codartCourant 20

Summer 2010

inthis

issueab

outcodar

t2TheO

ther3curat

or’snews&notesDutch

andFlem

ishdraw

ings,prints

andbooksrecently

acquiredbyTheM

etropolitanMuseum

ofArt4FivepaintingsrelatedtoGerard

DouinSchw

erin6

Getty

addressesskillsgapinthestructuralconservation

ofpanelpaintings8curat

or’scolle

ctio

nThePhilbrook

Museum

ofArt10TheMimaraM

useuminZagreb

12curat

or’scase

Pictureframesin

theNetherlands14

friend’sin

tervie

wtheH

onorableAmbassadorJ.W

illiamMiddendorfii16c

urat

or’sin

tervie

wLiaG

orter,

interviewedbyPiotrBorusow

ski18codar

tac

tivit

ies20fait

sdive

rs22c

odar

tmembers&news23

upc

omin

gexh

ibitio

ns24

codart is the international council for

curators ofDutch and Flemish art. Its aim is

to further the study, the care, the accessibility

and the display of art from the LowCountries

inmuseums all over theworld.codart

serves as a platform for exchange and coopera-

tion between curators fromdifferent parts of

theworld,with different levels of experience

and fromdifferent types and sizes of institu-

tions.codart stimulates international

inter-museumcooperation through a variety

of activities, including congresses, study trips,

publications and thewebsite (www.codart.nl).

By thesemeanscodart strives to solidify

the cultural ties between theNetherlands and

Flanders, and tomake the artistic heritage of

these countries accessible to the international

art-loving public at large.

codartwas founded in 1998 on the

initiative of Gary Schwartz and the Instituut

CollectieNederland (Netherlands Institute

for CulturalHeritage, icn). It enjoys the

generous support of theNetherlandsMinistry

of Education, Culture and Science (ocw).

codartCourant

Bi-annual newsletter of the international

council for curators ofDutch and Flemish

art. ThecodartCourant is distributed by

mail tomembers and friends ofcodart.

To subscribe:www.codart.nl/join–codart

Publisher:

codart

p.o.Box 90418

nl-2509 lk TheHague

TheNetherlands

e courant@codart.nl

t +31 70 333 9744 / f +31 70 333 9749

www.codart.nl

Editors and translators:Kist&Kilian

Coordinators:Maartje Beekman,

Jennifer Cardona, GerdienVerschoor

Design:Typography Interiority&Other

SeriousMatters, TheHague

Printed by:Drukkerij deMaasstad, Rotterdam

Cover:Govert Flinck (attributed to), Ladywith a

plume, 1636, TheHuntingtonArt Collections,

SanMarino

issn 1388 9559

Contributions arewelcome. Formore infor-

mation see: www.codart.nl/codart/courant

codartMaecenasses and

corporate sponsors

newGeorge Abrams, Boston

The European Fine Arts Fair (tefaf), Helvoirt

Hoogsteder&Hoogsteder, TheHague

The LeidenGallery,NewYork

MetropolitanMuseumof Art,NewYork

Amb. J.WilliamMiddendorf ii, Little

Compton

rkd (Netherlands Institute for ArtHistory),

TheHague

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

VlaamseKunstcollectie (KoninklijkMuseum

voor SchoneKunstenAntwerpen,Musea

Brugge,MuseumSchoneKunstenGent)

Waanders Publishers, Zwolle

Board ofcodart

Greetje van denBergh (chair), former vice-

president of the board of theUniversity

of Amsterdam, Amsterdam

Emilie Gordenker, director of theMauritshuis,

TheHague

Sari vanHeemskerck Pillis-Duvekot, former

member of parliament for the vvd (Dutch

Liberal Party), TheHague

JanHoekema,mayor of the city ofWassenaar

AnthonyRuys, chairman of the supervisory

board of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Manfred Sellink, director of theMusea

Brugge, Bruges

ArnoutWeeda, former director of the

Zuiderzeemuseum, Enkhuizen

Rudi Ekkart (advisor to the board), director

of therkd (Netherlands Institute for

ArtHistory), TheHague

Board of the Friends of

codart Foundation

Wim Jacobs, (chair), former controller,

Instituut CollectieNederland (icn),

Amsterdam

Greetje van denBergh, former vice-president

of the board of theUniversity of

Amsterdam, Amsterdam

ArnoutWeeda, former director of the

Zuiderzeemuseum, Enkhuizen

Advisory committee to the Friends of

codart Foundation

Hedy d’Ancona, formerMinister of Culture

of theNetherlands

Mària van Berge-Gerbaud, former director

of the FondationCustodia (Collection

Frits Lugt), Paris

JozefDeleu,writer, and founder and former

chief editor of the Flemish-Netherlands

associationOns Erfdeel

Jan Jessurun, former chair of theNetherlands

Council for Culture

Jeltje vanNieuwenhoven, former chair of

theDutch parliament

HenkW. vanOs, director emeritus of the

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Simon Schama, historian,writer

JanG. F. Veldhuis, former president of the

University ofUtrecht, Utrecht

ProgramCommittee

EricDomelaNieuwenhuis, curator, Instituut

CollectieNederland (icn), Rijswijk

Nico vanHout, curator, KoninklijkMuseum

voor SchoneKunstenAntwerpen (kmska),

Antwerp

Suzanne Laemers, curator,rkd (Netherlands

Institute for ArtHistory), TheHague

Huigen Leeflang, curator of prints,

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

NorbertMiddelkoop, (chair), curator,

AmsterdamsHistorischMuseum,

Amsterdam

Sander Paarlberg, curator, Dordrechts

Museum,Dordrecht

Sabine van Sprang, curator, Koninklijke

Musea voor SchoneKunsten vanBelgië,

Brussels

AdriaanWaiboer, curator ofNorthern

European art,National Gallery of Ireland,

Dublin

HelenWüstefeld, curator, Bibliotheca

PhilosophicaHermetica, Amsterdam

Website Committee

LarsHendrikman, curator,

Bonnefantenmuseum,Maastricht

Greta Koppel, curator ofDutch and Flemish

paintings, Kadriorg ArtMuseum, Art

Museumof Estonia, Tallinn

Rieke van Leeuwen,webmaster,rkd

(Netherlands Institute for ArtHistory),

TheHague

Gero Seelig, curator, StaatlichesMuseum

Schwerin, Schwerin

Geert Souvereyns, project coordinator,

Bruggemuseum, Bruges

Priscilla Valkeneers, scientific associate,

Centrumvoor de VlaamseKunst van

de 16de en 17de eeuw, Antwerp

LouisaWoodRuby, photo archivist, The Frick

Collection,NewYork

2

3

The Polishwriter RyszardKapusciński, whose

books have been translated into virtually all

of the languages spoken by ourcodart

members, traveled around theworld in search

of “theOther.” A year before his death (2007)

