EGBERT HAVERKAMP BEGEMANN

HAVERKAMP-

BEGEMANN--Egbert. Renowned historian of Netherlandish art of the 17th Century, Egbert HaverkampBegemann died at his home in Manhattan, 5 August 2017. Born in Naarden, Netherlands, on 6 March 1923, Egbert spent the majority of his childhood in the Soviet Union where he and his family lived in Siberia with his engineer father. After a year in Morocco, the family settled in the Netherlands in the late 1930's where Egbert completed the Gymnasium (Dutch high school) in Dordrecht. His University studies began in the field of law but shifted to art history, his true intellectual passion, which he studied at Amsterdam and Utrecht Universities, culminating in his PhD with a dissertation monograph on Willem Buytewech. Living under Nazi occupation during WWII disrupted his studies and molded his life-view. Egbert began his career in the early 1950's as a curator at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands, later moving to the United States with his wife, Clarice Pennock, and their young family. After brief periods at Princeton and Harvard Universities, in 1960 the family moved to Connecticut where Egbert curated prints and drawings at the Yale University Art Gallery and was a professor in the Department of the History of Art. In 1978 Egbert moved to New York City, a city he always admired and loved, to teach at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, becoming the John Langeloth Loeb Professor of the History of Art in 1984. He remained active as Professor Emeritus, advising students and holding positions at the Pierpont Morgan Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art where he was coordinating scholar of the Robert Lehman Collection. His final project, cataloging the complete drawings of Aelbert Cuyp, continued until his death. Over his career Egbert assembled a 10,000 volume collection of monographs, catalogs, and a considerable number of rare 17th century books which are a resource for future generations of art historians. Professor/Egbert/Dad/Opa will be remembered for his encyclopedic knowledge, astounding memory, dedication to rigorous work, keen observational skills, mentorship, and kind and wise words to loved ones, colleagues, friends and strangers. His four children and ten grandchildren, among many others, have been shaped by his profound love and care, which inspired a respect for all things and all people, no matter how seemingly different from ourselves. A celebration of his life is being planned. Donations in Egbert's honor can be made to the Environmental Cooperative at the Vassar Barns https://environmental cooperative.vassar.edu/ Box 370 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604.