Jan Kalf

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Jan Kalf (1866–1944)

Jan Kalf , also called Jan Kalff , (born May 10, 1873 in Amsterdam , † March 6, 1954 in The Hague ) was a Dutch art historian and monument conservator as well as secretary and director of the Rijksbureau voor de Monumentenzorg .

Youth, education and family

Jan Kalf was the son of the journalist Martinus Kalf, editor at Algemeen Handelsblad , and Magthilda Geertruida Goedkoop. He had a sister and a brother. As the son of a journalist, he grew up in an environment in which there was a great interest in cultural life. Kalf attended grammar school in Amsterdam and then studied literature and art history at the University of Amsterdam from 1892 to 1896 . He wrote many articles for De Kroniek , a socio-cultural and literary magazine published from 1895 to 1907. From 1897 onwards, his journalistic work mainly focused on arts and crafts and monument preservation. From 1898 to 1903 he worked at the Nederlandsch Museum van Geschiedenis en Kunst te Amsterdam (Dutch Museum of History and Art in Amsterdam), which was later integrated into the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam . Here he was involved, among other things, in the compilation of an important catalog on textile art. Around 1899 he married Magthilda Geertruida Goedkoop. The marriage has two daughters and a son. After divorcing in 1918, he married Marie Kapteijn in 1919. This marriage remained childless.

Act

Jan Kalf, portrayed by Toon Kelder (1939)

In 1903 the Rijkscommissie voor de inventarisatie van Nederlandse Monumenten was founded, chaired by the architect Eduard Cuypers . Kalf became secretary of the commission. Their task was to take stock and document the monuments in the Netherlands. Kalf drafted a standard template for describing monuments that remained in use for a long time. In 1912 he received an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of Utrecht

The work of the commission and the “restoration dispute” (see below) led to the establishment of the Rijksbureau voor de Monumentenzorg (“Reich Office for Monument Protection / Preservation”) in 1918 , of which Kalf was director for the first 20 years. He advocated a law that would prohibit the demolition and alteration of monuments, but could not get his way with this idea. After all, 350 monuments were restored during his time as director . On the other hand, many builders continued to practice demolition without hesitation, simply because there was no regulatory legal basis. In 1927 Kalf was appointed a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences .

Before the war, Kalf was of the opinion that if elements in a memorial needed to be replaced, then this should be done in a recognizable contemporary design rather than in an effort to necessarily recreate the possible original appearance of the memorial. This question was hotly debated in the professional world at the time. Kalf did not shy away from entering into violent disputes with representatives of the opposing position, such as Pierre Cuypers and Victor de Stuers , and found comrades-in- arms in the Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond (KNOB) ("Royal Dutch Classical Association"), founded in 1899 . For his consistent stance, he was offered honorary membership in the Bond van Nederlandsche Architecten (" Association of Dutch Architects ") in 1938 . Later Kalf relativized his dogmatic point of view and began to appreciate the more sophisticated restoration techniques based on the original.

Kalf was aware of the imminent danger of war and was therefore very concerned about "his" monuments. Thanks to his efforts, bomb-proof state storage bunkers were built in the dunes of the coastal areas. Even after his retirement in 1939, Kalf remained active as a secretary in the commission. In addition, he was appointed State Inspector for the Protection of Art. During the mobilization phase and during the war, he was thus responsible for the safety of the monuments and museum collections in the Netherlands. In this function he also resisted the German authorities when they tried to impose their ideas on the restoration of the town hall of Middelburg on the commission. He also did not take part in the NSB's efforts to establish legal protection for monuments.

After the war, Kalf became a member of a provisional monument council founded in 1947, which worked out proposals for a future monument protection law. Kalf did not live to see the law itself; it did not come into force until 1961, seven years after Kalf died at the age of 80 in The Hague .

Fonts (selection)

  • De monumenten in de voormalige baronie van Breda (= De Nederlandsche monumenten van geschiedenis en art. Geillustreerde beschrijving , D. 1: De Provincie Noordbrabant Stuk 1). Staatsuitgeverij, 's-Gravenhage 1912 (reprint Gijsbers & Van Loon, Arnhem 1973, digitized ).
  • Catalog of the national tentoonstelling van oude kerkelijke kunst te 's-Hertogenbosch : June – Sept. 1913. 's-Hertogenbosch 1913.
  • Grondbeginselen en voorschriften voor het behoud, de manufacturing en de uitbreiding van de oude bouwwerken . Nederlandsche Oudheidkundige Bond, Leiden 1917.

literature

  • Feestbundel voor Dr Jan Kalf. Aangeboden door het bestuur van den Nederlandschen Oudheidkundugen Bond. May 6, 1939 . Brill, Leiden 1936 (= special print from Oudheidkundig Jaarboek , Series 4, vol. 8, 1939).
  • AAM de Jong; Kalf, Jan (1873-1954) . In: Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland Volume 2, Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, s'Gravenhage 1985, ISBN 90-10-05501-9 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Jan Kalf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Thys: De Kroniek van PL Tak. Brandpunt van Nederlandse cultuur in de jaren negentig van de vorige eeuw . Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 6, 73, Gent 1955. Reprint: Wereldbibliotheek, Amsterdam / Antwerp 1956.
  2. ^ Nederlandsch Museum van Geschiedenis en Kunst te Amsterdam (ed.): Catalogus van de textiele kunst. Weefsels, gobelins, tapijten, borduurwerk, in the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst in Amsterdam . Nederlandsch Museum van Geschiedenis en Kunst te Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1903.
  3. ↑ a b A. AM de Jong; Kalf, Jan (1873-1954) . In: Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland Volume 2, Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, s'Gravenhage 1985, ISBN 90-10-05501-9 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Th. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer; Stuers, yr. Victor Eugène Louis de (1843-1916) . In: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland . Volume 1, Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, s'Gravenhage 1979, ( digitized version ).
  5. ↑ KNOB website (Dutch), accessed on November 20, 2018.
  6. ↑ Vincent van Rossem: Een halve eeuw Monumentenwet 1961–2011 . In: Bulletin KNOB 111, 2012, 1, pp. & Nbsp54-60, ISSN  2589-3343 , ( digitized ).


personal data
SURNAME Kalf, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kalff, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch art historian and monument conservator
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1954
Place of death The hague