he publishedTheOther, an anthology of six

lectures inwhichhe attempts to plumb

the depths of theOther and determine the

stance to be taken vis-à-vis theOther in these

times of globalization,massive emigration

and streams of refugees. Kapusciński also

sketches the history of experiencing theOther,

beginningwith the ancientGreeks andhis

greatmodelHerodotus, who inspired him to

consider theOther as themirror inwhichwe

observe ourselves.His entire oeuvre is steeped

in the ethical imperative to truly draw close

to theOther.

Duringmy sabbatical in Kraków this

past fall, I seized the opportunity to reread

Kapusciński at leisure, andwhile doing so I

kept thinking aboutcodart: about the

uniqueness of a networkwhosemembers can

bothmeet electronically almost atwill, as

well as travel once or twice a year to actually

meet theOther. Thiswill always be themost

importantmission forme, as director of

codart, and for the entire team: namely, to

create asmany conditions as possible to ensure

that thismeeting takes place. It is therefore

deeply gratifying towitness just howmuch

codartmembers, in turn,wish to “cele-

brate” thatmeeting. This transpires primarily

during our study trips, when our hosting

members are particularly involved in

codart. Themost recent study trips to

Helsinki and St. Petersburg (September 2009)

and SouthernCalifornia (February 2010) are

cases in point. In these instances, it was the

members in situ whodevised numerous

possibilities formeeting theOther – dead or

alive. For example, thecodart groupwill

never forget entering the empty galleries of

theHermitage in St. Petersburg in the early

morning of 24 September tomeet “our”

masters in all solitude – the participants are

still talking about it. This also applies to

the hospitality extended to us in Southern

California: thewelcomecodart signs

in several institutions; the opportunity of

meeting somanymuseumstaffmembers

and scholars at the symposiumDrawings by

Rembrandt andhis pupils in the J. Paul Getty

Museum; the dinner Carol Togneri hosted for

us at her home – these are all specialmoments

that squarely servecodart’smission of

maintaining, fortifying and inspiring our

international network.

Others, too, support us by creating net-

workmoments. For example, thanks to The

European Fine Art Fair (tefaf) and axaArt,

ourmembers couldmeet up at the tefaf

at a lively gathering,whichwas specially

organized since this year the congresswould

not be dovetailingwith the by now legendary

art and antique fair.

Naturally, that annualcodart congress

is themost importantmoment tomeet each

other. Togetherwith all themembers, and

particularly those on the program committee,

each yearwe try to find themes for the con-

gresses thatwill be of interest to asmany

members as possible. InHuigen Leeflang’s

interviewwithAntonyGriffiths in the last

issue of thecodartCourant, an important

impetuswas given to discussing a subject that

concerns us all: is digitization a blessing or a

burden for thework of a curator? Are curators

so preoccupiedwith digitizing their collec-

tions that they have less time formounting

exhibitions and compiling publications – and,

if so, is that a bad thing?How can smaller

museums –with less staff – best dealwith

digitization? Andwhat aboutmuseums in

countrieswhere it is a luxury to have one’s

own computer atwork?Will they remain

plugged into the internationalmuseum

arena?What shouldwe think ofmuseum

catalogues being available only on the

Internet?How shouldwe relate to our online

databases? Andhowwill digital developments

permanently change thework of curators?

I look forward to thecodartdertien

congress, wherewewill have an opportunity

to share our experiences and discuss these and

many other issues. In the interview, Antony

Griffiths states that he “looks forward to a

new era of print scholarship.” At the congress

we can take this a step further bymutually

consideringwhat this new erawillmean for

the profession of curator itself.

In the background, thecodart bureau

has naturally begunmaking preparations for

new activities. In 2011, the congresswill once

again coincidewith the opening of the tefaf,

from20 through 22March. Themeeting

placewill be the RijksmuseumTwenthe in

Enschede, and the excursions include visits

to a number of historical country estates and

castles, such as the still inhabited Twickel

Castle inDelden,which is normally closed to

the public.More-over, the congress’ festive

openingwill be held in a royal venue, namely

Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn. Suggestions for

congress subjects are, of course,mostwelcome.

Please save these dates!

RyszardKapuscińskiworked in awebless

era for the greater part of his life.Hismeeting

with theOther transpired only “live” – after

all, nothing beats the personal encounter.

And this iswhycodart’s congresses and

study trips are also so important. Butwouldn’t

it be appropriatewithin the context of

codart ’smission to facilitate all kinds of

other types of encounters? Via Twitter? Via

Facebook? Cancodart join in these develop-

ments?Who knowswhatwe are secretly

working on? Surelywehave some surprises

in store!

GerdienVerschoor, director ofcodart

TheOtherGerdienVerschoor

[Photo JanGriffioen, Zutphen]

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010

Before 1993, theDepartment of drawings of theMetro-politanMuseumof Art had only amodest number ofsignificantNetherlandish drawings in its collection,includingmajorworks by Peter Paul Rubens andRembrandt, the latter given to themuseumby LouisineHavemeyer in 1929. Others entered the institution in1975with the remarkable collection assembled byRobert Lehman,which to this day is administered by aseparate department. EgbertHaverkamp-Begemannand Fritz Koreny fully catalogued Lehman’sNether-landish drawings in 1999, andHelen B.Mules publisheda selection ofDutch 17th-century drawings frombothdepartments in the spring issue of themuseum’sBulletin in 1985.Itwas only after George R. Goldner’s appointment as

