Collecting Art

I recently read about a great art collection that was destroyed in a fire. The last I heard, the cause of this great catstrophe was not known. I of course have a lot of sympathy for the owner who had spent years discovering great artists both known and unknown and collecting their work.

I began to think about why people collect. How do they decide what to collect? What do these collections mean to them. In my research I discovered that collecting the work of living artists for private commercial reasons or for pleasure began in the 17th century in Holland. The private collectors became more prominent in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many great masterpieces of the Renaissance and the 17th century were sold to foreign art collectors.

The popularity of collecting art was said to have created competition for artists. They felt a great need to live up to comparisons that would be made between them, the major artists of the past, as well as the current artists.

You will find art auction catalogs, exhibition catalogs, art books and magazine back issues at Nella’s Books and Collectibles.


www.nellasbooksandcollectibles.ecrater.com