S. H. Minkenhof: 1879-1956Author(s): Elizabeth LyonsSource: Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, Vol. 10 (1956), pp. 6-7Published by: University of Hawai'i Press for the Asia SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20066978 .

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S. H. Minkenhof

18794956

IT is with deep regret that we report the death of S. H. Minkenhof, one of our most

loyal supporters for many years and member of our board of governors since 1952.

The collection of Chinese and Indian art he had formed was of moderate size, but

one of the finest in beauty and quality, and his knowledge of Asian art was respected

by discriminating scholars. We have been told that it was somewhat of a shock for

those who first knew him by reputation and who were introduced to an erect, im

posing man with a pugnacious jaw and a commanding manner to hear him constantly referred to as "Minky." Yet, this diminutive reflects the affection we felt for him as

well as the unorthodox personality of the man himself?a man of mischievous and rare

humor, rigid values, and unexpected reactions. He was certainly not a standard por

trait of a successful business man who retired and built up an art collection as a hobby for his leisure years.

His independent character and taste were already developed in the early part of

the century shortly after he had formed his own import-export business in Amsterdam

and had built a house of his own design in Hilversum. The rugs and furnishings of this

house were designed by van den Bosch and Berlage, members of the avant garde De

Stijl group of Holland, the crystal by Hoffman of the Wiener Werkstatte. There were

paintings by artists of the modern Dutch movement and by Vlaminck, the Fauve.

He had, also, a deep enjoyment in music which was not limited to the listener's

chair. Between 1910-20 he was a member of an a cappella choir which sang in several

European capitals, and during the same period he had several less conventional engage

ments as the leading tenor in light operettas.

His interest in art was at first limited to European paintings, ikons, and ceramics.

The small and interesting collection of Dutch and French modern ceramics he made

was given to the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum several years ago. His business took

him briefly to China and on more extensive tours of southeast Asia. Gradually his

interest turned to Asian art, but conscious of his lack of knowledge he felt his way

slowly, buying only a few pieces of local pottery or Chinese export ware which ap

pealed to him by their shape or glaze.

In April 1931 he bought his first Chinese piece in Amsterdam. This was a soap

stone Kwan Yin, not a remarkable object in any way, but a good one of its kind. He

never parted with this sculpture and always kept it in his Paris or New York library

partly out of affection because it had led him into so many years of pleasure, and

partly out of amusement. "I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world,"

he would say, looking at it in wonder.

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An eye and taste for beauty were not enough for him, and in the early 30's when

the greater part of his business life was behind him and he had taken an apartment in

Paris, he began to study like a young student. It was H. F. E. Visser of the Stedelijk

Museum and the Friends of Asian Art Society of Amsterdam who first directed his

curiosity into serious study, and Minky always referred to him and later to Alfred

Salmony of New York University as his "chers ma?tres." Every piece that he bought

led him deep into its background. His half dozen early bronze vessels, each a superb

example, produced a thick file on the shapes, designs and history of the Shang and

Chou periods. He always said wryly that however he would never be a genuine archae

ologist because he had no love for the potsherds, broken bits and such important but

unlovely relics of the past; he would have nothing in his collection which was not

attractive to the eye.

He moved his residence to New York in 1939. His collection, study, and partici

pation in relief work helped him endure the unhappy years of the war, the death of one of his two daughters in occupied Holland, and the Japanese internment of the third.

In the last few years he began to publish some of the results of his study. An essay on provenance and dating, "Some bronze knives from ancient China in American

collections," appeared in Phoenix, III, 2, 1948. "An early Chinese bronze mask" was

printed in the Stedelijk Museum bulletin, Nieuwe Serie, 29, 1950. He also wrote exhi bition reviews and shorter notices for this publication. "Date and provenance of death

masks of the Far East" was published in Artibus Asiae, no. 14,1, 1951. In increasingly

poor health during the last two years of his life, he was nevertheless engaged in a mas

sive and complicated project of Hindu iconography, identifying and classifying the various forms of the deities.

In the summer of 1956 he went to Europe. He was on a trip to the Cote d'Azur

with his daughter, Anna Minkenhof, when he had a fatal heart attack on August 6. He was buried in La Seyne.

He was a man who firmly said he did not think life was always beautiful, but he

fully enjoyed the process of living, and he lived it in his own way, with uncompro mising standards, with sharp eyes and wit to demolish the false and pretentious. In

this age of both confusing values and increasing standardization we had need of him, but he was a modest man, perhaps really a shy man, and he would probably like it

better if we simply said we missed him. Very much.

Elizabeth Lyons

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