Lita de Ranitz

Willemine Elisabeth Edzardine (Lita) de Ranitz (4 March 1876 – 21 July 1960) was a Dutch art collector. Her collection of dollhouses and related items is now in the Historical Museum of the Hague.

Lita de Ranitz
A portrait of a white woman wearing a large dark hat and a white dress, with a translucent dark shawl and flowers pinned to her bodice.
Lita de Ranitz, painted by her husband in 1923.
Born
Willemine Elisabeth Edzardine de Ranitz

4 March 1876
The Hague
Died21 July 1960
Amsterdam
Other namesW.E.E. Tholen-De Ranitz
OccupationArt collector
Known forDollhouse collection
SpouseWillem Bastiaan Tholen (m. 1919)

Early life

Lita de Ranitz was born in The Hague, daughter of Sebastiaan Mattheus Sigismund de Ranitz and Hermanne Louise Christine Thomassen à Thuessink van der Hoop.[1]

Dollhouse collection

Lita de Ranitz built her dollhouse collection from an early age, and continued to add to it through her travels, and by commissioning special items from craftsmen. Her husband and other artists made tiny original paintings for her collection.[2] Her younger sister Anna embroidered tiny but elaborate rugs and curtains to contribute.[3] She exhibited her most elaborate dollhouse in 1910 and 1911, and Queen Emma was among the guests attending the show.[4]

Personal life

Lita de Ranitz married Dutch artist Willem Bastiaan Tholen in 1919, as his second wife. She was widowed in 1931.[5] She died in 1960, aged 84 years, in Amsterdam. Her collection was donated to the Costume Museum in The Hague, and after 1984 it became part of the holdings of the Historical Museum of the Hague, and were the focus of a 2018 exhibit.[4][6]

References
  1. Groot, Marjan (2007). Vrouwen in de vormgeving in Nederland 1880-1940 (in Dutch). 010 Publishers. p. 522. ISBN 978-90-6450-521-8.
  2. Scholes, Robert. "Tholen, Willem Bastiaan (1860-1931)". Modernist Journals Project. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  3. van Lit, Robert (2018). De poppenhuizen van jonkvrouwe Lita de Ranitz. Haags Historisch Museum. Den Haag: Haags Historisch Museum. ISBN 978-90-6216-797-5. OCLC 1038278707.
  4. "The world behind a dolls house". The Hague Online. 2018-02-21. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  5. "Willem Bastiaan Tholen". Kunsthandel A.H. Bies. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  6. Den, Kate (2018-02-21). "THE WORLD BEHIND A DOLL'S HOUSE at the Historisch Museum, The Hague". ArtsTalk Magazine. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
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