See Art Museum’s New Exhibit, ‘Portrait of the Collector’

Art, Life, Legacy exhibit at Milwaukee Art Museum. Photo taken Sept. 27, 2023 by Sophie Bolich.

The Milwaukee Art Museum‘s newest featured exhibition includes themes of struggle, sacrifice, hunger and loss, but also of faith, family and generosity.

The collection, which highlights Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Baroque period, is as much a reflection of 17th-century Dutch society as it is of the lives of its collectors, Isabel and Alfred Bader.

Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings in the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader features 76 works assembled by the Baders, who, in life, were patrons and supporters of the museum.

“Dr. Alfred Bader’s extraordinary story and the principles by which he lived are intrinsically linked to the paintings that the Milwaukee Art Museum has the privilege of presenting in Art, Life, Legacy,” said Tanya Paul, exhibition curator and the inaugural Isabel and Alfred Bader Curator of European Art. “This exhibition reflects Isabel and Alfred’s legacies as dedicated connoisseurs, researchers and educators, and extends their profound impact on the museum and the Milwaukee community.

The exhibition will be on view in the museum’s Baker/Rowland Galleries from Sept. 29, 2023 through Jan. 28, 2024.

Paul began work on the exhibition in 2019, but said the project has been taking shape in her mind for much longer — since she began working with the museum more than a decade ago.

The curator had a personal relationship with the Baders, and made regular visits to their apartment, where the collection was previously displayed. “A lot of these paintings are like old friends to me,” she said.

During a Wednesday morning media tour of the exhibition, Paul highlighted a number of works, drawing parallels between the paintings’ themes and Albert Bader’s life; from tragedy — the early loss of his family and a year spent in a Canadian internment camp, to triumph — graduating from Harvard University, settling in Milwaukee and founding Aldrich Chemical Company. Throughout it all, he remained steadfast in his Jewish faith.

“A lot of these themes really tell the story of Alfred Bader’s life, as well as telling the story of the picture itself,” Paul said. “So it becomes like a portrait of the collector.”

The exhibition opens with a series of paintings depicting biblical scenes, mostly drawn from the Hebrew Bible. The collection also explores themes of family, journey and sacrifice, all of which were fundamental elements of Alfred Bader’s life, said Paul.

Gillis Neyts‘ “Landscape with Tobias and the Angel, with a View of Antwerp in the Background,” depicts an intimate religious scene amid the countryside around the city of Antwerp. The painting’s copper background lends a luminosity to the overall work, which was completed in the 1660s.

Another painting, “Profile Head of an Old Woman (‘Rembrandt’s Mother’),” portrays a highly-detailed character study of an old woman, with a particular focus on skin texture and fabric. The work was completed circa 1630 by Rembrandt contemporary Jan Lievens.

The exhibition also includes five works by or attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn, who is widely regarded as the greatest artist of The Dutch Golden Age.

“The thing that I like to warn people to do when they go through this exhibition, is to do what Alfred would have wanted people to do, which is to look closely, ask questions and — most importantly — enjoy. These pictures are beautiful, they are engaging, they are deep and varied and they tell a story,” Paul said.

Alfred Bader became a member of MAM in 1952, and is credited with shaping the museum’s European art program. In addition to donating works of art to the museum, he served as an advisor and made his curatorial debut with The Bible Through Dutch Eyes (1976).

Together with Isabel Bader, who was herself an educator and proponent of increased access to the arts, Alfred Bader co-curated The Detective’s Eye: Investigating the Old Masters (1989). The couple have two sons.

Alfred Bader passed away in 2018 at the age of 94 and Isabel Bader passed away in 2022 at the age of 95. In spring 2023, Bader Philanthropies and the Milwaukee Art Museum inaugurated the Isabel and Alfred Bader European Art Program Endowment Fund in their honor, at which time the position of Isabel and Alfred Bader Curator of European Art was also made permanent.

“Art deepens our understanding and connection to our shared humanity, a belief that led Isabel and Alfred Bader to be longstanding supporters of the Milwaukee Art Museum,” said Marcelle Polednik, Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, in a statement. “This exhibition is an opportunity to celebrate the Baders’ incredible legacy and share their unrivaled ‘joy of collecting’ with our community.”

Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings in the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader will be accompanied by a 192-page scholarly catalog featuring 100 images and several essays to provide greater context for the exhibition.

For more information, visit the Milwaukee Art Museum website.

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