Fritz Mayer van den Bergh (1858-1901) was a collector of art and his collection is displayed at his museum in Antwerp. The private art collection Mayer van den Bergh consists of 3100 art object, paintings, coins, statues and more. Three years after his sudden death his mother realised her sons’ long lived dream and opened the museum to the public.

Family Mayer van den Bergh

In 1849 Emil Mayer, the father of Mayer, moved from Cologne, Germany to Antwerp. He managed a large branch of the family business. They were trading spices and pharmaceutical products. Emil Mayer became one of the most prominent and wealthy businessmen in Antwerp. He married Henriette van den Bergh in 1857. Her family was active in several industries such as liquor distilleries, beer breweries and shipping. They had two sons, Fritz and Oscar.

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Fritz Mayer van den Bergh

In 1879 Fritz Mayer decided to follow his passion for art that he shared with his mother. He left the trading and industrial activities to his brother. Mayer never married and lived with his mother in Antwerp and Berchem. The last place is now a sub-municipality of Antwerp. The love for their mother was so great that both brothers added her last name to theirs.

The museum

In memory of her son Fritz Mayer, Henriette van den Bergh built the museum next to their home. The architect was Jos Hertogs. He was instructed to design a renaissance style façade. The design was an example from a destroyed façade in the Sint-Walburgiskwartier in Antwerp. Mayer van den Bergh Museum was officially opened on December 17^th in 1904. The museum was a progressive example in the field of museum furnishings with several security- and climate services. Initially the museum was only open on request, by invitation or on some holidays. Since 1924 the museum is open to the public and in 1951 it became a municipal museum.

Mayer collected historical furniture and are placed throughout the museum. He wanted to create a home-living atmosphere. Keep an eye out for the colourful tiles in the mantelpieces and the coloured stained glass windows.

Portraits

Mayer bought one of his first portraits in 1892. He often travelled to Italy to buy art from the northern regions. One exception is a portrait of the 19- year old Francesco I de’Medici. The painting was thoroughly restored and Mayer had done his research to find out who made it. This is what made Mayer an unique art collector. It was a challenge for him to be able to assign works to an artist. His interest was focused on quality paintings from less famous painters.

An example of baroque paintings are the portraits of the Family Vekemans- van Ghinderdeuren. The painter, Cornelis de Vos, excelled in children’s portraits. Another baroque painting is the ‘Aanbidding van de herders’ from Jacob Jordaens. He is known for painting religious scenes with ordinary people. De Vos lived in the same time as Rubens and Van Dyck. Some of the paintings in Mayer’s collection are from famous painters such as Bruegel.

Pieter Bruegel

Mayer van den Bergh was fascinated by the paintings of Pieter Bruegel I. From numerous letters to international collectors, art dealers and art historians it is clear he was looking for paintings from Bruegel. He owned Dulle Griet and Twaalf Spreuken op Borden. Besides paintings, he collected 22 copper engravings and 12 prints of Bruegel himself. Mayer’s fascination was an important trigger for the reappraisal of Bruegel in the 19^th century.

Bruegel is a Flemish renaissance artist. In 1563 he painted the Dulle Griet. The female is behaving like a man and she is focused on greed. The scenes take place in Hell where characters live their lives in sin. Bruegel is making fun of aggressive and noisy women. Griet and her companions storm the mouth of Hell in search for more possessions driven by their greed.

The painting Twaalf Spreuken op Borden is not actually a painting, see picture below. It’s created out of 12 wooden food plates. The plates are painted by Bruegel. Each plate has one figure portraying a daily scene. These scenes are humorous proverbs and Flemish one-liners.

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Carlo Micheli

In 1898 Mayer bought a collection of 451 pieces of art from the art-collector Carlo Micheli. Mayer bought his collection just after he passed away. Micheli worked at the Louvre in Paris where he made plaster casts. Micheli collected many small medieval works of art that where fashionable at the time. Mayer spend his entire capital and took out a loan to buy this unique collection. He outsmarted large European museums by buying Micheli’s collection. He kept Dutch and French sculptures and sold around 300 pieces.

A remarkable piece is the head-sculpture of Bonne de France, the daughter of Charles V of France. It’s an image of the princess taken from her mausoleum. She passed away when she was one or two years old, 17 days after her sister Jeanne died. The mausoleum of the girls was built in 1364 in the church of Saint Antoine des Champs in Paris. During the French Revolution the mausoleum disappeared, only the head-sculpture and a sketch remain.

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Library

The library contains 650 books with a few very old books. Mayer was interested in various art forms and crafts. The relative small collection of jewels and silver is unfinished because of his early death. He was interested in the exceptional techniques, craftsmanship and the rare character of objects.  

The private art collection of Mayer van den Bergh also displays plaques, small reliefs made of metal. Most of his collected plaques date back to the 16^th century and are from Italy and Germany. The scenes are often mythological.

Another thing Mayer collected were small cases and boxes with locks. They are often made of wood and covered with iron and leather. Since ancient times people keep jewels, money, important papers and other valuable things in these boxes. The fine decorated boxes at the Mayer museum date back to the 15^th  and 16^th century. Today the boxes itself are valuable.

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