Museum

Located in 'Mesdag-kwartier', within walking distance of Panorama Mesdag in the Zeestraat, and Museum Mesdag on the Laan van Meerdervoort, the Louis Couperus museum is devoted to the life and works of Louis Couperus. It mounts two annual exhibitions showing various aspects of his oeuvre.

Louis Couperus (1863-1923) is one of the greatest Dutch novelists. He made his name at home in the Netherlands and in the Anglo-Saxon countries with psychological novels such as The Books of the Small Souls, The Hidden Force and Of Old People, the things that pass. From the age of forty onwards, he was more and more inspired by classical antiquity. Couperus, who firmly believed in reincarnation, was convinced he had been an ancient Roman in a previous life. His best work in this respect, The Mountain of Light, about the rise and fall of the deified emperor Heliogabalus, became very popular in Germany. On the whole one can say that his psychological novels had more success in England and the USA, whereas his historical works were more appreciated by the German-speaking public.

EXHIBITIONS

Louis Couperus Genootschap

The Louis Couperus Genootschap is the biggest literary society in the Netherlands. It organizes walks, lectures and publications on Louis Couperus. Contact P.J. Verhaar: 071 512 22 37.

www.louiscouperus.nl/

COUPERUS HOUSE

Surinamestraat

Foundation

Stichting Couperushuis Surinamestraat

www.couperushuis.nl

20 Surinamestraat gets commemorative plaque

June 2011

The COUPERUS HOUSE Surinamestraat Foundation set up to purchase the former residence of the famous Dutch author Louis Couperus (1863 – 1923) at Surinamestraat 20 and turn it into a museum dedicated the writer, which would also house the Couperus Museum currently located on Javastraat, is finally to be dissolved. The endeavour failed due to a lack of government support. The board will however postpone dissolution until permission has been granted for the installation of a commemorative tablet on the façade of the house.

Couperus was born on Maurtiskade at number 43 and lived at 4 Nassauplein (then Nassaukade) before moving to Surinamestraat in 1884. The first two premises already have commemorative plaques.

Plans for the 'Couperushuis' suspended

14 April 2010 - The Couperus House Surinamestraat Foundation founded to keep the former residence of Louis Couperus at Surinamestraat 20 in the public domain will be dissolved.

Due to the economic climate all the pioneering ideas from mid-2007 have come to nothing because the potential sources of funding have dried up and the political climate is anything but sympathetic to such an undertaking.

The balance of the donations and sponsoring will be used to erect a commemorative plaque, with the permission of the owner and the municipal council, on the façade of Surinamestraat 20 to acknowledge the historical importance of this extraordinary property.

Ankie van der Bol, chairperson

Stichting Couperushuis Surinamestraat

Summary of Annual Report 2008

Introduction

In the summer of 2007, Professor Arnold Heertje established an Actiecomité to preserve the former residence of the Dutch writer Louis Couperus. A foundation was set up to implement the preservation plan for this Municipal Council listed building.

The property, at 20 Surinamestraat in The Hague, has been on the market since August 2006. It is where Couperus (1863-1923) wrote his first novel ‘Eline Vere’, which put him on the international stage as an author.

Foundation

As a concerned citizen, in the summer of 2007 economics professor Arnold Heertje established an Actiecomité with a number of well-known Dutch figures and made several attempts to convince The Hague city council of the importance of this historical house, but to no avail.

Nevertheless, a foundation was set up on 25 January 2008 to implement the plan to preserve the property in its original state and to ensure that least the ground floor can be used to house the Louis Couperus Museum. Facilities for literary and cultural activities must also be part of the package.

Executive Committee

Adviser to the foundation is real estate expert Ronald van Broeckhuysen.

Committee meetings

The Committee met eight times during 2008

Recommending Committee

The Comité van Aanbeveling consists of a number of well-known Dutch figures, including Koos Andriessen, Frédéric Bastet, Ankie van der Bol, Frits Bolkestein, Jan Franssen, Arnon Grunberg, Hella Haasse, Peter Hoffman, Thom Hoffman, Anton Korteweg, Rijk van Marion, Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Helga Ruebsamen, Paul Schnabel, Mieke van der Weij and Caroline de Westenholz).

Publicity

The creation of the Actiecomité led to much coverage in newspapers, periodicals, radio and television.

Plans

Obviously the most attractive option would be to acquire the whole house. If this could be achieved, the broad aim of the Foundation is to reflect the cosmopolitan character of Louis Couperus would be realized: Hagenaar with an Indonesian background and in fact the icon of this city – Haags, Indisch and Internationaal, .

All these aspects could be brought together at 20 Surinamestraat by collectively establishing the Louis Couperus Museum, one or more Indonesian organizations, a centre for the study of fin-de-siècle (richly represented in The Hague) and an international centre for this “international city by the sea”, as The Hague professes to want to profile itself. As well as all this, the premises in its original nineteenth-century state would:

The funding, and in particular the realization of this particular scenario, is as expectations indicated currently impracticable. For this reason the Foundation has been forced to concentrate on a more realistic option: the purchase of the premises by a real estate developer who will restore the house and convert the top two floors into apartments. The Couperus House Surinamestraat foundation will then purchase the groundfloor and place it at the disposal of the current Louis Couperus Museum and the two apartments will be sold to private buyers. This plan will ensure that the conversion is carried out respecting the historical significance of this listed building. In order to finance this option, (“purchase the groundfloor”) the Foundation will approach the government, various charitable funds and private individuals.

