Moving notice
Recently sold
Shown here are three works that we recently sold. For more information click on the images. Curious about the current collection?
More than 50 years of expertise & art dealer
Specialized in maritime art
Kunsthandel Rob Kattenburg has been an expert in maritime ancient art for more than 50 years and occupies a unique position in the international art trade. The specialism mainly comprises Dutch and Flemish paintings, drawings and graphics from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries with shipping and cartography as subjects. Art dealership Rob Kattenburg is approached by both private collectors and museums when it comes to purchasing a navy. Due to his great knowledge and interest in our maritime history, Rob Kattenburg has been a source of information for museum curators, major collectors and collectors for decades.
Services
Valuation & Restoration
Unfortunately, we can no longer do valuations free of charge, due to the many requests. For a valuation or expertise we have to charge € 350 + 21% VAT per hour. This is sufficient in 95% of the cases. During this consultation we can also advise you on restoration and moldings.
Art dealer Rob Kattenburg regularly publishes beautifully illustrated brochures and catalogs that naturally relate to shipping. These publications are a valuable addition to the existing literature. While stocks last, these publications can be requested by transferring €20 for a brochure and €25 for a bound publication (excluding postage).
Purchase and sales
Art dealer Rob Kattenburg buys and sells maritime paintings and drawings by old masters, but also etchings and engravings with shipping – of museum quality – as the subject. Purchase and sale only concerns works of art from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (not after 1900!). Paintings are also taken on consignment.
Art historical research
Art dealer Rob Kattenburg has its own documentation center. In addition to a very extensive library, a (photo) archive that has been built up over fifty years is at the service of art-historical and historical research. In addition, the documentation center has an archive with images and auction prices of maritime works of art sold in the past. A search for the history of any navy is almost always successful.
Services
Valuation & Restoration
Unfortunately, we can no longer do valuations free of charge, due to the many requests. For a valuation or expertise we have to charge € 350 + 21% VAT per hour. This is sufficient in 95% of the cases. During this consultation we can also advise you on restoration and moldings.
Purchase and sales
Art dealer Rob Kattenburg buys and sells maritime paintings and drawings by old masters, as well as etchings and engravings with shipping as the subject. Purchase and sale only concerns works of art from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (not after 1900!). Paintings are also taken on consignment.
Art historical research
Art dealer Rob Kattenburg has its own documentation center. In addition to a very extensive library, a (photo) archive that has been built up over forty years is at the service of art-historical and historical research. In addition, the documentation center has an archive with images and auction prices of maritime works of art sold in the past. A search for the history of any navy is almost always successful.
Publications
Art dealer Rob Kattenburg regularly publishes beautifully illustrated brochures and catalogs that naturally relate to shipping. These publications are a valuable addition to the existing literature. While stocks last, these publications can be requested by transferring €20 for a brochure and €25 for a bound publication (excluding postage).
Important purchase
The Vereeniging Historisch Scheepvaart Museum in Amsterdam bought an important painting by the seventeenth century marine painter Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen (1580-1633) for over €300,000. The painting was a modello – a scaled-down version to show the client what the final painting would look like. The modello is now one of the masterpieces in the museum collection. Rob Kattenburg was also of the opinion that this modello should come into the possession of the museum. His expertise and help was gratefully accepted.
It was agreed that Rob Kattenburg would not bid in the auction room but by telephone, because his presence could give others an idea. The exciting auction was a success and Rob Kattenburg was able to report that he had succeeded in purchasing the painting for the museum!
Recently, the Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam has purchased a painting by Reinier Nooms ‘View on the IJ with s’ lands Zeemagazijn’ for its 100th anniversary.
A personal purchase advice
All too often collectors and novice collectors allow themselves to be seduced by well-known names such as Ludolf Backhuysen, etc. when making a proposed purchase. The fact that the great masters sometimes also produced work of lesser quality is overlooked. Not to mention the attribution; is the painting by the master in question? And last but not least the condition in which the work can be. Especially if the asking price is low, one has to be careful. Do not forget that a painting by a well-known painter such as Willem van de Velde or Ludolf Backhuysen, etc., which is excellent in all respects, is generally expensive. And so it still happens that a ‘cheap’ purchase usually turns out to be a big disappointment. Also financially.
We have been advising on the purchase of a navy for forty years. And that advice has remained the same all these years: buy quality first. The so-called little masters have sometimes delivered paintings of a very high artistic level that can compete with many a great master’s work. And the price of such a quality painting is many, many times lower than what one has to pay for mediocre work by a great master. And so it happens that a ‘cheap’ purchase usually turns out to be a big disappointment. Also financially.
