Kunsthandel Van Lier

Description

Carel van Lier (1897-1945) started a gallery in Laren in 1924 and moved to Amsterdam three years later. In the early years, Kunstzaal Van Lier was primarily concerned with modern European art. However, Van Lier also became fascinated with the aesthetics of African sculpture styles. The exhibition of his private collection of African art at the Gemeentemuseum Amsterdam in 1927 had an influence on modernist painters at the time. Soon Van Lier was dealing in Asian art, African sculpture and ethnographic objects from around the world, including Native North America). These objects were acquired from private collectors in the Netherlands, during trips to London, Paris, Brussels and Antwerp, and through his network of relations in the international ethnographic art trade, like art dealer Charles Ratton in Paris. The Jewish Carel van Lier died in a German concentration camp in 1945.

The widow of Carel van Lier, Elisabeth van de Velde, continued the business for several years after the war. In 1949, she sold the business to Leendert van Lier (1910-1995, not a relative). Leendert van Lier also sold tribal art, Chinese ceramics and modern European art. In 1954 he moved to Utrecht and the sales were carried out from his home. A similar arrangement continued from 1961 in the small town of Veere in the province of Zeeland, where lovers of tribal art, such as professor and collector Theo Van Baaren, knew where to find Leendert van Lier. The art dealer made regular trips to London and Paris to acquire objects for his trade. After his death, his collection of ethnographics was auctioned at Christie's Amsterdam in 1997.

Provenance research

Because Carel van Lier was a Jewish victim of the Second World War, colonial objects acquired through him may also fall under involuntary loss of possession during the Nazi era.

Records from the period of Carel van Lier and his wife (1927-1948) are kept at the RKD, as are a number of records from the period of Leendert van Lier (these appear to mainly relate to European art). The remainder of the archives are in the possession of the heirs of Carel van Lier and Leendert van Lier.

Resources

• RKD – Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis / Carel van Lier NL-HaRKD.0108
  Letters and postcards, mainly from artists, and other papers covering the period 1927-1948 — https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/collections/108
• RKD – Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis / Leendert van Lier NL-HaRKD.0065
  Number of invitations Kunstzaal van Lier, 1951-1953; number of catalogs including Mostra internazionale del Surrealismo, 1961. A scrapbook with photos of work by Bob Hanf; 2 photos of artworks, photocopies of letters from Eugène Brands and others, 1954-1955. — https://rkd.nl/explore/collections/65
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