Portrait of Adriaan van der Hoop by Jan Adam Kruseman

Adriaan van der Hoop (28 April 1778, in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

– 17 March 1854, in Amsterdam) was a Dutch banker and in the first half of the 19th century one of the richest men in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He also was an influential politician: a member of the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

, the

States-Provincial The provincial council (, PS), also known as the States-Provincial, is the provincial parliament and legislative assembly in each of the provinces of the Netherlands. It is elected for each province simultaneously once every four years and has ...

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

and the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. In his later years he became an important art and plant collector. On his death he left 250 paintings to the city of Amsterdam, who could barely pay the

inheritance tax International tax law distinguishes between an estate tax and an inheritance tax. An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and pro ...

. In this way Van der Hoop contributed substantially to the collection of the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the S ...

Life

Adriaan van der Hoop was the son of Joan Cornelis van der Hoop, secretary of the

Sociëteit van Suriname The Society of Suriname ( Dutch: ''Sociëteit van Suriname'') was a Dutch private company, modelled on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and set up on 21 May 1683 to profit from the management and defense of the Dutch Republic's colony of Suri ...

, prosecutor for the

Admiralty of Amsterdam The Admiralty of Amsterdam was the largest of the five Dutch admiralties at the time of the Dutch Republic. The administration of the various admiralties was strongly influenced by provincial interests. The territory for which Amsterdam ...

and Minister of the Navy. Adriaan studied law in

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

and

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, when it was still a Danish city. (N.B. Holland was occupied by the French army between 1795 – 1813). With his Danish passport he traveled through Germany and England. In 1811, he was hired by the firm Hope & Co., for years an important lender to the Russian state. Back in Holland in 1814 Adriaan van der Hoop was involved in the setting up of the Constitution and accompanied emperor

Alexander I of Russia Alexander I (, ; – ), nicknamed "the Blessed", was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first king of Congress Poland from 1815, and the grand duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825. He ruled Russian Empire, Russia during the chaotic perio ...

on his visit to Holland. In 1815, he was appointed by Alexander Baring to lead the firm Hope & Co. A debt of 100,000 guilder owed by his brother-in-law Jan Clifford led in 1819 to a drawn-out court case between the two men. The day after the verdict, four years later, Clifford committed suicide with a pistol. Adriaan raised rare plants on his country estate ''Spaarnberg'', near

Santpoort Santpoort is a town in North Holland, Netherlands consisting of two parts, with a combined population of 10,610 in 2023: * Santpoort-Noord, a village with a population of 7,270 in 2023 * Santpoort-Zuid, a village with a population of 3,385 in 2023 ...

. There he grew 120 kinds of South African

Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * Erica (plant), ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * Erica (video game), ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * Erica (spider), ' ...

; he had two blossoming

agave ''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the arid regions of the Americas. The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large Rosette (botany), rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves. Many plan ...

s and ten kinds of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

s. The country house was designed by Jan David Zocher, who on van der Hoop's request also designed a new stock exchange in Amsterdam. Adriaan owned racehorses and in 1832 he started to collect art objects on a large scale. Adriaan bought works by contemporary painters, including Jan Adam Kruseman, Johannes Christianus Schotel and Barend Cornelis Koekkoek. His collection of paintings - which he had partly inherited, included items by

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...

, Ruisdael,

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

Jan Steen Jan Havickszoon Steen ( – buried 3 February 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour. Life ...

and

Adriaen van der Werff Adriaen is a Dutch form of Adrian. Notable people with the name include: * Adriaen Banckert (1615–1684), Dutch admiral *Adriaen Block (1567–1627), Dutch private trader and navigator * Adriaen Brouwer (1605–1638), Flemish genre painter * Adria ...

, and could be visited by appointment at his house on Keizersgracht 444. He had bought this house in 1822. The building on the Keizersgracht had been the offices of his employer Hope & Co., and had previously been inhabited by Hope & Co. family members Thomas Hope, his brother Adrian Hope, his cousin

Henry Hope Henry Hope (1735–1811) was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Braintree, Province of Massachusetts Bay. He emigrated to the Netherlands to join the family business, the Dutch bank Hope & Co., at a young age. From 1779, Henry became the man ...

(who moved next door to 448), and later Thomas' son

Jan Hope John Hope (14 February 1737 – 20 April 1784), also known as Jan Hope, was a wealthy Dutch banker, participating in the Hope & Co. bank that his father had founded in 1762, a member of the city council and an art collector. In 1770 he was ap ...

Musée Van der Hoop

After his death, the Van der Hoop Museum was opened in his former home on the Keizersgracht and various catalogs were produced 1858-1872 in Dutch and French.Musée Van der Hoop Description des Tableaux
/ref> In 1885 the collection was merged with the newly built Rijksmuseum.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoop, Adriaan Van Der 1778 births 1854 deaths Dutch bankers Municipal councillors of Amsterdam Art collectors from Amsterdam Businesspeople from Amsterdam Members of the Assembly of Notables (Netherlands)