chairman of the newly createdDepartment of drawingsand prints (whichunited the collections of the formerDepartments of drawings and of prints and illustratedbooks) in 1993 that themuseumbegan collectingNorthern European drawingsmore systematically.Naturally, this effort has been constrained by theavailability ofworks in themarket, and itmaynot be acoincidence that the collection is now stronger in 16th-centuryNetherlandish and 17th- to 18th-century CentralEuropean drawings than inmore traditional areas ofcollecting, such as 17th-centuryDutch and Flemish andearly 16th-centuryGerman and Swiss drawings. In thelast four years, themajority of the acquisitionswere

made in the area of German, Swiss andAustrian art, yetitwas still possible to addmore than 100 15th- to 19th-centuryDutch, Flemish andBelgian drawings to thecollection. A list of these acquisitions arranged by schooland century is published on thecodartwebsite.Obviously, some of the drawings on the list areminor, but there are alsomore importantworks by16th-century artists such asDenijs Calvaert; one ofDirckCrabeth’s largest andmost accomplished drawings;several drawings by Jacob deGheyn ii, including a size-able sheetwith studies of 11 heads; aminiature by JorisHoefnagel, dedicated to hismother, which appears tobe the artist’s first dated independent still life; twopreviously unrecognized drawings byKarel vanMander;and a sheet by theMaster of Liechtenstein,which is asecond version of a drawing that has been present inthe collection since 1963. As for the 17th century, recentacquisitions include a freely executedwash drawing onblue paperwhose attribution alternates between JanAsselijn andWillem Schellinks; amonogrammed oilsketch on paper by Balthasar van der Ast; a large, signedview of Brederode Castle nearHaarlembyNicolaesBerchem; a pen sketch byHendrickGoudt of the typethat has often been confusedwith pen sketches by AdamElsheimer; an oil sketch on paper of a standing boybyDirckHals; a highly finished study of the FarneseHercules by Peter van Lint; and an allegory of the artsby ErasmusQuellinus. Truly exceptional are two early

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’snewsan

dnotes

Lucas van Leyden,The archangelGabriel announcing the birth of Christ, ca. 1520,

MetropolitanMuseumof Art,NewYork, promised gift of LeonD. andDebra R. Black,

and purchase, Lila AchesonWallaceGift and 2007 Benefit Fund, acc. 2008.253

J.Hermann, after Jelle Reyners, plate 16 fromTreur-statighe uyt-vaert, ofte begraeffenisse

des ont-zielden lichaems, van den onvertsaeghden, ende seer strijdtbaren krijghs-heldt, Ernest

Dutch and Flemish drawings, prints and booksNadineOrenstein and Stijn Alsteens

4

Netherlandish drawings: a sketchbook sheet byGerardDavid, long thought to be lost; and one of the less than 30knowndrawings by Lucas van Leyden,which representsthe archangel Gabriel and is a pendant to awell-knowndrawing of the Virgin in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin.Curators in the original print department bought

Dutch and Flemish prints early on. Gifts fromLouisineHavemeyer and FelixWarburg provided themuseumwith a fine group of etchings byRembrandt and thecollection gained particular strength in this area duringthe late 1940s and early 50swith the acquisition ofhundreds of reproductive engravings from theLiechtenstein collection byMaarten vanHeemskerck,HendrickGoltzius, Johannes Stradanus, and others.Thus,with a strong body ofOldMasterworks to buildon, recent acquisitions ofNorthern prints have beenmore selective than in the area of drawings and includesome superbworks fromGerman-speaking countries,such as theMaster of the PlayingCard’s uniqueQueen offlowers, a fabulous impression of Schongauer’sVirgin andChildwith an apple, andMaxKlinger’swonderful portfolioEinHandschuh from1881.However, a fewNetherlandishworks of note have also entered the collection in recentyears, including a group of anonymous proverb printsafterMarten vanCleve; funeral processions of Frisianstadholders by Pieter Feddes vanHarlingen; awonder-fully lively print by the little-known J.Hermann afterthe equally little-known Jelle Reyners;The battlefieldby

Karel du Jardin;The temptation of ChristbyHieronymusCock; a curiousmerry company by Jan van de Velde, anda copper plate by Johannes Sadeler,Christ in the house ofMary andMartha, showing a state published by FrederickdeWit not known to the cataloguers of Sadeler’s prints.While themuseumcontinues towork onmaking its

entire collection accessible online,most of themorethan 16,000 drawings in the department – and all Dutch,Flemish andBelgian ones – are now searchable in themuseum’s online database (www.metmuseum.org/Works–of–Art/collection–database). Images are providedfor all but some of the larger sheets. The sheer bulk ofthe department’s collection ofwell over amillion prints,books, printing plates and blocks, has retarded progressin the online data input, but nearly 40,000 entries are nowaccessible. A serious attempt to photograph all the printsin the collectionwill begin shortly. The department iscommitted to enlarging and improving this database,andhopes that now and in the future itwill continue toserve the research needs and curiosity of all those inter-ested inNetherlandish art.

NadineOrenstein is curator of drawings and prints at the

MetropolitanMuseumof Art inNewYork and acodart

member since 1998.

Stijn Alsteens is associate curator of drawings and prints at

theMetropolitanMuseumof Art inNewYork and acodart

member since 2004.

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’snewsan

dnotes

Casimyr, graeff totNassauw […], Leeuwarden 1634,MetropolitanMuseumof Art,

NewYork,W.Gedney Beatty Fund, by exchange, acc. 2009.454

Jacob deGheyn ii, Study of eleven heads, ca. 1604-1620s,MetropolitanMuseumof Art,

NewYork, purchase,Harris BrisbaneDick Fund, Frits andRitaMarkus Fund, and

Charles and Jessie PriceGift, acc. 2006.101

recently acquired by TheMetropolitanMuseumof Art 5

GerardDou,Maid cleaning carrots, StaatlichesMuseumSchwerin, Schwerin,

inv. no.g 136

Domenicus vanTol, Shop interior, StaatlichesMuseumSchwerin, Schwerin,

inv. no.g 134

One of themost intriguing aspects of curating a collec-tion that has evolved over the centuries is reevaluatingpast attributions. Perhaps it is typical of a formerGermanDemocratic Republicmuseum that this should happenonly now. The attributions of paintings in the Staat-lichesMuseumSchwerin have not been reviewed sinceFriedrich Schlie’smagisterial catalogue of 1882 andCornelisHofstede deGroot’s review of it in 1894.Althoughdestroying cherished illusions is certainly

