Oeuvre - Legend

Origin
The first attempt for a complete registration of all work was started by Jan Adam Zandleven (1943), indirect related to and named after the painter.

He made an 'Integral Catalogue of the paintings and drawings of J.A. Zandleven' (in Dutch), a loose-leaf overview (one work per page) of about 380 works, with data about signing, dating, technique, size, collection, exhibitions, auctions and possible other datails.

He used a/o sources like exhibition catalogues of Amsterdam and Dordrecht, notes about auctioned at Mak van Waaij in Amsterdam while he worked with them, and several personal collections in- and outside the family.

Apart from information about paintings and drawings he made also notes about references in literature, private collections and saved where possible copies or originals of publications and catalogues.

The current Oeuvre Catalogue
All data is stored in a database managed by the author of this catalogue. Sometimes, the database contains more data than what can be shown here. However, you may request more details via e-mail.
The museum does not disclose personal data, addresses etc. without explicit permission of the concerned persons.

Unique identification of the work
The most important reason to make an oeuvre catalogue is to enable an unambiguis recording of all pieces. Unambiguity means that a unique identification must be assigned to each piece, so that one may relatively easy determine whether a work is registered in the database or not.

The most obvious way is to order the work by year, as common practice learns. Since further sub-ordering per year is imossible, all pieces are identified as follows
JAZ-<year date in 4 digits> - <sequence number of three digits, starting with 000>. Example: JAZ-1912-003.
Te sequence number has no further specific meaning.

Indication of the year
All pieces with a year date are placed in that year. If a work has two year indications, the highest is taken as leading. Pieces which are not dated but where there's a strong presumption about the year of creation are put under that year.
All other works are given the year '0000'.

Doublets
It is possible that doublets exist in the catalogue. Sometimes, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether two separate descriptions are referring to the same work. Particularly the exhibition catalogue of Amsterdam 1929 is very brief: no sizes, no technique, not whether the work was signed, let alone where it was signed.
It is well known that Zandleven sometimes made several versions of the same subject, with sometimes only tiny differences. Therefor, in case of doubt a possible doublet is always entered as a separate work. A personal estimation of the author is that a few dozen pieces may occur twice.

Missing numbers
Sometimes a sequence number is missing, e.g. JAZ-1913-022. This is always the case where a number was assigned earlier, but later moved to another number, e.g. because it was a doublet or the year date was read wrongly. Such numbers are not assigned twice, to avoid confusion.

Key
The Oeuvre Catalogue contains the following items:

  • Identification: a unique year-and-sequence number for identification of the work. E.g. JAZ-1906-004.
  • Title: The title as found in the literature, catalogue etc. When different titles were found, mostly an 'official' publication was used (1 Books, 2 Catalogues 3 Magazines, 4 Other sources). When the title was e.g. too long, parts thereof are inserted in Notes.
  • Used technique: states whether it is oil on canvas, a drawing or charcoil, etc. The information is as complete as possible, sometimes added by the Notes. Also incomplete information is possible, e.g. 'Oil painting', when it is not clear whether this is oil on canvas only or marouflé.
  • Size: common notation for paintings: first height, than width. Sizes are in centimeters.
  • Signing: Tells the place of the signature. Without further information, the signature is as usual: "j.a. zandleven"
  • Date: Tells whether there's a year date added. Possible particularities are given in Notes, like e.g. date is '19 instead of 1919. If a work was not dated, two possibilities arise:
    • The is a strong presumption about a specific year: in this case the work has been classified under that year.
    • A year is not determinable: the work has only been classified in not dated (JAZ-0000-xxx).
  • EXHIBITIONS: Where the work was exhibited, if possible with catalogue number. The exhibitions are identified briefly, full information is available at the Kiosk.
  • AUCTIONS: the auctions where the work appeared, possibly including the lot number. It is not always clear whether the work was really sold or not. Seldomly the sale price is known (except for the auction in Rhenen in 1924). The auctions are identified briefly, full information is available at the Kiosk.
  • LITERATURE: References found in books, magazines etc., which can be descriptions and/or pictures of work of Zandleven. If known, the page number is given. The literature references are identified briefly, full information is available at the Kiosk.
  • Notes: Eventually additional data regarding the titel, technique, etc.

NB: The museum only discloses information about the current owner or location when the work is public property, like in a (real) museum.

Sources
Sources for the Oeuvre Catalogue were so far:

  1. De Integral Catalogue of Jan Adam Zandleven (1943)
    This catalogue was partly a source for otherwise unpublished information and partly a tool for verification. The numbering system of this catalogue has not been used here.
  2. "Catalogus der veiling van Schilderijen, Teekeningen, Atelier-inventaris en Attributen, waarbij ook Schilderijen en Beeldhouwwerk van andere meesters, alles uit het bezit van J. A. Zandleven, in leven Schilder, wonende laatstelijk te Rhenen".
    Catalogue on occasion of the auction in 1924.
  3. "Catalogus Eere-tentoonstelling J.A. Zandleven in het Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, februari 1929". (Compared with source 1)
    This catalogue only gives years, titles and owners. Used technique, sizes and signing is not given.
  4. "Catalogus van de tentoonstelling J.A. Zandleven, Dordrechts Museum, april 1962". (Compared with source 1)
  5. "Catalogus van de Tentoonstelling J.A. Zandleven, in het Streekmuseum Het Rondeel in Rhenen". (April 1985)
  6. "Bert Honders en Willem Laanstra: Jan Adam Zandleven, De werkelijkheid als een wonder". Book issued on the occasion of the same-named exhibition in Art Gallery Studio 2000, Amsterdam, October 1994.
  7. Personal collections of family.
  8. Information taken from P.A. Scheen: Lexicon Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars 1750-1880
  9. Several catalogues of auctions of Christie's, Sotheby andvan Glerum
  10. "Schilderijen van het Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller: overzicht door R.W.D. Oxenaar, 1970"
  11. TABLEAU Fine Arts Magazine, summer 1993
  12. Kunst en Antiek Veilingen (several volumes)
  13. The Smithuis Collection, as described in: Figuratief Expressionisme, by Reneé Smithuis, 1996
  14. Overview of Stichting ‘t Schou
  15. Photographic material of Dordrecht 1962 (Denis Windt)
  16. Other sources, mostly private collections, several via e-mail contact with the JAZ Museum.

Special acknowledgement goes to the late mr Berkvens in Helmond and mrs S. M. C. Jungeling-Windt in The Hague for making available books, catalogues, photographic material etc. which allowed me to make so many improvements and additions to this catalogue

Many of the black/white pictures of paintings shown in Dordrecht 1962 are provided by Denis Windt, The Hague