In 2020, my brother Chris and I founded the Grothe Foundation. We have housed a wonderful collection of family portraits in this foundation that go back as far as the 17th century. It’s not a typical thing to do for two people in their thirties, setting up a foundation like that. So how did two relatively young adults come to this?
Our story begins in 2014. It was November and the family was summoned. Things were not going well with our dear Omama, A.M. Grothe, and we had to prepare to say goodbye. From all corners of the Netherlands we came, I came from England where I was studying for my minor. Just in time. One day after my arrival, she passed away.
There are no words fit to describe what she meant to us. We were her pride and joy. Her love, her life. And we felt it. We loved coming to Apeldoorn regularly, where she lived for 60 years. In a large, detached white house on the edge of the forest, just like in children’s books. There we ran around, played, and explored all the treasures that were to be found inside. Books, an attic full of old-fashioned travelling crates, the cuckoo clock in the hallway. But above all the portraits… Portraits in the stairwell, in the sitting room, in the dining room. They hung everywhere in the house. But who were those strangely dressed people who hung there?
We fantasised about their lives. About the ladies in blue and red velvet with their little dogs. The gentlemen in curly wigs. The man with the whip leaning on a helmet. Portrayed in gold, richly decorated frames with coats of arms. And we secretly laughed at the girl in pink who had a hole in the canvas because a chair leg had once gone through it while moving.
So when the tears had dried and the air had cleared, we were horrified to find that those portraits had been taken to Christie’s by Omama’s French sister-in-law to be auctioned. We quickly started asking around and discovered. When Omama’s brother left for France years ago, he had left the portraits hanging in the Netherlands. He was not interested in them. However, he was the rightful owner, because the portraits had traditionally been inherited through the male line. So when he passed away in 1987, the ownership was transferred to his wife. But she was not interested either and wanted to auction them.
We could not let that happen. So Chris and I investigated. How could we keep these pieces, which for us are inextricably linked to Omama, in the family? The solution lay in establishing a foundation. A foundation in which all the portraits could be placed, so that such a similar situation would never occur again. A foundation that we could name after our Omama. Grothe Foundation.
So our next step was to persuade our French great-aunt to sell the portraits to the foundation and not to have them auctioned. After many letters and even visits to France, the time had finally come in 2020. We deposited our inheritance in the foundation’s bank account and bought the portraits. Finally, we had saved them from auction. But once in our possession, we saw that the portraits were in need of a thorough restoration. And that’s where the Hurgronje Family Fund came to the rescue.
After we had put our inheritance into buying the portraits, we no longer had the financial means to have them restored. So we applied for a grant from the Family Fund. And thanks to that donation, we were able to have the first portrait beautifully restored, the photos of which can be viewed here. A beautiful result and a restoration we could never have done without the help of the Family Fund, to which we are very grateful.
And guess which portrait was the first to be restored? That’ s right, the girl in pink where the chair leg had gone through.
Grothe Foundation
Christiaan van Bree
Belle van Bree
About the portrait
Depicted is Beatrix Verwey, married to Jacobus Woertman. The portrait was inherited through her sister Elisabeth Verwey, married to Rev. Martinus van Doelen; inheritance van Doelen > Lothen van Doelen > Grothe > Grothe van Schellach; coll. Mr. J.A. Grothe van Schellach.
Artist: Tibout Regters
Dated: 1730 – 1741.
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