# Amsterdam Museum buys Schwartze painting of orphan girls

> The museum bought Thérèse Schwartze's 1889 work at the PAN art fair, and it will hang in the museum's own building once it reopens in 2030.

Society · published 2026-11-08 19:49 · https://nlnow.nl/a/amsterdam-museum-buys-schwartze-painting-of-orphan-girls/

The Amsterdam Museum has bought Thérèse Schwartze's painting *Musicerende Amsterdamse Burgerweeshuismeisjes* (1889) at the art fair PAN. It shows girls from the city orphanage singing in the distinctive dresses they wore. The seller was Lawrence Steigrad, a New York art dealer.

The museum is housed in the former Burgerweeshuis (civic orphanage) on the Kalverstraat, the building where such girls once lived. The building is being renovated and is due to reopen in 2030. The painting will then have a central place in the presentation.

Curator Norbert Middelkoop called the purchase "an exceptional acquisition for the Amsterdam Museum". The museum said that with the painting it brings "a piece of the history of its own building" back home.

Steigrad felt the work belongs in this museum. The purchase was funded with help from the Vereniging Rembrandt, the art-lovers' society, including its new Judith Leysterfonds.

The canvas is large: 170 by 201 centimetres, about two metres wide. Its subject is the orphans themselves, not the city's elite, who are the usual focus of the group portraits in the museum's collection.

The Judith Leysterfonds is a new fund of the Vereniging Rembrandt. It aims to make female artists more visible, a goal the Amsterdam Museum says it shares. Schwartze was a woman painter.

The museum celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

## Background

- **PAN**: PAN is an annual art fair in Amsterdam where galleries and art dealers sell paintings, sculptures and works on paper to collectors and museums. Museums in the Netherlands often buy works there, so it is a regular place where Dutch collections are expanded.
- **Burgerweeshuis**: The Burgerweeshuis was the historic civic orphanage of Amsterdam, a city institution that housed and raised orphaned children, including girls who wore the distinctive uniform-like dresses of the orphanage. The building on the Kalverstraat now houses the Amsterdam Museum, which uses its historic rooms to present the city's history.
- **Vereniging Rembrandt**: Vereniging Rembrandt is the Dutch art-lovers' society (vereniging) that raises money from its members to buy works of art for Dutch museums, which then become part of public collections. It also manages funds, such as the Judith Leysterfonds, that support specific acquisitions.

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