Ferry Bertholet - NL
Collector / Artist
‘A Madame with her Flower Girls,’ Shanghai, c. 1880. This beautiful albumen print will be presented by painter, writer, collector and restorer Ferry Bertholet. Bertholet was born in 1952 and studied from 1970 to 1976 at the classical State Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam.
Works of Ferry Bertholet are in the National Art Collection, the art collection of the city of Amsterdam, the collection of the Municipal Museum and in private collections.
Since 1978 Bertholet traveled around the world and frequently visited Asia in particular. He is known as a great connoisseur of Japanese prints, Chinese erotic art, objects related to the opium ritual and historical photos from China.
His collections, or parts of it, were shown in the Kunsthal
Rotterdam, Princessehof in Leeuwarden, Rietberg Museum in Zurich,
Musée Cernuschi in Paris, Barbican Art Centre in London, Museum
of Asian art in Berlin, Berkeley Art Museum in San Francisco,
De Nieuwe Kerk and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The British Museum and the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
In 1999 Bertholet published his first book on the rich culture of Chinese erotic art: “Dreams of Spring”. The work was released in English, German and French language.
His book “Gardens of Pleasure” appeared in 2003 in an English – and
a French edition, and in 2004 in a Dutch edition with the title “Liefde en lentebloesems.”
Much interest drew the publication, in 2007, of the book “Opium, Art and History of a lost Ritual “. The book was published in Dutch, English and French and was presented at the opening of a large exhibition at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam with the title “The Art of Opium”.
His most recent co-productions are the French publications “Le Palais du printemps, “and” L’Art d’Aimer à la Chinoise “, which both appeared in 2007 in Paris.
In the autumn of 2010 his book “Courtesans and Concubines”, was published in
Dutch, French and English. The book discusses the hard life of women
in ancient China which is much in contrast to the painted images of women in Chinese art.
In 2014 he published his latest book, ‘ Among the Celestials, China in
early photographs,’ together with Lambert van der Aalsvoort.
From November 2012 onwards, Ferry Bertholet picked up painting again in his studio in Amsterdam and experimented with abstract calligraphies in continuation of his earlier experiments dating from 1980. He produced a series of large calligraphies of ink on paper.