The industrial Henri van Abbe donated a museum for contemporary art in the thirties; the Van Abbemuseum. The donation was a building, a contribution towards the museum's maintenance costs during the first three years of its existence and an acquisition budget.

With the budget the Van Abbemuseum acquired 26 paintings from Henri Van Abbe's private collection in 1936. Henri van Abbe was an art collector since the early twenties, especially contemporary art stole his hart. At the end of the thirties he owned more than 200 works of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists. When Henri van Abbe died in 1940, a part of these 26 works were exhibited.

All the 26 works that were acquired in 1936 are still in the collection of the Van Abbemuseum. A few of them were last exhibited in 1999. We are now showing the complete collection in the center of the museum: the gallery on the second floor.