A Masterful Union: Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar and The Kremer Collection plan Long-Term Collaboration

This prominent private collection of around a hundred 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings has been assembled by the Kremers over the past 30 years. The loan will enhance Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar's offerings in 17th-century art and add greater urgency to the museum’s longstanding desire to expand its space. Until 1 June 2025, approximately 50 works from the collection will be on display at a temporary exhibition titled The Kremer Collection: A Shared Love.

“The Kremer Collection is one of today’s foremost private collections of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings”, says Marrigje Rikken, director of Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar. “It is fantastic that we may be able to present this internationally renowned collection, which includes an early Rembrandt, in Alkmaar for the foreseeable future. This will enable us to place our own collection in the context of national developments at the time and will thus be an important complement to our collection. In one fell swoop, Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar will join the ranks of Dutch museums with leading collections of 17th-century art.”

“We have been following Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar for some time”, George Kremer explains. “We are excited by its ambition and its expansion plans to enable it to serve a wider audience. It is partly for this reason that Ilone, Joël and I, after multiple conversations with each other and with the fantastic people who work at the museum, have decided to embark on a path that should lead to the long-term presentation of our collection at Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar. It has always been our mission to share the collection with as many people as possible, and to share the love and pleasure of each work we have bought together. We see that this mission ties in very well with the museum’s plans. We feel confident that this will increase the impact this beautiful museum aims to have in the region, in the Netherlands and beyond.”

To accommodate this important collection, the museum will need additional space. This extraordinary opportunity adds greater urgency to the museum’s ambition to expand. For some time, Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar has had a desire to create more space for public activities, co-creation, education and presentations of contemporary and other art. This will allow the museum to serve residents of and visitors to Alkmaar and the region even better.

Since 1994, George and Ilone Kremer have been carefully building the Kremer Collection, which comprises around a hundred paintings, including work by Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Judith Leyster, Caesar van Everdingen and Michael Sweerts. The collection encompasses a wide range of genres, including landscapes, history paintings, Italianate art, seascapes, portraits and genre painting. One of the absolute highlights of the collection is a 1627/28 painting by Rembrandt entitled Bust of an Old Man Wearing a Turban. Another distinctive element of the Kremer Collection is the large group of works by the Northern Caravaggisti. The collection is extraordinary not only for the quality of the art, but also for the way in which the couple and their son Joël share their passion with the public.

Main Image: REMBRANDT, Harmensz van Rijn, Old man turban, Courtesy Kremer Collection