Posted by Marianne on 24/10/2009, 8:00:02
Message modified by administrator coad 24/10/2009, 8:09:06
As mentioned recently by JH:
http://members3.boardhost.com/Beneluxroyal/msg/1255852415.html
many lovely photographs by Court Photographer Ziegler are to be admired, both on the Dutch Royal Website, but also in museum Jan Cunen in Oss.
I recently visited this museum and both the exhibition & the museum itself are absolutely worth a visit!
The reason for having this special exhibition in Oss is that mr. Ziegler 's daughter still lives there. The family (and many others) donated several lesser known photographs from their own private collections.
Plenty spacious and light rooms on the second floor contain lots & lots of beautiful bl/wh photographs.
Many familiar faces, as Ziegler portrayed both well-known politicians of those days (Colijn!) as well as many artists (singers/ballet/theatre) and also the (in)famous conductor Willem Mengelberg can be seen there.
Each room had a different theme and there were clear explainations how he worked and why he had opted for the specific settings for some of his clients. Pics of his studio's and some highly impressive camera's too.
The room containing all the royal pics was the largest room & all along the walls and there was a great number of official portraits, most of which are known from royal books and/or old postcards.
There were also two glass cases standing in the middle of the room, and these were (for me anyway) the far most interesting part as they showed many private and never seen before photographs.
I assume some of these items were the ones found at the Soestdijk attic, as there was for example a series of pics taken of Beatrix on the day she was christened (May 12, 1938) in her christening finery and there were several 'behind the scenes' pics of that event.
Another interesting item was an album with pics of King Leopold of Belgium sitting behind his desk (only front cover was shown, alas).
A shot of a room at Soestdijk (cramped with 'all sorts' of furniture & hardly any walking space) where one in a far corner suddenly spots the lovely special cradle (still in use for the heir(ess) to the throne) which wee Beatrix at that time was using, obviously.
Cradle was a gift from the city of Amsterdam to Wilhelmina at the time of Juliana's birth btw.
A pic full of contrasts!
More special series were shown in that glass case: Wilhelmina & Juliana posing together. There are actually only a few pics from that series known but here was the complete series, showing a mother & daughter who were having fun together and obviously very close to each other!
I am glad that we took some pics of these items as these can't be found in the catalogue.
Now that I mention the catalogue: it is beautifully made and it seems to have been published solely for this specific exhibtion.
Only thing I am not so positive about is the fact that, despite all photographs having been arranged by category in the rooms, they have been put 'at random' in this book.
So, no special section with artists, or with musicians or even royals (...), no, you'll find for example a young & vulnerable looking Juliana next to a grim-looking elderly statesman...
However, all pics are, as can be expected, beautifully reproduced and over the full size of each page, mentioning who is who, the year it was taken and its actual size, plus which technique was used for that photograph.
Enjoy 
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