News item | 27-06-2019

According to tradition, a portrait is painted from the departing chairman of the Carnegie Foundation and added to the portrait gallery in the boardroom. Bernard Bot recently said farewell as chairman of the Carnegie Foundation and was immortalized by artist from Swedish origin, Urban Larsson (1966). The artist produces works of art in a classical style and paints landscapes, still lifes and portraits. He portrayed various Dutch politicians, the royal couple and Queen Silvia of Sweden. The artist never paints from photographs, but paints his “subject” during a number of sessions in his studio in Amsterdam.

In the boardroom portraits are found of the thirteen previous presidents of the Carnegie Foundation. The first portrait of chairman Jhr. A.P.C. van Karnebeek was painted by Antoon van Welie. In more recent years, Marike Bok, Carla Rodenburg and Sierk Schroder, among others, portrayed former chairmen of the Foundation, such as Max van der Stoel, Mr. Hans van den Broek and Mr. Pieter Kooijmans.

In the presence of the new chairman Mr. Piet Hein Donner, the other board members, the general manager and staff of the Carnegie Foundation, the portrait was unveiled.