NEWS
2023 is the 200th anniversary year of Paul Tetar van Elven's birth. This special year is being celebrated with a range of events in the museum: the exhibitions "Family Portraits", "The Naked Ideal" and "The False Vermeer". There were also concerts, lectures and classes in the museum. The exhibition of historical costumes "Well Dressed" will round off the year.
Art History student Jessie Windahl Fransen has written her Masters dissertation about the copies that Tetar van Elven made of Raphael's "Sistine Madonna". Read more HERE.
New - a combi-ticket to visit both museums Paul Tetar van Elven and Lambert van Meerten for a reduced price.
MUSEUM PAUL TETAR VAN ELVEN
Visit the home of a 19th century artist!
In the centre of Delft, on the Koornmarkt, stands the house of Paul Tetar van Elven (1823-1896). He was an artist, a drawing-master at the Polytechnic School (now the Technical University of Delft) and also a fervent collector of art, antiques, Delft blue pottery and porcelain from the Far East. In his will he left his house and its contents to be turned into a museum. The result is the only well-preserved, authentic example of a 19th century artist’s house in the Netherlands. The interior of the house breathes the presence of the former owner and the era in which he lived. Visitors feel like the artist and his wife are personally welcoming them into their lavishly-furnished drawing room!
In addition to the permanent collection, the Paul Tetar van Elven Museum regularly organises exhibitions and other activities.
THE NAKED IDEAL
until 26th November 2023
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Paul Tétar van Elven’ birth, the museum has organised a unique exhibition of his academy drawings of live models. The exhibition has been curated by guest conservator Nina Reid (1998). Nina Reid specialised in drawing education during her History of Art studies, and she is also the author of the publication accompanying the exhibition.
Paul studied at the Academies in Amsterdam and The Hague and made many drawings during this period of naked (male) models. According to John Sillevis, art historian and chief conservator of the Kunstmuseum in The Hague, the drawing are of exceptionally good quality.
Paul Tétar van Elven’s drawings give us a window to look back at art education and its ideals in the mid-19th century. The basics of an academic art education lay in the study of proportion and anatomy. The accent was on achieving a perfection of beauty and form, as exemplified by the classical models from ancient Rome and Greece. Students began by drawing from plaster copies of famous sculptures, and then moved onto drawing live models. The exhibition also includes some of Paul’s many drawings of plaster models.
Concerts
2023 is the 200th anniversary year of Paul Tetar van Elven's birth. This special year is being celebrated with a range of events in the museum: the exhibitions "Family Portraits" (finished), "The Naked Ideal" and "The False Vermeer" (finished). There are also concerts, lectures (finished) and classes in the museum. An exhibition of historical costumes will round off the year.
Paul Tetar van Elven was an amateur flute player, and his wife Louise played piano. They attended many concerts together and played music together at home. Paul was a member of an amateur orchestra in Delft, and he also played in many of the private "salons" that were held around the city: "He was the happiest man in the world when he was playing his flute. His flute was often to be heard, both in the orchestra and at home with friends." (Tribute by A.L.H. Obreen, 1897).
Patricia Wind-Smith, a volunteer in the museum (and also a flute player) is shining a light on this area of Paul's life. In 2023 there is a series concerts, with music that Paul (possibly) played. In June and September there are house-concerts in the Purple Room of the museum with chamber music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Weber and others: music typically played in 19th century salons. And, in November, an amateur orchestra from The Hague is coming to Delft to repeat a programme that Paul actually played with his orchestra in 1861.
Sunday 17th September 2023 – House-concert in the museum. 11am (for public) and 4pm (for volunteers and Friends of the museum).
Saturday 18th November 2023, 8 PM – Concert by Haags Symfonie Orkest Euterpe in the Old Catholic Church, Bagijnhof, Delft.
Prices and tickets to follow soon.
Combi-ticket - visit two unusual museum-houses in Delft for a reduced price
While you are visiting the museum-house of Paul Tetar van Elven, why not also visit the home of his contemporary, Lambert van Meerten? Van Meerten, a successful industrialist, was an avid collector of art and artefacts, as was Tetar van Elven. Van Meerten had an imposing house built for him on the Oude Delft to house his collection of furniture, archeological fragments and Delftware.
A visit to the van Meerten house feels like a visit to its one-time occupants, Lambert and his sister Dina. Sit behind Lambert's desk, and then take a look inside his hidden strong-room. Or, drink a cup of tea in Dina's sitting room and even add a couple of stitches to her embroidery work. In other words, make yourself at home!
The Combi-ticket can be purchased at both museums, or online at the Museumhuis van Meerten website. Address of the van Meerten Museum: Oude Delft 199, 2611 HD Delft.
You can visit the two museums on the same day, or on different days.
Price without museum pass (museumjaarkaart) €14.50 (usual price €17.50). Price with museum pass €6 (usual price €8).
