August de Ridder

August Cornelius de Ridder (born May 4, 1837 in Antwerp , † May 13, 1911 in Paris ) was a Belgian-German merchant and art collector. He was related to the French archaeologist André de Ridder .

August Cornelius de Ridder

He lived in Germany from 1863 and acquired Prussian citizenship in 1899. August de Ridder first worked in the export company of Ludwig August Müller, co-founder of the tea dye factory Meister Lucius and Brüning in Hoechst am Main. From 1863 he was the commercial director of the company, from which in 1880 the inking works. Master Lucius & Brüning AG emerged. De Ridder was a member of the board of the Farbwerke from 1880 to 1907.

Initially from Antwerp, he maintained business connections with Great Britain and France. In England he acquired z. B. Coking residues as raw material for "tar colors", the new products of carbon chemistry . At the same time he was responsible for their export, e.g. B. the introduction of gas light-compatible aldehyde green as a textile dye in France. The first dress dyed with aldehyde green was worn by Empress Eugénie , the wife of Napoleon III. After their appearance, the demand for the dye rose suddenly.

He was also involved in cooperation agreements with university medicine, e.g. B. the contract between the Farbwerke and Emil von Behring for the development of a serum to combat diphtheria from 1892.

De Ridder acquired a considerable fortune, which enabled him to live in a spacious villa in a large park on the Eichbühel in Schönberg near Kronberg im Taunus from 1891 . It also formed the starting point of his art collection, which, after initially collecting pictures by contemporary painters, concentrated more and more on the Dutch and Flemish masters of the 17th century and thematically on portraits, genre pictures, interiors and landscapes from 1890 onwards. The hallmark of the collection was its unusual homogeneity combined with the highest quality. He acquired almost all of the pictures from the Parisian gallery owner Francois Kleinberger, also advised by Wilhelm von Bode , the curator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. Von Bode also presented the gallery with 85 pictures in a carefully edited and lavishly equipped catalog, which was first published in German and French in 1913 and later also in English in a short version.

After de Ridder's death in 1911, the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt initially took over the collection on loan. De Ridder had stipulated in his will that if the family should decide to sell the collection, this should be done through Kleinberger. The collection came to Kleinberger's New York branch via Paris in 1913, where it was presented to potential American buyers from November 24 to December 15, 1913. It then returned to Paris, where it was when the war broke out in 1914 and was confiscated as enemy property. Mise sous séquestre, elle est restée notre gage, faible compensation à tant de dégats et de mutilations (Rouchèz 1924, 525). On June 2, 1924, in accordance with this legal opinion, a foreclosure auction took place in Paris.

literature

Ernst Bäumler: The red factory. Family history of a global company. Piper, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-492-10669-2 .
Ernst Benkard : The de Ridder collection. Notes on the art of the 17th century Dutch. In: Kunst und Künstler: illustrated monthly for fine arts and applied arts , October 1912, p. 602 ( online )
Wilhelm Bode: The painting gallery of the former Mr. A. de Ridder in his villa in Schönberg near Cronberg in the Taunus. Verlag Julius Bard, Berlin 1913 (edition: 75 copies).
Wilhelm Bode: La Galerie des tableaux de feu Monsieur A. de Ridder dans sa villa de Schönberg, près de Cronberg (Taunus). Traduit par Paul Martin. Julius Bard Editeur, Berlin 1913 (edition: 25 copies).
Festschrift Höchster Schloßfest 2011 , pp. 38–42 ( PDF; 2.6 MB )
Wilhelm Jung (Ed.): Kronberg from A - Z. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt / M. 1998, p. 119.
F. Kleinberger Galleries: Catalog of the A.de Ridder Collection Exhibited at the F. Kleinberger Galleries In New York, 709 Fifth Avenue, November - December 1913. ( online ).
De Ridder Exhibition. In: American Art News, Vol. XII, No. 7, New York, November 22, 1913.
A Frankfurt art collection in Paris under the hammer. In: Neue Wiesbadener Zeitung, May 22, 1924
Gabriel Rouchèz: La Collection de Ridder. In: L'Illustration, vol. 82, no. 4239, Samedi May 31, 1924, pp. 525-530.
De Ridder collection, hand drawings, copperplate engravings. Frankfurt 1932 ( [1] )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Ridder, August de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ridder, August Cornelius de (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Belgian-German merchant and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH	May 4, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH	Antwerp
DATE OF DEATH	May 13, 1911
Place of death	Paris