What is your Beloved? Part I

In 2024, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen celebrates its 175th anniversary. To mark this occasion, almost 100 top pieces can be seen in the Depot in the exhibitions Beloved & Beloved XL. Discover the favourites of colleagues and friends in this portrait series.

Peter

Who are you? What do you do?
I'm Peter van der Coelen, and have been working at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen for about twenty years as a curator of prints and drawings. Additionally, I curated the exhibition Lievelingen.

What is your Beloved, and why?
I have chosen a drawing by Jheronimus Bosch, The Owl's Nest from around 1505-1515. This work is over 500 years old, yet still looks fresh. It is a close-up of three owls seeking their nest in an old tree in the morning. It's incredible how Bosch uses quick, short lines to make the difference palpable between the soft feathers of the birds and the dry tree bark.

More info about Beloved & Beloved XL

Jheronimus Bosch, The Owl's Nest, c. 1505-1515

Esmée

Who are you? What do you do?
I'm Esmée Verheijen, responsible for buying and product development for the Depot Store.

What is your Beloved, and why?
It’s difficult to pick a favourite, because there is so much choice. We have more than 154.000 objects in the collection. Normally I would have chosen Grey, Orange on Maroon, No 8 by Mark Rothko. In my opinion Rothko is a great painter and there are only a few paintings in a Dutch public collection by him. But this time I went for a work by a female artist, Elaine Sturtevant. A silksreen print with acrylic paint on canvas. I wanted to choose something that was intuitive and lesser known. I really like the shapes and colour combination. Because of the graphic motif and the bright contrast it’s quite bold. The frame works too. It's very cute.

Elaine Sturtevant, Study for Warhol Flowers, 1965

Roland

Who are you? What do you do?
My name is Roland Niemeijer and I have been working at the museum for over 32 years. I have been working as a collection manager since 2014, and in the years before that I worked for the TA (exhibitions/arthandling). Now I am mainly concerned with packaging and transporting art within the Depot and to other museums, conservation work and couriering.

What is your Beloved, and why?
My favourite is Dog Bite/Ax to Grind by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1983. I have a full-size copy of this work hanging above my couch, and I have traveled with it a lot. The dog in the painting looks very similar to a Podenco Canario, one of the oldest dog breeds, originally from Egypt. My dog, Yena, is of the same breed, so that makes it extra special.