a sad task, it is nevertheless the curator’s privilege toshed light on aspects of the collection, bringing theminto clearer focus than previously. Furthermore, thefollowing remarks reveal just howmuch researchstill needs to be done in the storerooms of historicalcollections.Let us examine a group of five paintings in Schwerin

hitherto attributed toGerardDou, a leading artist of theGoldenAgewhowas considered to be one of the veryfinest by 18th-centuryGermanprincely collectors. TheDuke ofMecklenburg,who lost his first collection ofpaintings in a fire in 1725, is said to have rescued a singlework from the infernowithhis ownhands: one byGerardDou. Because the SchwerinDouswere rarely

exhibited outside of Schwerin, they have received littleattention. Themost important recent publication onDou to take note of the Schwerin paintings, Ronni Baer’s1990 dissertation on the artist, dismissed four of them.She accepts only theTooth puller. She discussed theMaidcleaning carrots togetherwith a picture in BuckinghamPalace, London, at length, considering themboth to be bythe samehandbut as problematic attributions toDou.The other three Schwerin panels are rejectedwithoutdiscussion.Thanks to a restoration campaign funded by the

GettyGrant Program, two of the “Dous,” theMaidcleaning carrots and theGeographer, have been restoredandwere thoroughly examined in the process (cf. SilviaCastro, SilviaHofmann, “Exemplarische Firnisbehand-lung an zweiGemäldenGerardDousmitQuellungs-erscheinungen an Farb- und Firnisschichten,”Beiträgezur Erhaltung vonKunst- undKulturgut 2 [2006], pp. 89-98).Froma technical point of view, nothingwas found toindicate that it is by another hand. In fact, theMaid isonly now in a state conducive to a proper examination.Inmy view, technical and stylistic features leave nodoubt that it is an excellentwork byDouhimself. The

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’snewsan

dnotes

Five paintings related toGerardDou in Schwerin6

Geographer, on the other hand, exhibits several aspectsthat seem foreign to themaster. The argumentsmustbe carefully reviewed, not least because of the opinionsof leading authorities, for instance JørgenWadum(keeper of conservation, StatensMuseum for Kunst,Copenhagen)who is convinced of the painting’s authen-ticity.Without going into the details here – a task betterleft to the collection catalogue –whilemany featuresare close toDou, there are pronouncedweaknesses,especially in terms of composition and subject, that areentirely out of keeping for themaster. Accordingly, itwill be presented as an anonymouswork fromDou’sworkshop.Furthermore, there is a copy of a composition by

Dou, theOldwomanat a spinningwheel. The originalhas changedhands a number of times andwas finallyshown at the large Rembrandt exhibition,Rembrandtthemaster and hisworkshop (Berlin andAmsterdam) in1991. The Schwerin painting, longheld to be theoriginal, is clearly good, perhaps even contemporary,but a copy nonetheless andnot an autograph replica,as has also beenmaintained.The fifth panel, the Shop interior, is a different case

as there is no directmodel for it, even though severalfeatures derive fromDou’sworks. This interestingpanel turns out to be byDomenicus vanTol, Dou’snephew,whomade a point of elaborating onhis uncle’scompositionalmodels, oftenwithout beingup to thetask.While the StaatlichesMuseumSchwerin loses awork that did not add toGerardDou’s glory, it rejoicesin gaining a painting by VanTol, whowasmissingfrom the long list of genre painters represented in thecollection.Alongwithmore than 100 otherDutch genre

paintings, these fiveworkswill be discussed in theforthcoming third volume in the five-volume collectioncatalogue andwill be on view in the accompanyingexhibition,which opens on 22 July 2010 and is entitled:Scheinbar vertraut - Seemingly familiar:Dutch genre paintingsin Schwerin. The catalogue presentsmany of the high-lights of the collection, includingworks byCarelFabritius, FransHals andGerard ter Borch aswell aslesser knownpictures, such as the enigmaticRomancarnival of 1660 by AbrahamHondius, the Peasant interiorbyCornelis Saftleven once owned byRubens, and thesmall Self-portrait and the Portrait of the artist’s wifebyFrans vanMieris.The five paintings formerly ascribed toGerardDou

in Schwerin are textbook examples of the kinds of

problems encountered in a centuries-old collection andthe varying degrees towhichhistorical attributionshave to be corrected. Two originalworks byDou, onepicture fromhisworkshop, one outright copy of aknownpainting by themaster and one by anotherartist derived from themaster’smodels, all of themonce bought as originals – this array is typical for an18th-centuryGermanprincely collection.Other painters are also represented by groups of

works: three AbrahamDiepraams, five Jan vanHuchtenburgs, three Pieter van Slingelands, and fiveThomasWijcks. As inDou’s case, some of these groupshave shrunk through reattribution: two of the fiveworkscatalogued as by JanMienseMolenaer turn out to beby JanMolenaer ii andEgbert vanHeemskerck, andone of the three paintings given to JacobToorenvlietis really by BartholomeusMaton (while a second onewas lost in 1945). As is better known, the last of the13 Schwerin paintings once attributed to Rembrandt– theOldman – is by Jan Lievens!Much seems to be newin this “seemingly familiar” collection.

Gero Seelig is curator of paintings at the StaatlichesMuseum

Schwerin, co-founder and currently a boardmember of ankk

(ArbeitskreisNiederländischeKunst- undKulturgeschichte) and a

codartmember since 2001.

GerardDou (workshop of),Geographer, StaatlichesMuseumSchwerin, Schwerin,

inv. no.g 92

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’snewsan

dnotes

Gero Seelig 7

InMay 2009, theGetty Foundation, theGetty Conserva-tion Institute, and the J. Paul GettyMuseum launchedthe Panel Paintings Initiative – a collaborative projectto ensure that critical knowledge about the structuralconservation of panel paintings is transferred fromcurrent experts to a newgeneration of conservators.The initiative has twomain goals: tomake certain thata sufficient number ofwell-trained conservators arein placewhen current specialists retire, and to expandexpertise beyondNorthAmerica andWestern Europeto Russia andCentral and Eastern Europe. (Formoreinformation, seewww.getty.edu/foundation/funding/conservation/current/panel–paintings.html).Asmanymuseumcurators know, panel paintings

conservators often possess a unique set of skills, blendingexpertise in painting conservationwith structuralpanel/wood conservation. It takesmany years of practiceto develop sufficientmaterial knowledge andhandskills to become a panel conservation specialist, andmost of the current experts developed their unique

profile through years of bench practice andmentorship.Building on this tradition,wewill support conservationtraining/treatment projects, throughwhich qualifiedconservatorswill receive side-by-side training fromleading experts in the field.At the beginning of the initiative, theGetty

Foundation funded a needs assessment survey toupdate information on the state of panel paintings con-servation inmajor American andEuropean collections,including those in Central and Eastern Europe andRussia. The survey started last year under the leader-ship ofcodartmemberDr. JørgenWadum, keeperof conservation at the StatensMuseum for Kunst inCopenhagen.Questionnairesweremailed out tomuseums, professional conservation institutions, andtraining programs,many ofwhichwere identifiedthrough thecodartnetwork. The results of the survey,whichwill be completed over the next fewmonths,willprovide an overview of the current state of the field andform the basis for identifying training opportunities.

