Liesbeth Heenk

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Liesbeth Heenk
LiesbethHeenk.jpg
Heenk in 2019
Born (1962-05-01) May 1, 1962 (age 60)
NationalityDutch
EducationBA, MA Leiden University
PhD (1995) Courtauld Institute of Art
Known forFounder of Amsterdam Publishers, Vincent van Gogh art historian
Website https://amsterdampublishers.com

Liesbeth Heenk (born May 1, 1962) is an international publisher, author and art historian specialised in Vincent van Gogh. She is the founder of Amsterdam Publishers which is the largest international publisher of Holocaust memoirs in Europe.

Contents

Biography

After obtaining her BA and MA degree in art history at Leiden University, Heenk worked as assistant curator for the Van Gogh 1990 centenary exhibition held at the Kröller-Müller museum in Otterlo. [1] [2] She wrote her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art on 'Vincent van Gogh's Drawings: An Analysis of their Production and Uses' (1995). [3] [4] Her findings were covered in The Art Newspaper. [5]

During her work as a print specialist at Christie's in London (1994–98), she discovered Rembrandt's copperplate Abraham entertaining the Angels when examining the back of a painting on copper by Pieter Geysels. [6] The copperplate, made by Rembrandt in 1656, was acquired at auction by the National Gallery of Art in Washington. [7] As Director of Business Development at Sotheby's in Amsterdam, Heenk organised single-owner sales such as Treasures of a World Traveler: the Collection of Boudewijn Büch (2004), the Elephants of Prince Bernhard (2005) and the Collection of the late Frits Philips (2006). [8] [9] In 2009, she sat on the Scientific Committee for the Van Gogh exhibition at the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, while working for the Royal Household at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. She has also sat on various committees of Dutch museums.

With her imprint Amsterdam Publishers, established in 2012, Heenk publishes books about the Holocaust. [10]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helene Kröller-Müller</span> German art collector (1869–1939)

Helene Kröller-Müller was a German art collector. She was one of the first European women to put together a major art collection. She is credited with being one of the first collectors to recognise the genius of Vincent van Gogh. She donated her entire collection to the Dutch people, along with her and her husband, Anton Kröller's, large forested country estate. Today it is the Kröller-Müller Museum and sculpture garden and Hoge Veluwe National Park, the largest national park in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kröller-Müller Museum</span> Art museum, National museum in Otterlo, Netherlands

The Kröller-Müller Museum is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of her and her husband's former estate, opened in 1938. It has the second-largest collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh, after the Van Gogh Museum. The museum had 380,000 visitors in 2015.

<i>The Potato Eaters</i> Painting by Vincent van Gogh

The Potato Eaters is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted in April 1885 in Nuenen, Netherlands. It is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The original oil sketch of the painting is at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and he also made lithographs of the image, which are held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The painting is considered to be one of Van Gogh's masterpieces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portraits of Vincent van Gogh</span>

The portraits of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) are the self-portraits, portraits of him by other artists, and photographs—one of which is dubious—of the Dutch artist. Van Gogh's dozens of self-portraits were an important part of his œuvre as a painter. Most probably, van Gogh's self-portraits are depicting the face as it appeared in the mirror he used to reproduce his face, i.e. his right side in the image is in reality the left side of his face.

<i>LArlésienne</i> (painting) Six similar paintings by Vincent van Gogh

L'Arlésienne, L'Arlésienne : Madame Ginoux, or Portrait of Madame Ginoux is the title given to a group of six similar paintings by Vincent van Gogh, painted in Arles, November 1888, and in Saint-Rémy, February 1890. L'Arlésienne means literally "the woman from Arles".

Vincent van Gogh lived during the Impressionist era. With the development of photography, painters and artists turned to conveying the feeling and ideas behind people, places, and things rather than trying to imitate their physical forms. Impressionist artists did this by emphasizing certain hues, using vigorous brushstrokes, and paying attention to highlighting. Vincent van Gogh implemented this ideology to pursue his goal of depicting his own feelings toward and involvement with his subjects. Van Gogh's portraiture focuses on color and brushstrokes to demonstrate their inner qualities and van Gogh's own relationship with them.

<i>At Eternitys Gate</i> Oil painting by Vincent van Gogh

Sorrowing Old Man is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he made in 1890 in Saint-Rémy de Provence based on an early lithograph. The painting was completed in early May at a time when he was convalescing from a severe relapse in his health some two months before his death, which is generally accepted as a suicide.

<i>Décoration for the Yellow House</i> 1888 painting series by Vincent van Gogh

Décoration for the Yellow House was the main project Vincent van Gogh focused on in Arles, from August 1888 until his breakdown the day before Christmas. This Décoration had no pre-defined form or size; the central idea of the Décoration grew step by step, with the progress of his work. Starting with the Sunflowers, portraits were included in the next step. Finally, mid-September 1888, the idea took shape: from this time on he concentrated on size 30 canvases, which were all meant to form part of this Décoration.

