Bader Collection and Rembrandt Paintings

Undoubtedly, the most generous and long-standing benefactors of Queen's Agnes Etherington Art Centre are Drs Alfred and Isabel Bader. The Agnes now has one of the largest and best-regarded collections of European art in Canada.

Alfred, a Queen's graduate from the 1940s in chemistry and history, combined his success in producing chemicals in the United States with a connoisseurship in art. In 1967, he began donating paintings to his alma mater. Alfred and Isabel eventually donated more than 200 paintings, spanning the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and with a focus on Dutch and Flemish paintings of the Baroque era, giving the centre one of the largest and best-regarded collections of European art in Canada.

In 1979, Bader's keen eye fell upon a Rembrandt being offered by Christie's in London. Head of an Old Man in a Cap, painted by the Dutch master about 1630, offered an excellent example of Rembrandt's innovative approach to the human face. The portrait captures the aged skin, dramatic fall of light and the introverted expression of an old man caught in time and contemplation. Bader bought the canvas, lent it to Queen's and then, in 2003, donated it to the university.

In 2007, the Baders donated a second Rembrandt, Head of a Man in a Turban, to the gallery.

A third Rembrandt, Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, in 2015. At that time, they also endowed two Art History chairs in northern and southern Baroque art and a Bader Curatorship of European Art.

A fourth Rembrandt, Head of an Old Man with Curly Hair, was donated by Linda and Daniel Bader in 2019.

The generosity of the Bader family has guaranteed the Agnes will remain in its place of importance for years to come.