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’snewsan

dnotes

Getty addresses skills gap in the structural conservation8

Hubert and Jan vanEyck,TheGhent Altarpiece (open), completed 1432,

St. BavoCathedral, Ghent,© Lukas - Art in Flanders

While the needs assessment is still underway, an idealtraining opportunity has already presented itself at theMuseo del Prado inMadrid.MetropolitanMuseumofArt conservator and panel painting expert George Bisaccarecently collaboratedwith Prado conservator José de laFuente on restoring AlbrechtDürer’sAdam andEve (1507).TheMet’s associate conservator AllanMiller assistedthroughout,while the project also offered opportunitiesfor short-term study visits by conservators fromBudapest and Los Angeles.With the structuralworkcomplete, the paint surfaces of both panels are currentlybeing restored and the paintingswill be back on viewin the Prado’s galleries later this year.Another significant artwork is the focus of a new

Getty-funded project. Three post-graduate and threemid-career conservatorswill participate in conservationplanning for one of theworld’smost famous panelpaintings, theGhentAltarpiece, painted byHubert andJan vanEyck in 1432 for the Vijdt Chapel of the St. BavoCathedral inGhent. The project offers anunprecedentedopportunity for younger conservators towork along-side a teamof international experts as the altarpiece isdismantled for thorough examination. The altarpieceis composed of 18 panels, and its structural conditionwill be assessed and documented in preparation forconservation treatment.While it is disassembled, thepainted surfaceswill be examined employing state-of-the-art technology,which should advance our under-standing of the VanEyck brothers’ painting techniques.In addition to training projects, wemay support some

shorterworkshops inwhich conservators and curatorscould together explore issues related to the history ofpanelmaking. These could address themes such as thebehavior of painted panels in adverse climate conditions,safe display and storage practices, and the range of treat-ment options for structurally damaged paintings.TheGetty is fortunate to beworkingwith an advisory

committee composed of distinguished internationalexperts, includingGeorge Bisacca (co-chair), conservator,MetropolitanMuseumof Art,NewYork; JørgenWadum(co-chair), keeper of conservation, StatensMuseum forKunst, Copenhagen; SimonBobak, conservator, EburyStreet Studios, London;Marco Ciatti, director, Fortezza daBasso, Opificio delle PietreDure, Florence; Paul vanDuin,head conservator, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; and IanMcClure, chief conservator, YaleUniversity Art Gallery,NewHaven.Asmanycodartmembers know, theGetty has

had a long-standing interest in the structural issues

of panel paintings conservation. The Panel PaintingsInitiative builds on twoprevious groundbreakingsymposia on panel paintings organized by theGettyConservation Institute and theGettyMuseum in 1995and 2009. Last year’s symposiumhighlighted recentdevelopments in panel paintings research and conser-vation, ranging from specific treatment projects torelated exhibition issues. Alongwith formal presenta-tions, the symposium included a panel discussion inwhich conservators reflected on their own formativeexperiences and discussed training possibilities forthe next generation. (Formore information, seewww.getty.edu/conservation/education/panelpaintings/panelpaintings–component1.html). Video recordingsof the symposiumare available on theGetty Conser-vation Institute’swebsite, and the proceedingswill bepublishednext year. Additionally, an extensive biblio-graphywill bemade available on theGetty ConservationInstitute’swebsite as an online resource in the nearfuture.

AntoineM.Wilmering is programofficer at theGetty Foundation

in Los Angeles.

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’snewsan

dnotes

of panel paintings AntoineM.Wilmering 9

AlbrechtDürer,AdamandEve, 1507,©Museo del Prado,Madrid

Peter van denHecke after Jan vanOrley,Themarriage

of Psyche andEros, ca. 1745-1748, PhilbrookMuseum

of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, inv. no. 1944.8.14

Sir Peter Lely and studio, Portrait ofMrs.Hudson,

ca. 1670, PhilbrookMuseumof Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma,

inv. no. 1947.8.39

Jozef Israëls,Goinghome, ca. 1878, PhilbrookMuseum

of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, inv. no. 1947.8.43

The PhilbrookMuseumof Art

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’scolle

ctio

n

It wasWaite Phillips andhis familywho gave their nameto the PhilbrookMuseumof Art, alongwith the Italian-style villa inwhich it is housed, back in the late 1930s.Because the Phillips family’s extraordinary gift did notinclude a comprehensive art collection, themuseum’sholdings have grown throughout the years bymeansof a combination of judicious acquisitions and generousdonations. Through this process, Philbrook hasgradually built a collection that is defined by severalkey areas of strength.The 1961 gift of the Kress collection of Italian painting

and sculpture anchors Philbrook’s European collection.Numbering 40 objects in all, this generous donationboasts several genuinemasterpieces, includingTanzioda Varallo’smarvelous painting of St. John theBaptist inthewilderness. Another significant gift is Laura Clubb’s1947 donation to themuseum,which provides strengthin 19th-century FrenchAcademic painting, and alsoincludes a number of important American paintings,such asWilliamMerritt Chase’sBlue kimono.Museumpurchases of exceptional pieces such as AlexanderHogue’sMother Earth laid barehave helped to furtherdefine Philbrook’s American collection. In addition tothese holdings, themuseum is known for importantcollections ofNative American art, such as the ClarkField collection of pottery and basketry, andmorerecently the Eugene B. Adkins collection. In 2009, GeorgeR. Kravis ii pledged a significant collection ofmodernand contemporary design to Philbrook.Dutch and Flemish art has entered themuseum’s

