10779

Jacob Theodoor Cremer 1920

Half-length, sitting in a wooden armchair, slightly to the left, almost full-face to the viewer, with a moustache, wearing white tie, with decorations

Oil on canvas, 99 x 74 cm (39 x 29 ⅛ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1920. V.

Sitters’ Book II, f. 15: J. T. Cremer Duin & Kruidberg

Jacob Theodoor Cremer commissioned portraits of he and his wife Annie [111209] in 1920 and were painted at the beginning of June directly after their granddaughter Jetske [4201]. The composition of Jacob’s portrait derives from de László’s celebrated 1899 painting of the German Chancellor Chlodwig, Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst [4485], of which de László was very proud and which led to his first commissions at the German Court. From the Sitters’ Book entry it can be inferred that the portrait was executed at the sitter’s estate Duin en Kruidberg. The sitter’s son Herbert had met de László in Vienna in 1902 and commissioned a portrait of his wife Wilhelmine [4205]. Sittings did not take place until 1909. 

Lucy de László  recorded her visit to the Cremer’s house in 1920: “[n]ice old couple – She, of Irish birth born in Penang – née Hogan – He is over 70, & has just returned from Washington, where he was Dutch Minister – He looks a shrewed  ruddy Dutchman, ev: v. clever to have received all the decorations he showed me […]”^[1] Although the inscription on the painting suggests it was finished in May 1920, Lucy notes that de László started work on it on 3 June and finished it on 7 or 8 June.^[2]

Jacob Theodoor Cremer was born on 30 June 1847 in Zwolle, Holland. He was the son of Jacob Theodoor Cremer (born 1793) and Louise Toewater of Zutphen (born 1808). In 1867 he joined the Dutch Trading Company (Nederlandse Handelsmaatschappij) and a year later undertook his first trip to Batavia. In 1871 he was named as an administrator at the Deli-Maatschappij. In the following years the company grew quickly and Jacob was promoted to head administrator. In Panang, Sumatra on 16 January 1873 he married an Irishwoman Annie Hermine Hogan (1855-1924). The first of three sons, Herbert [111208],^[3] was also born in Panang later that year.

Ten years later he returned with his family to the Netherlands, where he worked out his plan to build a railway network in the Dutch East Indies. A daughter, Annie, was born in Arnhem in 1877 and Dora was born in Medan in the Dutch East Indies, in 1881. In 1883 he co-founded the ‘Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij’ (Deli Railway Company) to connect Medan with the port of Belawan. In 1895 Jacob bought two adjoining country estates near Haarlem, ‘Duin en Berg’ and ‘Kruidberg’. He joined the two properties together, renaming them ‘Duin en Kruidberg’. The existing manor house was completely remodelled and a private railway station built – the present Santpoort-Noord station.

From 1884 to 1905 Cremer was a member of the Lower House of Parliament and from 1897 to 1901 was Minister of the Colonies. As minister, he did a great deal to improve transport and protect petroleum interests in the Dutch East Indies. He became President of the Dutch Trading Company in 1907. After resigning in 1912 he served as a member of the Upper House of Parliament and was in 1918 Dutch envoy to the United States in Washington. He was also founder of the Colonial Institute. Cremer was a great art lover and over the years during his travels to Asia he accumulated a valuable collection of ancient art and objects.

Jacob Cremer died on 14 August 1923 at Duin en Kruidberg. Annie died the following year.

EXHIBITED:          

•Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, De László in Holland, Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), 3 March-5 June 2006, n° 42    

LITERATURE:        

•Grever, Tonko and Annemieke Heuft (Sandra de Laszlo, British ed.), De László in Holland: Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2006, pp. 8, 10, 54, 55, 59, 70, 71, 73, ill. n° 42

•László, Lucy de, 1920 diary, private collection, pp. 154-155, 161, 162

CWS 2006