Michael North, born in Gießen, Germany, in 1954. Ph.D. from Universität Gießen. Professor of Modern History at Universität Greifswald.
Fellow (1 January 2007 – 30 June 2007)
TRANSFER AND RECEPTION OF DUTCH ART IN THE BALTIC AREA
Most of my stay at NIAS was devoted to writing several chapters of my book on “Transfer and Reception of Dutch Art in the Baltic Area”. The first two chapters on the Hamburg art market and patterns of collecting in Hamburg and northern Germany had been already completed in Germany, while during my NIAS fellowship I wrote one chapter on the purchases of the art dealer and Royal Danish Gallery Director Gerhard Morell for the Danish Crown and another one on patterns of collecting in Copenhagen. With respect to Morell’s purchases for the Danish Crown I successfully traced the provenance of several of his most important purchases in Dutch collections, such as the Lormier collection but also in the collections of the Gouda pensionary Snels and several anonymous auctions of the 1750s. Because of recent archival research by research assistants in Germany and Copenhagen I could also complete another chapter on Morell’s correspondence with European princes and noblemen. Thus, Morell’s strategies as a dealer and a cultural broker between the Netherlands and the Baltic area became clearly visible. Especially his notions on Dutch artists and schools shaped the taste of northern and central European collectors. His influence could also be traced in private collections, documented in Danish auction catalogues. As far as the book is concerned, only the final comparative chapter on the new princely collections of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Denmark and Poland has to be written. For this some sources still have to be checked in the Copenhagen archive and the Schwerin Museum. I hope to complete the whole manuscript during this summer.