collection primarily throughdonations rather thanpurchases. Accordingly, the group of tapestries, water-colors, oil paintings and prints that comprise themuseum’sNorthern European collections is not alwaysthematically consistent.Nevertheless, althoughDutchand Flemish art has traditionally not been considered

one of themuseum’s areas of note, it comprises amodestyetmeaningful portion of Philbrook’s holdings.Although the Phillips’ original bequestwas not rich

in artwork, the family remained engaged and activesupporters of themuseumbeyond its founding in 1938and continued to donate objects periodically. It was their1944 gift of a pair of tapestries from theworkshop of the18th-century Flemish tapestry-maker Peter van denHecke (active from1711-died 1752) that constitutes thefirst touchstone of theDutch and Flemish collections.Still adorning the stairwell of theGreatHall, the locationforwhichWaite Phillips originally purchased them, thetapestries depictThe toilette of Psyche andThemarriageof Psyche andEros. Theywere executed after designs byJan vanOrley (1665-1735). The central coats of arms andmarkings on the reverse indicate that the tapestrieswere originally part of a setmade forMaria Theresa(1717-1780), wife of Francis i (1708-1765), Holy RomanEmperor. Theywere given to Prince Ernest Augustus ofHanover in 1815, and remained in the royal family until1918. The Phillips family bought them fromFrench&Company in 1929. The tapestries remain signature piecesin Philbrook’s collection andnot only complement themuseum’s architecture, but are also objects of significanthistoricalweight.Other than Samuel Kress, perhaps no donorwas

more important to the European collection than LauraClubb. In 1947 she gave Philbrook a significant group of86 European andAmerican paintings. A passionate butunlikely collector, Laura Clubbwas a rancher’swifefromKawCity, Oklahoma. She began collecting in 1922when oilwas discovered onher family’s land, and theabundant revenue allowedher to pursue her love of art.She displayedmuch of her collection in the grand, four-story ClubbHotel that the family later owned inKawCity. Determined that her collection should remain

10

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’scolle

ctio

n

in the state ofOklahoma, Laura Clubb donated herpaintings, alongwith a substantial library of books, toPhilbrook in 1947. The strength of the European artof this collectionwas 19th-century FrenchAcademicpainting and Laura Clubb’s gift endowed themuseumwith its iconic Bouguereau Shepherdess. The gift alsoincluded a small group ofDutch paintings. A purportedCasparNetscher,Cleopatra,was rightly classified byMarjorie E.Wieseman (curator ofDutch painting,National Gallery, London) as a copy of the original com-position in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, andSir Peter Lely’s Portrait ofMrs.Hudsonhas since beendetermined to be thework of the artist andhis studio.Beyond these paintings, two important paintingsremain, both by artists of theHague School. The firstis a significantwork byDavid AdolphConstant Artz,Grandmother, which is virtually identical to the paintingentitledVisiting grandmother in the Rijksmuseum,Amsterdam. Further investigation is underway todetermine the relationship between these two paintings.The secondwork from theClubb collection is awater-color by the father of theHague School, Jozef Israëls,entitledGoing home. This large, expressivewatercolorreprises the themes of old age and isolation commoninhiswork.The balance of theDutch and Flemishmaterial in

Philbrook’s collection is largely prints, although onlya small selection is discussed here. The group is some-what heterogeneous in nature, though it has severalareas of focus, includingmodest numbers of prints byRembrandt andHendrickGoltzius, to name only two.The first important donation of printswasmade

in 1980when longtimemuseumsupporters,Mr. andMrs.Herbert Gussman, purchased theMartin L.Wiesendanger collection of prints for Philbrook. Thislarge and significant collection containsmore than

300 sheets, andhas an abundance ofDutch and Flemishmaterial. Among the outstanding pieces are threeengravings byHendrickGoltzius fromhis series of fourdeities. Representative of the group, Juno is visually richand layered, and evidencesGoltzius’ typical virtuosityof line.Minerva andVenus, from the same series, are alsorepresented in the collection. In 1996,MartinWiesendanger donated the rest of his collection directlyto themuseum. Although this gift is less varied in termsofDutch and Flemishmaterial, it does include a strongimpression of Cornelis Dusart’sVictoria Publica. Thisexquisitemezzotint beautifully demonstrates theexpressive capabilities of the technique,which allowedDusart to effectively communicate themoody, nocturnalscene.Themost recentmajor gift of printswasmade over

five years, beginning in 1994, by Robert andBarbaraHuff.Perhaps the finest in terms of quality and condition, theHuff gift encompasses awide spectrumof both EuropeanandAmericanmaterial, andnumbers almost 200 objects.SignificantDutch and Flemishworks include prints byJacob vanRuisdael, Lucas van Leyden, Jan van de Velde,Paulus Potter, Adriaen van de Velde, and FerdinandBol.A diminutive etching of a laughing peasant by AdriaenvanOstade is a charming example of the broad range ofmaterial present in the gift, and joins several other printsby VanOstade in the collection.Althoughnot comprehensive, themuseum’sDutch

and Flemish collections nevertheless formaprominentand distinct group. Because of this, an exhibition is beingplanned to highlight this significant, but often over-looked area of Philbrook’s collection.

Tanya Paul is RuthG.Hardman curator of European art at the

PhilbrookMuseumof Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma and acodart

member since 2009.

