Theo Molkenboer

Theodorus Henricus Antonius Adolph Molkenboer (23 February 1871, Leeuwarden – 1 December 1920, Lugano) was a Dutch painter and designer, notably, of book covers and posters. He was also an expert on the history of Dutch folk costumes and wrote several short works on that subject.

Biography His father was the architect and painter Willem Molkenboer. His brother, , also became a painter and his sister, Phemia, an artist as well. He began his studies in Amsterdam at the "Rijksnormaalschool voor Tekenonderwijzers" (Royal Normal School for Technical Drawing), a school that was founded by his father. He graduated in 1891 and, for a short time, worked as an architectural draftsman in the offices of Pierre Cuypers. He maintained a lifelong interest in church architecture and wrote an influential article on the topic for De Katholieke Illustratie,

He felt more drawn to decorative painting and portraiture so, in 1892, he enrolled at the Rijksakademie, where he studied with August Allebé, Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof, and his uncle, Antoon Derkinderen.

On returning to the Netherlands, he became a member of the Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Ambachts- en Nijverheidskunst (V.A.N.K.) the Dutch Association for Craft and Craft Art, and began collecting Dutch costumes. He organized the first Festival of National Costumes, held in September, 1913, and spent the next few years travelling throughout the Low Countries, taking photographs and collecting data on the local folk costumes, which were in danger of disappearing. He put together a booklet that was published in 1917, but was unsatisfied and asked the Ministry of the Interior to subsidize further studies and the collection of actual costumes. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences backed his plan, but it was opposed by Adriaan Pit, the Director of the , and the municipal government of Amsterdam, due to ongoing disagreements about the museum's contents.

His battles with the government bureaucracy left him exhausted and he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. In 1920, he went to a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, seeking a cure, but died a few months later. His art works and collections were auctioned off the following year. In 2010, his painting "The Toilette" was used on the Netherlands 44 Eurocent postage stamp.