About
ABOUT
Dr. Fred G. Meijer is a well-known art historian and an acclaimed connoisseur in the field of Dutch and Flemish seventeenth-century painting. He is widely recognized as a leading specialist in still-life painting of the period, as well as for his profound knowledge of other areas, such as genre painting, portraiture, and non-Netherlandish still-life painting.
In December of 1980, Fred Meijer joined the department of Old Dutch and Flemish Painting at the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Docmentatie (RKD, Netherlands Institute for Art History), initially as a documentalist, and has served in that department until June 2017, in recent decades as Curator and later Senior Curator. In that position, he has frequently advised museums, auction houses, art dealers and private collectors and continues to do so at Fred G. Meijer Art History.
Fred Meijer has published extensively on his fields of expertise in periodicals such as Oud Holland
and The Burlington Magazine, he contributed to many museum exhibition catalogues and collection catalogues, and wrote the catalogues of still life collections in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (1989) and in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (the Daisy Linda Ward Bequest, 2003). With Aat van der Willigen, he published A
Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils : 1525-1725
(2003). In 2016, he obtained his PhD degree with a monographic dissertation on the life and oeuvre of Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684).
Recent contributions to exhibitions
Early 2017, Fred Meijer was involved in the making of the exhibition Slow Food. Hollandse en Vlaamse Maaltijstilleven 1600-1640. For the catalogue he wrote the essay Meal Still Lifes in the Southern and Northern Netherlands: Reciprocal Inspiration?
See:
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/nl-nl/pers/persarchief/2016/slow-foodstillevens-uit-de-gouden-eeuw/
Selected publications
Fred Meijer wrote numerous articles (among others in Oud Holland, RKD Bulletin and Burlington Magazine) catalogue entries, notes and contributions to exhibition and museum catalogues, as well as to Saur Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, 1996-2013. See also: Publications
The following is a choice of the more extensive publications
2012
Jan Davidsz. de Heem Utrecht 1606-1683/84. A still life of a vase of flowers, a silver tazza and two pewter dishes of fruit on a table draped with an oriental carpet and a red cloth
Brochure, Richard Green Gallery, London, 2012
2011
‘Virtuosität, Wohlstand, und geträumte Trophäen. Niederländische Stilleben mit toten Tieren zwischen 1600 und 1800’
Essay and two catalogue entries in exhibition catalogue Von Schönheit und Tod. Tierstilleben von der Renaissance bis zur Moderne, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, 2011-2012
2009
‘Vanitas- und Bankettstilleben’
Essay in exhibition catalogue Die Magie der Dinge. Stillebenmalerei 1500-1800,
Städel Museum, Frankfurt/ Kunstmuseum Basel, 2008-2009
2006
Essays, entries and additions and corrigenda to the catalogue of Willem Kalf’s oeuvre in exhibitioncatalogue Willem Kalf 1619-1693,
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, Aachen, 2007-2007
Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606-1684): his influences and his followers
Brochure published for exhibition at Rafael Valls Gallery, London 2005
2004
Essay, compendium of fish still-life painters and numerous entries in exhibition catalogue FISH: Still lifes by Dutch and Flemish masters 1550-1700, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 2004
2003
A dictionary of Dutch and Flemish still-life painters in oils, 1525-1725
(with Adriaan van der Willigen)
Leiden (Primavera Press) 2003
Catalogue of the collection of paintings [in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford]: the collection of Dutch and Flemish still-life paintings bequeathed by Daisy Linda Ward
Catalogue of the bequest of Dutch and Flemish still-life paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Zwolle (Waanders) 2003
1989
Stillevens uit de Gouden Eeuw: eigen collectie / Still life paintings from the Golden Age: own Collection, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, RotterdamExhibition / collection catalogue, Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam,1989