Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman and the Werkmaniana in the British Library

Abstract

THE city of Groningen, capital of the Dutch province of the same name, lies in the far north-east corner of the country, separated from its main cultural centres by the IJsselmeer and being reached, before the advent of air travel, only by a long journey by road or rail.Before the last war a business visitor from Amsterdam without the use of a car to take him across the Afsluitdijk could not hope to make the return trip in a single day. Luckily this prospect did not deter W. J. H. Sandberg, then keeper, later director of the Municipal Museum of Amsterdam, from undertaking the journey in 1938 for the sole purpose of visiting Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman. He returned full of admiration and carrying with him the first of many acquisitions which were to give the Stedelijk Museum it's unequalled Werkman collection.