[1] In 1779 he inherited his father's country seat Frankendael in Watergraafsmeer - when a tree of liberty was placed (the ground was frozen too hard to plant it) on the Dam in Amsterdam in January 1795, it came from Gildemeester's garden.

In 1792 he bought the prestigious stone-clad double canal mansion in the Gouden Bocht at 475 Herengracht which had been redecorated in the popular Louis XV style by Daniel Marot for the former owner, the wealthy widow Petronella van Lennep-de Neufville.

By his death in 1799 Gildemeester had built up a collection of over 300 paintings, including works by Jacob van Ruisdael, Meindert Hobbema, Pieter de Hoogh, Gabriel Metsu, Gerard ter Borch, Peter Paul Rubens and the French painter Jean-Baptiste Pillement.

His works included Rembrandt's The ship builder Rijksen and his wife (now in the Royal Collection[3]), Portrait of a Clergyman (1637) and The Healing of Old Tobias (1636).

Several important paintings from the collection, such as Jan Asselijn's The Threatened Swan, ended up the Netherlands' national art gallery, which opened to the public in Huis ten Bosch but is now housed in the Rijksmuseum.