Arnoldus Bloemers

Arnoldus Bloemers was a Dutch painter born in Amsterdam, most commonly dated to 1792, though a smaller group of dealer sources citing RKD, the Netherlands Institute for Art History, gives 1785. He trained at the Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy of Visual Arts) in Amsterdam under Antonie Piera, of whom he later became a fellow member, though no source specifies the exact years of study or a formal degree.

Bloemers specialized in still lifes of flowers, fruit, and dead game, working in the manner of Jan van Huysum and Jan van Os. He exhibited in The Hague and Rotterdam between 1818 and 1843, and at the Paris Salon in 1844, and belonged to art societies including the Genootschap Arti Sacrum in Rotterdam and the Kunstbevorderend Genootschap V.W. in Amsterdam. He died in 1844. Most reference sources, including Wikipedia, place his death at The Hague and note that he died at age 52, a detail consistent with the 1792 birth year; one dealer source instead gives Nieuwer-Amstel, now part of Amstelveen, as the place of death. The exact day and month of his death are not documented in the sources reviewed for this profile.

Dedicated art-historical criticism of Bloemers is sparse in the sources available; no verbatim quotation from a named critic in a major outlet could be confirmed. Dealer literature consistently situates him within the school of Dutch flower painters descending from Jan van Huysum and Jan van Os, and describes him as among the more accomplished flower painters of his generation, though this framing comes from commercial gallery copy rather than independent art criticism.

The best-documented auction result for Bloemers is a large flower still life, "A still life of peonies, roses, honeysuckle, poppies, a crown imperial, rhododendrons and other flowers in a terracotta urn on a ledge," which sold at Bonhams, London, for GBP 102,000 including premium. The exact sale date is not documented in the sources reviewed. This appears to be his auction high among the sources reviewed, though full coverage of the global auction database was not available to confirm it as an absolute record. Away from the top end, retail asking prices for smaller Bloemers still lifes at specialist dealers have been recorded in the low hundreds of euros, underscoring how much value concentrates in his largest and best-preserved compositions. Richard Green, London, remains an active secondary-market dealer in his work.

There is no catalogue raisonne for Bloemers, so attribution depends on the monogram "AB," provenance history, and expert opinion, typically anchored to RKD records. Basic biographical facts carry some documented uncertainty: his birth year is given as either 1792 or 1785 depending on the source, and his place of death is given as either The Hague or Nieuwer-Amstel. Collectors should also weigh how thin the confirmed auction record is: a single well-documented result in the low six figures (GBP), against a wider retail market largely in the low hundreds to low thousands of euros, meaning any single sale should be read in the context of the specific work's size, subject, and condition rather than as a stable price benchmark.