Les Midis du GRESAC | Old Boys’ Network? Female Art and Antiques Dealers in Early Twentieth-Century Antwerp

Séminaire présenté par Rick Faust.

Abstract

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, art and antiques collecting emerged as a defining marker of the growing bourgeois elite. Through impressive collections, lavish interiors, and cultivated taste, these nouveaux riches distinguished themselves from industrial mass culture while emulating an aristocratic lifestyle. Buyers themselves often lacked the (art) historical knowledge and networks necessary to navigate a volatile market, where forgeries circulated freely, trends shifted rapidly, and international connections were essential. Acting as advisors, tastemakers, and brokers, art and antiques dealers guided their clients in acquiring objects that conveyed not only aesthetic value but also social and cultural prestige. Existing scholarship continues to portray art and antiques dealers primarily as men operating within ‘old boys’ networks. Women, if mentioned at all, typically appear as marginal figures or as passive, frivolous consumers. Drawing on the extensive business archive of the Antwerp art and antiques firm Eugène Van Herck & Fils, this male‑centered perspective is challenged. The analysis first turns to the commercial practice of the Antwerp art and antiques dealer Marie Van Herck, who successfully ran an independent shop in the heart of Antwerp and whose network reached far across the Atlantic Ocean. It also highlights Emilie Van Herck, the daughter of Eugène Van Herck, who was remarkably active within the family business and its commercial correspondence, yet whose contributions – including those she herself recorded –were systematically attributed to male relatives.