<i>Still Life with Straw Hat</i> Painting by Vincent van Gogh

Still Life with Straw Hat also known as Still Life with Yellow Straw Hat and Still Life with Hat and Pipe was painted by Vincent van Gogh in late November - mid-December 1881 or possibly in 1885 in the town of Nuenen.

<i>Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy</i> (Van Gogh series) Series of paintings by Vincent van Gogh

Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy is a collection of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made when he was a self-admitted patient at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, since renamed the Clinique Van Gogh, from May 1889 until May 1890. During much of his stay there he was confined to the grounds of the asylum, and he made paintings of the garden, the enclosed wheat field that he could see outside his room and a few portraits of individuals at the asylum. During his stay at Saint-Paul asylum, Van Gogh experienced periods of illness when he could not paint. When he was able to resume, painting provided solace and meaning for him. Nature seemed especially meaningful to him, trees, the landscape, even caterpillars as representative of the opportunity for transformation and budding flowers symbolizing the cycle of life. One of the more recognizable works of this period is The Irises. Works of the interior of the hospital convey the isolation and sadness that he felt. From the window of his cell he saw an enclosed wheat field, the subject of many paintings made from his room. He was able to make but a few portraits while at Saint-Paul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early works of Vincent van Gogh</span> Painting series by Vincent van Gogh

The early works of Vincent van Gogh comprise a group of paintings and drawings that Vincent van Gogh made when he was 27 and 28, in 1881 and 1882, his first two years of serious artistic exploration. Over the course of the two-year period Van Gogh lived in several places. He left Brussels, where he had studied for about a year in 1881, to return to his parents’ home in Etten, where he made studies of some of the residents of the town. In January 1882 Van Gogh went to The Hague where he studied with his cousin-in-law Anton Mauve and set up a studio, funded by Mauve. During the ten years of Van Gogh's artistic career from 1881 to 1890 Vincent's brother Theo would be a continuing source of inspiration and financial support; his first financial support began in 1880 funding Vincent while he lived in Brussels.

<i>Peasant Character Studies</i> (Van Gogh series) Painting series by Vincent van Gogh

Peasant Character Studies is a series of works that Vincent van Gogh made between 1881 and 1885.

<i>Sien</i> (Van Gogh series) Dutch tailor and prostitute

Vincent van Gogh drew and painted a series of works of his mistress Sien during their time together in the Netherlands. In particular, his drawing Sorrow is widely acknowledged as a masterwork of draftsmanship, the culmination of a long and sometimes uncertain apprenticeship in learning his craft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands)</span> Painting series by Vincent van Gogh

Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands) is the subject of many drawings, sketches and paintings made during Vincent van Gogh's early artistic career. Most still lifes made in the Netherlands are dated from 1884 to 1885, when he lived in Nuenen. His works were often in somber colors. Van Gogh experimented with the use of light falling across objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris)</span>

Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris) is the subject of many drawings, sketches and paintings by Vincent van Gogh in 1886 and 1887 after he moved to Montmartre in Paris from the Netherlands. While in Paris, Van Gogh transformed the subjects, color and techniques that he used in creating still life paintings.

<i>Tree Roots</i> 1890 painting by Vincent van Gogh

Tree Roots is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. The painting is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in his last landscapes.

<i>Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg</i>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amsterdam Publishers</span> Holocaust memoir publisher

Amsterdam Publishers is the largest publisher of Holocaust memoirs in Europe. It was founded in 2012 by Dutch art historian Liesbeth Heenk. Since 2019 it focuses on Holocaust-related literature.

References

  1. "Liesbeth Heenk author of Secrets of Van Gogh". SECRETS OF VAN GOGH. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  2. "Vincent van Gogh: The Fakes Controversy". www.vggallery.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  3. Heenk, Liesbeth (January 1994). "Revealing van Gogh: An Examination of His Papers". The Paper Conservator. 18 (1): 30–39. doi:10.1080/03094227.1994.9638586. ISSN   0309-4227.
  4. "bol.com | DVD Vincent van Gogh's Drawings. An Analysis of their Production and Uses, door..." www.bol.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  5. "Vincent van Gogh: The Fakes Controversy". www.vggallery.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  6. "Rembrandt found in antique shop" . The Independent. 22 October 2011. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  7. "Rembrandt van Rijn: Abraham Entertaining the Angels". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  8. "Liesbeth Heenk author of Secrets of Van Gogh". SECRETS OF VAN GOGH. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  9. "Howard Hodgkin". thamesandhudson.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  10. "Amsterdam Publishers grootste Europese specialist in Holocaust memoires - BOEKBLAD - Vaktijdschrift voor boekhandel, uitgeverij, auteurs en bibliotheek". boekblad.nl. Retrieved 30 January 2021.