Tanya Paul

DavidAdolphConstant Artz,Grand-

mother, ca. 1884, PhilbrookMuseum

of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma,

inv. no. 1947.8.86

HendrickGoltzius, Juno, 1596,

PhilbrookMuseumof Art, Tulsa,

Oklahoma, inv. no. 1980.9.36

CorneliusDusart,Victoria Publica,

PhilbrookMuseumof Art, Tulsa,

Oklahoma, inv. no. 1996.8.14

Adriaen vanOstade,Bust of a laughing

peasant, PhilbrookMuseumof Art,

Tulsa, Oklahoma, inv. no. 1995.11.34

11

The collection of 17th-centuryDutch paintings intheMimaraMuseum inZagreb is part of Ante TopićMimara’s generous donation of all his art collectionsto the Republic of Croatia, whichwas initiated in 1973.As such, it represents a separate categorywithin thelarger entity of the Ante andWiltrudTopićMimaraArt Collection,whichhas been on view in theMimaraMuseumsince 1987.Mimara conscientiously assembled a coherent collec-

tion ofDutch paintings fromwhatwas available at thetime.Of the 35well-preserved pieces, 22 are attributedto artists directly or indirectly influenced byRembrandtvanRijn, such as Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, GerardDou,Gerbrand van denEeckhout, Barent Fabritius, GovertFlinck and JacobWillemsz. deWet. The collectionalso contains paintings attributed to PaulusMoreelse,Hendrick ter Brugghen, Jan Porcellis, Jan vanGoyen,Aelbert Cuyp, Jan van deCapelle, Jacob vanRuisdael,MeindertHobbema, Jan Steen, andAdriaen vanOstade,aswell as a portrait of awoman recently confirmed asawork byMichiel Jansz. vanMierevelt.One of the paintings attributed toGerardDou

represents his signaturemotif of an oldwomanreading.Doubegan studyingwith the seven-year olderRembrandt vanRijn at the age of 15.He spent three yearsin themaster’sworkshop, duringwhichhe produced aseries of variations on amotif that became known in arthistory as the “portrait of Rembrandt’smother.” Thecharacter originated fromRembrandt’s Prophetess Annafrom1631 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. AlthoughRembrandt’s parents are known to have posed for theirson andhis pupils GerardDou, Jan Lievens and JorisvanVliet, it remains uncertainwhether hismotherNeeltgeWillemsdochterwas actually used for the figureof Anna.Dou’s first-knownRembrandt’smother is in theGemäldegalerie, Berlin. Theworkwas executed on an

ovalwooden panel, similar tomany Leiden portraits ofthe time andunlike genre scenes painted on surfaceswith a semi-circular carved top. This early interpretationof the subject is clear proof that from the startDoudeveloped a technique that differed substantially fromhismaster’s. His fijnschilderpainting style contributedto his success in portraiture, a genre greatly favoredby Leiden patrons. Thisworkwas succeeded by twochromatically richer versions, both in theGemälde-galerie AlteMeister, Dresden. In one of them, an oldwoman reads froma scroll, not a book,with the helpof spectacles andher face displays Rembrandtesquequalities. In the other one, the oldwoman is shown inreverse next to a tablewith a chalice and a pouch.Although the artistmade these two versionswithin arelatively short period of time, he gradually introducedincreasinglymore carefully rendered furniture. Thelatter paintingwas themodel for the autograph replicain theDollfuss collection in Paris. Thework in theMimaraMuseum is almost identical to theDresdenpainting and its autograph copy, differing only slightlyin terms of size. The carved oak frame is authentic, as isthe oak support. The panel exhibits traces of coarse toolmarks.Many details in theMimarawork bespeakDou’s“handwriting”: attention to detail in the facial linesand the sunken skinwith a yellowishhue, an evocativerendering of the texture ofmetal, fur and various fabrics,the back of the hand coveredwith aweb of olive greenlines, and a brownish reflection on the fabric of theclothes. Dou’s exceptionally smooth surfaces and themulti-layered paint technique aremost evident. The fullemerald-green cape trimmedwith brown fur aroundthe cuffs and collar, the gold chain and the capwith a pairof gold ribbons bring tomind Pieter Lastman,whoseinfluence on the youngRembrandt is also visible in theProphetess Anna. Dou’s oldwoman reflects a particular

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’scolle

ctio

n

Michiel Jansz. vanMierevelt, Portrait of a noble lady,

MuzejMimara, Zagreb, inv. no. atm 890

Gerbrand van denEeckhout,Ruth andBoaz, 1661,

MuzejMimara, Zagreb, inv. no. 2000

JacobAdriaensz. Backer,The sense of taste,

MuzejMimara, Zagreb, inv. no. b-438

17th-centuryDutch painting in the

12

notion of agedwomen in 17th-centuryDutch art,representing an embodiment of female virtues. In thecontext of a prophetess entirely dedicated to fastingand prayer, her visible “flaws” accentuate the experienceand spirituality of age overcomingworldlyweaknesses.Among theworks of Rembrandt’s circle, Gerbrand

van denEeckhout’sRuth andBoaz stands out for its scaleand artisticmerit. This paintingwas analyzed andpublished by the lateHelena Zoricic, a curator at theMimaraMuseumwhodied in 2004. Like themajority ofVan denEeckhout’s paintings, theMimara picture issigned and dated:G.V. Eeckhout fecit / AD1661. Gerbrandvan denEeckhoutwas a painter and engraver of biblical,mythological andhistorical subjects and also an expertart assessor.Hewas born in 1621 in Amsterdam,wherehe lived a quiet life until his death in 1674.Hewent tostudy under Rembrandt at the age of 14. According toHoubraken, hewas Rembrandt’s favorite pupil and lateron, togetherwithRoelant Roghman, his best friend.Heremained inRembrandt’s studio until 1640. Van denEeckhout’s earlyworks have often been attributed to histeacher, whereas his later paintings have frequently beengiven to SalomonKoninck, FerdinandBol andGovertFlinck. Following an initial period under Rembrandt’spowerful influence, in the early 1650s he began to develophis own style of paintingmarked by a cool clarity andsubtle palette. This quality distinguishedhim fromRembrandt’s School, even thoughhis subjects continuedto be biblical,mythological andhistorical, and thesettings and costumeswere borrowed from the “schoolwardrobe.”TheMimaraMuseum’s painting originated in Van

denEeckhout’s third, late period,which began around1658with large-scale pictures in keepingwith theprevailing trends in Amsterdam that had been partlyushered in by his contemporaries Bol and Flinck. This

new fashion introduced Flemish influences intoDutchpainting characterized by large pictures in amarkedlynaturalistic style andwith sumptuous settings. VandenEeckhout’s quest for perfection expressed itself innumerous variations on the same theme: he paintedthe subject of our picture, Ruth andBoaz, six times inoil and once inwatercolor. Chronologically, the canvasfrom theMimara collection comes fourth, after paintingsin the Kunsthalle Bremen,MuseumBoijmans VanBeuningen, Rotterdam, and a private collection. In termsof its format, and influenced by Flemish painting,withits large, bulky figures and emphasis on the solidity ofinanimate objects, our picturewas preceded byTheLevite and his concubine invited to spend the night by thecitizen ofGibeah from1658 in the PushkinMuseum,Moscow. The figure of Boaz in our painting ismodeledonBelshazzar in Rembrandt’sBelshazzar’s feast in theNational Gallery, London, and is not only akin to Boazin the Rotterdampainting, but recurs as Eliezer in VandenEeckhout’s 1661Rebekah andEliezer at thewell, also intheNational Gallery, London.Despite its scale, theRuth andBoaz from theMimara

collection comes across as an intimate genre scene,realistically rendered, capturing themood and atmo-sphere of an early evening in July.Helena Zoricic con-cluded that it is part of a classicist trendwithin theRembrandt School in the secondhalf of the 17th century.

