Dutch interior: Dutch interior architecture as research topic and source of inspiration in the period 1870–1920

Abstract

The article provides insight into the phenomenon of the ‘traditional Dutch room’ as an icon of the Dutch interior from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and its role as a research topic and source of inspiration for Dutch architects. Research into the neo-Renaissance in the Netherlands has tended to focus on Dutch architecture with the result that neo-Renaissance interiors, and examples of the historical interior in particular, have been largely overlooked. Nor has there been any general article linking the two together. This article provides the initial impetus for answering the question of why Dutch architects became interested in the history of Dutch interior architecture. Which Dutch designers were prominent in this area of study and design? Which examples were admired and why? What connection was there between study and design among the various architects? From around 1875, the major nineteenth-century architecture journals and illustrated works reveal a rise in the number of pictures of Dutch historical interiors and interior elements, especially from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and of designs based on them. The articles, too, testify to a growing interest in the history of Dutch buildings and artefacts and a desire to incorporate Dutch motifs into contemporary design. Although pre-1875 publications contain examples of Dutch buildings, examples of interior elements, such as a ‘chimneypiece’, a ‘tochtpui’ (draught-excluding swing door) or a ‘curio cabinet’ are rare, witness the collection of architectural designs published by theMaatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst (MIJBB, forerunner of the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects) in the period 1844-1878. It is clear that in the final quarter of the nineteenth century there was a growing desire to investigate and document the interior aspect of the discipline of the Dutch architect and ‘decorator’ and, in some instances, to use it as the basis for contemporary design. A number of examples of oak panelling were documented by architects quite early on, including in Afbeeldingen van Oude Bestaande Gebouwen (1854–1907), an illustrated work published by the MIJBB. One of the earliest examples is the panelling in the former ‘weeskamer’ (orphans’ estates chamber) in the Leiden town hall, that was measured and described by the architect J.H. Leliman in 1871. Unlike architects such as Karel Sluyterman, who had the same chamber photographed for his illustrated work Oude Binnenhuizen in Nederland (1908), Leliman did not treat the seventeenth-century interior as a direct model for contemporary design. However, while others continued to design ‘traditional Dutch rooms’, Sluyterman, after a sojourn in Paris, quickly moved on to French art nouveau, although the historical Dutch interior continued to play a role in his lessons at Delft Polytechnic, where he taught decorative art and the art of ornament from 1895 onwards. The article contributes to the history of ideas of Dutch architecture from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.