View source for Barthold Suermondt

[[File:Barthold Suermondt.jpg|thumb|300px|Barthold Suermondt portrayed in 1872]]

'''Barthold Suermondt''' (18 May 1818, [[Utrecht]] – 1 March 1887, [[Aachen]]) was a German entrepreneur, banker, [[Philanthropy|philanthropist]],<ref name="c377">Cameron, 377</ref> and art collector, of Dutch-[[Huguenot]] heritage.<ref name="c358">Cameron, 358</ref>

He was born in 1818 in [[Utrecht]] to Yman Dirk Christiaan Suermondt and Elizabeth Twiss. In the 1830s he worked with the [[Cockerill-Sambre]] steel manufacturers in [[Seraing]], Belgium. He took over management of the company in 1840 following the sudden death of his boss [[John Cockerill (industrialist)|John Cockerill]].<ref name="c377" /> Coming from French extraction, Suermondt was responsible for attracting French investment into Germany during the 1830s–40s.<ref name="c377" /> At that time he founded in Germany a steel company that after a number of name changes in 1870 became known as Rheinische Stahlwerks, where he served as president until 1878.<ref name ="j123">James, 123</ref>

His first marriage in 1838 was to Amalie Elisabeth Cockerill (1815–59), heiress to her father [[James Cockerill|James Cockerill's]] fortune, and after the death of the childless John, also heiress to the John Cockerill fortune. The couple had six sons.<ref name="SK116">Pocknell, 116</ref> After Amalia's sister Nancy (1816-1854) died they also took care of Friederike Nancy Haniel (1843–1896), and after Amalia died Barthold married her and had their [[pendant portraits]] painted. Nancy's father was the mining entrepreneur Max Haniel.<ref>Pocknell, 115 & 445</ref>

He was a major collector of [[Early Netherlandish painting|Netherlandish]] and [[Dutch Golden Age painting]],<ref>"Rembrandt: Reputation and the Practice of Connoisseurship". Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. 39. {{ISBN|90-5356-625-2}}</ref> and acquired works by, amongst others, [[Jan van Eyck]],<ref>Meiss, 175</ref> [[Jan Vermeer]],<ref>Liedtke, Walter A. "Vermeer and the Delft School". NY: [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], 2001. 470.</ref> [[Frans Hals]], [[Hans Holbein the Younger]], [[Peter Paul Rubens]] and [[Jan Steen]]. In 1874 a large part of the Suermondt collection was passed to the [[Gemäldegalerie, Berlin]], a purchase headed by Julius Meyer and art historian [[Wilhelm von Bode]] funded by a grant of £50,000.<ref>Alexander, 209</ref> The sale of his art collection came when his company experienced a rapid collapse.<ref name ="j123"/> Another portion of his collection, amounting to 105 paintings, was bequeathed to the city of Aachen in 1882, and was instrumental in building up the display of the [[Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum]].<ref name="SK116" /> That year Suermondt was made an honorary citizen of the city of Aachen.<ref>Hanf, Walter."[http://www.wisoveg.de/wisoveg/heimatkalender-eu/bleierz-rescheid/rescheid-hanf.html Der Bleierzbergbau bei Rescheid]". www.wisoveg.de. Retrieved 12 February 2013.</ref> Around 1850, he had been portrayed in three-quarter view by [[Ludwig Knaus]]; today the work hangs in the foyer of the Suermondt-Ludwig.<ref>Lambertz, Henry; Schrouff, Rosa-Marita. "Das Porträt von Henry Lambertz". Taschen Gmbh, 2011. 380. {{ISBN|3-86931-533-4}}</ref>

==References==
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==Sources==
*Alexander, Edward P. ''Museum Masters: Their Museums and Their Influence''. Sage Publications, 2002. {{ISBN|0-7619-9131-X}} 
*Cameron, Rondo E. ''France and the Economic Development of Europe, 1800–1914''. Routledge, 1961. 
*James, Harold. ''Family Capitalism: Wendels, Haniels, Falcks, and the Continental European Model'' Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-674-02181-5}} 
*Meiss, Millard. "Light as Form and Symbol in Some Fifteenth-Century Paintings". ''The Art Bulletin'', Volume 27, No. 3, 1945. {{JSTOR|3047010}}
*Pocknell, Pauline (ed). "Franz Liszt and Agnes Street-Klindworth: A Correspondence, 1854–1886". Pendragon Press, 2000. {{ISBN|1-57647-006-7}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Suermondt, Barthold}}
[[Category:1818 births]]
[[Category:1887 deaths]]
[[Category:German art collectors]]
[[Category:19th-century art collectors]]
[[Category:German company founders]]
[[Category:19th-century German businesspeople]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Utrecht (city)]]
[[Category:People from Aachen]]