In 1887, Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten opened their art collection to the public. A significant part of the collection the couple had assembled over the preceding years consisted of paintings and drawings, particularly by artists of the Barbizon and Hague Schools.
These high-quality works established the reputation of Museum Mesdag (now The Mesdag Collection). A less-well-known, but equally substantial, part of their collection consists of applied art: ranging from ceramics and metalwork to tapestries and woodcarving.
In previous years, several parts of the Mesdag’s applied art collection have been studied in depth and highlighted in publications and accompanying exhibitions: the Japanese objects in 2018 and Theo Colenbrander’s ceramics in 2019. The museum aims to research and make the remaining areas of its applied art collection accessible in the same way.
Some 35 objects thought to originate from West Asia are currently being studied with financial support from the Colonial Collections Consortium. The Chinese applied art sub-collection will also be studied at a later stage.
