Drents Museum

Drents Museum
Established	28 November 1854
Location	Assen, Drenthe, Netherlands
Type	Art and History
Director	Michel van Maarseveen
Curator	Jan Jaap Heij Michel P. van Maarseveen[1]
Website	http://www.drentsmuseum.nl/

The Drents Museum^[2] is a historical museum located in Assen, Netherlands. It was founded by the King's Commissioner of Drenthe on November 28, 1854 as the Provincial Museum of Drents Antiquities.

Collection

The museum has a large permanent collection of prehistoric artifacts from the province of Drenthe. It includes exhibits of bog bodies such as the Yde Girl,^[3] the Weerdinge Men^[4] Exloërmond Man and the Emmer-Erscheidenveen Man.^[5] There are finds from the Funnelbeaker culture, and also include the oldest recovered canoe in the world, the Canoe of Pesse which dates between 8200 and 7600 BC.^[6][7]

The museum holds a permanent collection of figurative art with particular attention to Realism from Northern Europe and representatives of the fourth generation of Dutch Abstract figurative artists such as Henk Helmantel, Matthijs Röling, Sam Drukker, Douwe Elias, and Eddy Roos.

There is a collection of art and applied art from 1885 to 1935 with work by Vincent van Gogh, Jan Eisenloeffel, Chris Lebeau, Jan Toorop and Jan Sluijters.

An annex building has period rooms demonstrating the lifestyle of well-to-do Drenthe families from various time periods. This building also houses ceramics pertaining to the House of Orange known as the collection Bontekoe. In the garden stands a statue of Bartje Bartels, the main character of books by Anne de Vries^[8] and a symbol of the province of Drenthe.

On November 6, 2007, the museum announced that architect Erick van Egeraat was chosen to design a new extension for the museum. Total costs were estimated at eighteen million euro. From summer 2010 to summer 2011 the museum will be closed. The opening is planned for 2011. At the beginning of 2010, a new modern depot facility for around 90,000 objects and works of art was completed.

Selected exhibitions

• Go China! was a joint exhibition between the Drents Museum and the Groningen Museum held from February 2 to August 31, 2008. The Terracotta Army was the central exhibit. With 353,000 visitors, it was the most successful exhibition ever in the northern Netherlands.^[9] The Groninger Museum showed modern art from China with an emphasis on photography and installations made after 2000. In total, nearly 500,000 people visited the two exhibitions.^[10]

• Eddy Roos - Verstilde beweging. A major retrospective of the work of Eddy Roos was held from September 27, 2009 to January 25, 2010. It contained approximately 200 drawings and 70 bronze sculptures (including 16 life-size) with extracts from his 42 dance films and live performances with professional dancers.

• Goud uit Georgie, de mythe van het Gulden Vlies^[11] (Gold from Georgia, the myth of the Golden Fleece). An exhibition from March 6 to August 15, 2010, about grave findings from the bronze, iron and roman age in Georgia, among them golden objects from the temple city of Vani. Most of the exhibited objects are from the National museum in Tbilisi.

• In the autumn of 2011, the Drents Museum will open an exhibition on the Tang Dynasty, the Golden Age of China.

References

1. ^ "CODART - Curators Michel P. van Maarseveen". CODART. http://www.codart.nl/108/persons/details/?person_id=190. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 
2. ^ "Drents Museum". . http://www.drentsmuseum.nl/. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 
3. ^ "Bog mummie: Yde Girl". www.MummyTombs.com. http://www.mummytombs.com/bog/yde.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 
4. ^ "Bog mummie: Weerdinge Men". www.MummyTombs.com. http://www.mummytombs.com/bog/weerdinge.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 
5. ^ "Bog mummie: Emmer-Erscheidenveen Man". www.MummyTombs.com. http://www.mummytombs.com/bog/emmer.erfscheidenveen.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 
6. ^ Van Zeist, W. (1957), "De steentijd van Nederland", Nieuwe Drentse Volksalmanak 75: 4–11 
7. ^ "The Mysterious Bog People - Background to the exhibition". Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. 2001-07-05. http://www.civilization.ca/media/docs/pr148beng.html. Retrieved 2009-06-01. 
8. ^ "Anne de Vries". librarything.com. http://www.librarything.com/author/vriesannede. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 
9. ^ "Terracottasoldaten trekken recordaantal bezoekers". Nieuws.nl. 31 augustus 2008. http://binnenland.nieuws.nl/524961/Terracottasoldaten_trekken_recordaantal_bezoekers. 
10. ^ "Bijna half miljoen museumbezoekers zagen Go China!". Trouw.nl. 23 november 2008. http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/nederland/article1907883.ece/Bijna_half_miljoen_museumbezoekers_zagen_Go_China_.html. 
11. ^ "Goud uit Georgië - De mythe van het Gulden Vlies". Kunstbus.nl. http://www.kunstbus.nl/agenda/2009/20091003140825.html. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 

Coordinates: 52°59′35.88″N 6°33′51.84″E / 52.9933°N 6.5644°E / 52.9933; 6.5644