Hendrik van Borssum Buisman

Hendrik van Borssum Buisman (1873, Wieringen – 1951, Haarlem), was a 20th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands who became the keeper of the print room or art cabinet at Teylers Museum in 1913.

Biography According to the RKD he was a pupil of Adolf le Comte and Oswald Wenckebach. He joined the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague at the age of 19, where he was a pupil of Le Comte together with Gerrit David Gratama. They became friends and after 3 years of study together, the painter Willem Maris advised them to go to Antwerp for further study, which they did in the company of Simon Maris, Willem's son. In Antwerp they were pupils of Albrecht De Vriendt and Henri Heymans, and their friends were Toon Dupuis, Isidoor Opsomer, Walter Vaes and H.J. Wouter. Today prints and drawings are only put on display in the print room and book room, where there are no windows. He was also the curator during World War II, and oversaw the conservation of the collection in bunkers in the nearby dunes.

His son Jan made a portrait of him in a bust that resides in the Teylers coin cabinet today. Jan became the next Casteleyn, and more than 20 years after the death of his father, he also became art curator of the Museum.