevorsel in Rotterdam

Rotterdam’s museums are celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Erasmus Foundation with a series of exhibitions devoted to the founder: Dr Elie van Rijckevorsel. The exhibitions focus not only on his collections of decorative arts and ethnographica but also his travels, his herbarium and his lifestyle. There is also a publication to celebrate the Erasmus Foundation’s centenary. The season opens at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen on 10 September, followed by exhibitions at the Wereldmuseum, Museum Rotterdam, the Natural History Museum and the Maritime Museum.

The exhibition has been made possible by a generous gift of Erasmusstichting.