After a short renovation, Museum De Buitenplaats in Eelde will reopen on Saturday 5 October 2024 with a new direction and under a new name: Drents Museum De Buitenplaats. Art nouveau plays the leading role in the museum, with the Drents Museum’s collection of art around 1900. The opening exhibition Power to the Flower focuses on flowers in the art of Dutch art nouveau.
The flower symbolises the dawn of a new era. Drents Museum De Buitenplaats has also recently embarked on a new chapter. What could be more fitting than a celebratory opening exhibition on flowers in art, highlighting the works of Dutch Art Nouveau artists?
Masterpieces of the collection in Power to the Flower
With masterpieces and surprising objects from the Drents Museum collection and a few excursions into the present, Drents Museum De Buitenplaats takes visitors into the flower imagination around 1900. The exhibition – designed by Haarlem-based agency Perspekt Studios – includes works by Chris Lebeau, Julie de Graag, Simon Moulijn, Johanna van Eijbergen, Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, Ruud van Empel and Saskia Boelsums.
In the exhibition, a flower route has been developed by Het Drentse Landschap. At various works of art, a QR code provides more information about the flower species depicted.
Desire for innovation
Around the year 1900, a strong desire for innovation was evident, especially in the arts. Nature became the primary source of inspiration. At newly established arts and crafts colleges, young artists were taught to draw plants and flowers. Initially true to nature, then with increasing simplification. Their designs adorned wallpaper, ceramics, fabrics and furniture.
Flowers played a significant role not only in crafts but also in paintings and drawings, primarily due to their symbolism. Artists often used flowers as a form of ‘code language’, allowing them to express feelings and ideas subtly. For example, the lily symbolised innocence and spirituality, the rose for love and resurrection and the sunflower for strength and confidence. The artists around 1900 were masters of this language.
Drents Museum De Buitenplaats
Power to the Flower – Flowers in art nouveau
5 October 2024 to 6 April 2025
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00
Hoofdweg 76,
Eelde