111208

Herbert Cremer 1927

Half-length to the right, full-face looking to the viewer, wearing a brown suit, a white shirt and a blue tie with a golden tie pin, golden watch chain attached to his waistcoat pocket

Oil on canvas, 84 x 61 cm (33 x 24 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László Paris 1927

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 56: Herbert Cremer 30.10.1927. / Holland.

Private Collection

In 1902 Herbert Cremer commissioned a portrait of his wife Wilhelmine, sittings for which did not take place until 1909 [4205]. De László’s wife Lucy recorded their first meeting with the sitter: “[t]he Dutchman was v. gehalten & ernst [obliging and serious]. [...] He asked might he see one of F[ülöp]’s pictures, F. arranged with him to go to his Studio the following day.”^[1] Cremer admired the artist’s paintings and they talked quite a lot about politics, in particular the Boer War. De László considered Cremer an interesting man as “[h]is manner & ideas seem so northern, [and] imponierte [impressed] F[ülöp] so much. [...] He said it was curious the way men fought over religion. Self respect, character, love-your-neighbour & God was his creed.”^[2]

In July 1927 Herbert Cremer wrote to the painter proposing to sit for his portrait in London but de László could not fit this into his schedule. Nor was he able to visit the sitter’s estate Duin en Kruidberg. Eventually the portrait was painted in Paris.

Herbert Cremer and his wife Wilhelmina were indefatigable European travellers; Wilhelmina still accompanying her husband after her eyesight began to fail. The family often played host to Prince Hendrik,^[3] consort of Queen Wilhelmina, and they were one of the first households in the Netherlands to own a motorcar. The entire family eventually commissioned de László to paint their portraits. These befitted the family’s status and were given a prominent place in Duin en Kruidberg into which Herbert and his family moved after the death of his parents.

Herbert Cremer was the son of Jacob Theodoor Cremer [10779] and his Irish wife Annie Hogan [111209]. He was born in Panang in the Dutch East Indies on 22 December 1873. In January 1900 he married Wilhelmina van Marken [4205], the elder sister of Anna Loudon [6234]. Their daughter Henriette ‘Jetske’ [4201] was born nine months later. Herbert Cremer was Chairman of the Nederlandse Handelmaatschappij (the Dutch Trading Company), the predecessor of the A.B.N. A.M.R.O. Bank and in 1916 he succeeded Hendrik van den Honert as director of the Deli-Maatschappij.

Herbert Cremer died in Cannes on 2 April 1953.

EXHIBITED:         

•Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, De László in Holland, Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), 3 March-5 June 2006, n° 47    

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. 54-6, 70, 73, 76, ill. n°  47

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 57

•László, Lucy de, 1902 diary, private collection, pp. 20-22

•László, Lucy de, 1902-1911 diary, private collection, 24 February entry, pp. 20-23

•DLA064-0153, letter from Herbert Cremer to de László, 22 July 1927

•DLA064-0150, letter from Herbert Cremer to de László, 3 November 1929

CWS 2006