Avenues explored

The Foundation has had discussions with various institutes and individuals since the summer of 2007. There has been an exchange of many different ideas and constructions but so far no concrete agreements have been reached.

On the basis of a so-called  “Contourennota” a Policy Plan could be formulated with the help of a specialist agency, including a proposal for an exhibition programme for the first three years. Such a well worked out and substantiated Plan would convince donors of the advantage and need for such a project, but is expected to cost around €50,000.  Once the money becomes available, the Foundation can work towards the next phase of its plans.

Further help, support and edorsement

The Foundation has received more than a thousand endorsements since it was established. More than one hundred donors have made financial contributions and several private foundations have registered as potential sponsors once the plans have become a fact.

There was even an idea for a publicity campaign based on a renowned professor giving a lecture on Eline Vere on a nineteenth-century horse-drawn tram starting at the Couperus House and taking in other homes of the writer and the Couperus Museum on Javastraat. Unfortunately the proposed date was unsuitable for many of the elite guests invited. The Foundation intends to hold this event at a time more convenient to those invited.

The Hague Municipal Council

The municipal council of The Hague has indicated that it has no budget available to support a museological function but is prepared to adopt a constructive stance when it comes to accepting changes to the zoning scheme or granting permits. The council has also made it known that the property at 20 Surinamestraat is a listed building and the original interior also enjoys a protected status.

The D66 MP Boris van der Ham asked the government in 2008 to do everything it can to ensure the former home of Louis Couperus in The Hague is preserved as part of the Netherland’s cultural heritage. Both the D66 and the CDA have in principle voiced their support in various meetings with the Foundation but have been unable to get a majority vote in council meetings for the project proposal.

The response from Minister Ronald Plasterk for Education, Culture and Science was the Couperus legacy is perfectly accessible. Virtually the whole of the literary estate of Louis Couperus is housed in the Nederlands Letterkundig Museum en Documentatiecentrum (Netherlands Literary Museum and Documentation Centre) in The Hague. This annex museum receives a fixed subsidy and the Couperus collection can be consulted by the public: parts of it are already available in digital form.

The Hague’s long-term subsidy system

In October 2008 it became clear that the Council of The Hague once again refused to subsidize the Louis Couperus Museum at 17 Javastraat on a yearly basis. This minimizes the possibility of the museum ever moving into the Couperus House at all because the Louis Couperus Museum could not possibly finance the running costs of the larger museum space on the groundfloor at number 20 Surinamestraat.

Fund raising

Several businesses have already shown their support in a concrete way: Studio Bau Winkel designed a house style and logo, as well as a brochure and stationery, which Drukkerij Ando printed for a discount price. Thanks to a donation from the M.A.O.C. gravin van Bylandt Stichting, Studio Bau Winkel has also been able to build and design a website for the Foundation (www.couperushuis.nl), for which Peter Hoffman provided the photos free of charge. Notariskantoor Brummelhuis & Vierveijer showed its support by drawing up all the legal papers.

As mentioned before the council and government are currently unwilling to support the purchase of the groundfloor of the property at 20 Surinamestraat, and no project developer has been found who is prepared to undertake the work.

Outlook 2009

Although the outlook in the current financial crisis is not rosy the Foundation intends to continue working towards its goal. The Foundation is pleased to be able to report that in the meantime it has been contacted by a financial institution, which is interested in the plans for the Couperus House because of its policy on socio-cultural investment. At the same time a wealthy individual is considering making a sizeable donation. Also recently, a real estate developer has been in contact, and would like to assess and calculate the costs of restoring the premises, in strict accordance with the plans already set down for the Louis Couperus Museum. This scheme would involve collaboration with a catering firm that has already applied this formula in many museums. There will be further discussions with all three parties.

Base figures yearly report 2008

These figures have not been subjected to an external audit.

 

The Hague, 15 April 2009

Executive Committee  - Stichting Couperushuis Surinamestraat,

Ankie van der Bol, chairperson

Rieks Toxopeus, secretary

Leo Stoffels, treasurer

Emilie Linssen-van Rossum, member

Alexander Gogelweg 65, 2517 JG  Den Haag; 070 346 4993, info@couperushuis.nl; www.couperushuis.nl; Rabobank 14 28 23 228, Kamer van Koophandel Haaglanden 273 12 449

Photo: www.louiscouperus.nl/

Mrs Couperus

The current generation of readers of the Louis Couperus novels take it so for granted that The Hague writer was a homosexual, that they almost overlook the fact that he was “happily” married.

Sophie Zijlstra, who has just written an historical novel about Mrs Couperus, presented the first copy of her book last week to author Helga Ruebsamen (The Song and the Truth) in the Louis Couperus Museum.

“Of course lots is known about Louis Couperus but almost nothing about his wife Elizabeth”, says Zijlstra. She found this fascinating and after discovering that Elizabeth suffered from depression and was afterwards paralysed for a long period, she wanted to know more. It is Zijlstra’s belief that Elizabeth’s paralysis was directly linked to her loveless marriage. Couperus and Elizabeth worked together on the book Eline Vere, but this was the only collaboration. Elizabeth did however continue to write and even translated a work by Oscar Wilde. Zijlstra has attempted to give a face to Elizabth Couperus and the role she created for herself.

Posthoorn, 12 September 2007