The international release of Rietveld Schröder House – A Biography of the House sheds fresh light on the famed Utrecht house and its visionary creators. This monumental, 896-page volume beautifully illustrated publication challenges long-held beliefs by revealing that Truus Schröder’s influence was far more profound than previously recognized. The publication contains many newly unearthed photos and personal letters. Authored by acclaimed historian Jessica van Geel and Rietveld expert Natalie Dubois, curator at Centraal Museum Utrecht, this comprehensive work delves deep into Schröder’s personal archives, presenting a richer narrative of her role in shaping the house. Designed by internationally renowned graphic designer Irma Boom, the book is a visual masterpiece. The edition is bi-lingual, in both Dutch and English and published by Hannibal Books.
Truus Schröder’s Role
Rietveld Schröder House – A Biography of the House narrates the story of the Rietveld Schröder House and its creators, Gerrit Rietveld and Truus Schröder. The two were radical innovators in modern architecture and romantically involved as well. Thanks to the significant bequests and loan pieces that Centraal Museum Utrecht received, Dubois and Van Geel were able to research new archive material. Their research has yielded not only a complete picture of the life lived in and around the famous house but also reveals that Truus Schröder’s role was a lot more substantial than art historians had assumed until now. Practically all publications from the 1920s identify both Rietveld and Schröder as architects of the house; only from the 1980s on did Schröder’s name begin to fade from the picture. The book furthermore shows clearly how Schröder and Rietveld spent decades collaborating on numerous projects. Schröder’s creative vision proves to be of great importance for their joint projects.
Jessica van Geel, writer, historian, and co-author of the book: “Our research for the book shows how Schröder’s name can be linked to many more of Rietveld’s designs than was previously assumed, also by myself. Schröder describes in her letters how she collaborates on projects and corresponds with clients, and her name can often be found on the drawings. We can, therefore, conclude that she was much more than Rietveld’s ‘lover’ or ‘muse,’ as she has been portrayed so often.”
Newly Discovered Archive Images
Besides new insights regarding Schröder’s role, the book contains hundreds of previously unpublished images. There are photographs of the house facade with a sign of the company name, ‘Schröder & Rietveld Architect’, photographs of grandchildren in the house (one grandchild was born there), pictures of parties and house conversions, photographs of primary school class that once used the house, and images of a ‘rooftop room’ that temporarily stood on top of the house. The book furthermore contains copies of previously unpublished letters by Schröder to her daughter Han. The research also prompted the bequest of hundreds of family letters and photographs, further enriching the museum’s archive.
Rietveld Schröder House – A Biography of the House is set up chronologically, starting with the births of Truus Schröder and Gerrit Rietveld and ending nearly 100 years later with the opening of the residence, inaugurated as a museum in 1987. Each chapter starts with a written introduction, followed by hundreds of archive images, letters, and explanations that together paint a picture of each time period. In total, the publication contains over 800 images.
About the Authors
Jessica van Geel is a writer, journalist, and historian. Her acclaimed biography of Truus Schröder, I Love You, Rietveld was published in 2018. She spent many years working as a journalist for NRC Handelsblad newspaper and was a contributor to magazines, including Vrij Nederland. Especially for the Rietveld Schröder House, Van Geel developed neighborhood walks around the eastern part of Utrecht, tracing the footsteps of Gerrit Rietveld and Truus Schröder.
Natalie Dubois is the curator of the Rietveld Schröder House and curator of applied arts and design at Centraal Museum Utrecht. She has curated numerous exhibitions for the museum, including Rietveld’s Masterpiece (2017) and Dreams Cast in Concrete (2019). The exhibition Statement Chairs (2023) was nominated for the Museumtijdschrift Exhibition Award. Dubois also curated exhibitions with works by Rietveld and Schröder in Japan (Tokyo and Oita), Germany (Herford), and Indonesia (Jakarta).
Design of the Book
Rietveld Schröder House – A Biography of the House was designed by the internationally renowned graphic designer Irma Boom. Both the book cover and the 900+ pages of texts and images were designed by Boom in close collaboration with the authors Dubois and Van Geel.
“The idea of creating the book like this essentially came from me.”
– Irma Boom: freely inspired by Truus Schröder
About the Rietveld Schröder House
The Rietveld Schröder House was designed in 1924, now one century ago, by Gerrit Rietveld and Truus Schröder. The house forms an architectural pinnacle of the De Stijl art movement. Gerrit Rietveld designed the house for and with Truus Schröder as an exuberant experiment and a radical approach to utilizing space. The house has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
Rietveld Schröder House – A Biography of the House is released as the festive culmination of the house’s centenary anniversary, celebrated extensively during the previous months.
Natalie Dubois, curator of the Rietveld Schröder House and Centraal Museum Utrecht and co-author of Rietveld Schröder House – A Biography of the House: “It took two very progressive and independent-minded people to create the Rietveld Schröder House: Truus Schröder-Schräder and Gerrit Rietveld. They built their dwelling on Prins Hendriklaan in Utrecht, at what was then the edge of the city. It was so bold! To create a house like that, out of thin air, without an example, is an extraordinary achievement. Schröder and Rietveld found each other in the different, in the new, in the unknown.”
Truus Schröder
Truus Schröder-Schräder (1889-1985) asked the Utrecht furniture maker Gerrit Rietveld to design her new family dwelling in 1924. Mother of three children, Schröder was recently widowed and wanted to make a fresh start in a house that satisfied her personal ideas. Together with Rietveld, she designed the house where she would subsequently live from 1924 to her death in 1985, for more than sixty years in total.
Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) is a world-famous furniture designer and architect. He is mainly known for the chairs he designed, such as the Red and Blue Chair (1919). With the De Stijl art movement as one of his sources of inspiration, in 1924, he worked with Truus Schröder to design the Rietveld Schröder House. It was his first time to design a house. Several other houses would follow later, such as the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Centraal Museum
The Rietveld Schröder House is part of Stichting Centraal Museum. Centraal Museum Utrecht is the oldest municipal museum in the Netherlands. Besides design and applied arts, the collection comprises old masters, modern and contemporary art, fashion, and urban history. Centraal Museum owns the world’s largest Rietveld collection.
Bart Rutten, artistic director of the Rietveld Schröder House and Centraal Museum Utrecht: “This publication is a rich source full of archival pieces, beautifully designed by the acclaimed graphic designer Irma Boom. Rietveld Schröder House – A Biography of the House is a rock-solid piece of work. The book moreover adds something essential to the history of the house: the original name of the architectural office – Schröder & Rietveld Architect – will be restored on the facade.”
Book Details
Rietveld Schröder House – A Biography of the House is released in a bi-lingual publication, Dutch and English. It contains 926 pages and is published by Hannibal Books. The book costs € 79.95, and points of sale include the museum shops of the Rietveld Schröder House and Centraal Museum Utrecht, among a worldwide network of specialty book shops and museum shops. A paperback and lower-priced version will be published specifically for the Rietveld Schröder House. ISBN: 978 94 6494 143 2. This edition is available only in the museum shops of the Rietveld Schröder House and Centraal Museum Utrecht.
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