Herman Brood joins the Dutch National Collection
On 5 November 2026, Herman Brood would have turned 80. A week earlier he received a rather special birthday present: a painting by Herman Brood has been added to the Dutch National Collection. That officially puts the rock 'n' roll icon from Zwolle in the same company as Rembrandt, Mondrian and Karel Appel. Dutch broadcaster NOS broke the news on 29 October (in Dutch); DutchNews covered it in English.
If you mainly know Brood from Saturday Night and Never Be Clever, this may come as a surprise. For art lovers, it is recognition that was long overdue.
From the tax office to the National Collection
The work is an untitled acrylic painting from the early 1990s, showing two men and a pistol. For years it hung on a wall at the Dutch tax office in The Hague. Nobody knows exactly how it got there; friends of Brood suspect a deal over an old tax debt. Very Brood.
The painting is now kept in the depot of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) in Amersfoort and can be lent to museums. According to the RCE, Brood deserves more recognition as an artist and as an icon of the twentieth century.
Herman Brood the painter: fast, bold and unpolished
Brood was born in Zwolle in 1946 and briefly attended the art academy in Arnhem. Music came first, but from the 1980s and especially in the 1990s painting became more and more important. He worked the way he lived: fast, impulsive and without compromise, often making several paintings in a row.
A few hallmarks of Herman Brood's art:
- Bold primary colours. Remarkable, since Brood was colour-blind. His wife Xandra sometimes had to point out which colour was which.
- Unconventional tools. Besides brushes and paint rollers he used syringes to apply paint. The RCE cites exactly this experimentation as a reason for the acquisition.
- Words and images mixed together. Slogans, names and loose words sit right in the work, almost like a comic strip.
- His own world. Music, love, women, cars, pop icons and self-portraits.
Brood himself said he couldn't really paint, and that his art was simply his handwriting. That directness is exactly what makes his work so recognisable.
Herman Brood silkscreen prints
Alongside unique paintings, Brood made many silkscreen prints, usually in numbered editions and signed by hand. That is why you will find a Brood on walls all over the Netherlands, in living rooms, offices and cafés. A silkscreen has the same bold colours and energy as his paintings, and fits more easily into an interior.
Brood and art rental
The Dutch have a word for renting art: kunstuitleen. Brood knew the concept well. In the last fifteen years of his life he was a regular visitor at the art rental, which had taken in many of his artworks. Renting art rather than locking it away suited him: art belongs on a wall, not in storage.
At Kunstuitleen.nl, Brood has been part of the collection for a very long time. Many of the Herman Brood artworks in our collection came straight from Brood himself: we acquired them directly from him back when he was still painting at full speed. Since then they have hung on the walls of renters all over the Netherlands, moving on to the next wall after a while.
Willem from our team has long enjoyed a Herman Brood silkscreen on his own wall: King Jammy's Recording Studio, a music studio in Jamaica.
A Herman Brood on your own wall?
You don't need to visit the depot in Amersfoort to see a Brood. Our collection includes dozens of Herman Brood silkscreens to rent. Save your favourites, reserve them and we deliver and hang them for you, anywhere in the Netherlands. Only once it's on your wall do you decide whether to keep it.
How to order online: click the heart on the artworks you like to save them as favourites. Then go to your favourites and reserve them. That's how you request a free trial placement.
View all artworks by Herman Brood or first read how art rental works.