LeilaMehulic is curator at theMuzejMimara (MimaraMuseum)

in Zagreb and becamecodart’s 500thmember in September 2009.

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’scolle

ctio

n

Jan vanBijlert or Salomonde Bray,Allegory of love,

MuzejMimara, Zagreb, inv. no. atm 743

GerardDou,Rembrandt’smother,MuzejMimara,

Zagreb, inv. no. atm 714

JacobGerritsz. Cuyp, Portrait of awoman,Muzej

Mimara, Zagreb, inv. no. atm 746

MimaraMuseum inZagreb LeilaMehulic

13

The first in-depth investigation of 17th-centuryDutchpicture frames took place in 1984 and culminated inthe catalogue Prijst de lijst and the exhibition of the samename in the Rijksmuseum inAmsterdam. This is nowmore than 25 years ago. To be sure, attentionhad beendevoted earlier toDutch picture frames byClausGrimm,HenryHeydenrijk andGermain Bazin, among others.Still, the 1984 research conducted by Pieter vanThiel andCornelis Johannes de BruynKops of the Rijksmuseumrevolutionized our knowledge and appreciation offrames. Prijst de lijstwas internationally acclaimed and anEnglish language edition (Framing in theGoldenAge) evenappeared in 1995. As a result,manymuseumcuratorshave become aware of the value of original pictureframes, of the stylistic developments of the profiles andornamentation aswell as the construction and functionof picture frames in the 17th century. The catalogueincludes an overview of cross sections ofmoulded frames.Anunintentional consequence of thiswas that present-day frame-makers – some at the request ofmuseumstaff– have introduced copies of these profiles in themarket.Nowadays, increasingnumber of paintings are beingset in dark frameswith profiles derived from thesedrawings.Many publications on picture frames have appeared

since the catalogue and exhibition of 1984, such asCadres et supports dans la peinture flamande aux 15e et 16esiècle of 1989 byHelène Verougstraete-Marcq andRogerVan Schoute. Recently, Elisabeth Bruyns defendedherdoctoral thesis in Leuven on frames in the SouthernNetherlands in the 17th century. Furthermore,moreconcise publications onDutch picture frames haveappeared regularly, such as byHubert Baya on gildingtechniques and Louis vanTilborgh on framing theworkof VanGogh (exhibition catalogue In perfect harmony.Picture and frame 1850-1920, 1995). There is also the sub-stantialmaster’s thesis by EleonoorHeijboer of 1988on the late 19th-century Leiden frame-making firmDominicus Sala&Zonen.Other publicationsworthmentioning include: TimothyNewbery’s catalogueof the Robert Lehman collection in theMetropolitanMuseumof Art,NewYork (2007); and the exhibitioncataloguesFrames. State of the art of the StatensMuseumfor Kunst, Copenhagen (2008),Halt undZierde.DasBildund seinRahmen of the LiechtensteinMuseum, Vienna(2009) andRahmenkunst. Auf Spurensuche in der Alte Pinako-thek of the Alte Pinakothek,Munich (2010).While theyall devote some attention toDutch frames, the bulk ofthe research is on picture frames fromother countries.

Surprisingly, VanThiel andDeBruynKops’ study didnot prompt a new “fundamental” investigation intoNorthern-Netherlandish frames. There are still lacunasin our knowledge in this area, particularlywith respectto the 16th, 18th and early 19th century.Moreover, verylittle research has been done on 20th-century uses offrames andwooden so-called “strip frames”. The risk forthe latter group is that after thewedges are removed,original frames no longer deemed suitable are discardedwith no documentation. In the past decades, frames ofpaintings inmajorDutchmuseumswere frequentlyreplacedwith newly designed surrounds that took noaccount of the original, discarded frames. The qualitat-ively better frameswere sometimes saved; the lesserframes –with a few exceptions –were disposed of.At the beginning of 2009, the Instituut Collectie

Nederland (Netherlands Institute for CulturalHeritage,icn) launched a research agenda. Falling under oneof its five programs is the project Picture frames in theNetherlands. This project is not intended to fill all of thegaps in our knowledge ofDutch frames in one go: thetwo years reserved for this is too short a time to allow forthe publication of a survey of all Dutch frames. Rather,the aim is to produce a volumewith various independentcontributions shedding light on art-historical aspects,cultural value, the restoration of frames and a biblio-graphy.The icn organizes gatherings towhich about

40 curators and frame restorers are invited to discussresearch, preservation and conservation, and therestoration of picture frames. The first session tookplace on 20November 2009. A variety of subjectswerepresented in five brief talks. I beganwith an introduc-tion on the project andwas followed byHubert Baya,restorer of frames and gilding at the Rijksmuseum inAmsterdam,whichhasmore than 750 frames in storage.Baya reported onhis investigation of the original framesof late-medievalNorthern-Netherlandish paintings,whichwere described for the exhibitionVroegeHollandersin theMuseumBoijmans VanBeuningen inRotterdamin 2008. Quite remarkably, he ascertained that thepercentage of original frames on late-medieval panels ishigher than on 17th-century paintings. Quentin Buvelot,curator at theMauritshuis in TheHague, gave the thirdtalk.He outlined the points of departure and the criteriainvolved in selecting and producing a new frame for thepaintingApelles paintingCampaspebyWillemvanHaecht(1593-1637). The profile of this frame is based on theone of the painting depicted in this painting by Frans

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’scase

Picture frames in theNetherlands

EricDomelaNieuwenhuis

14

Snijders. The fourth speaker, Christel Kordes of theStedelijkMuseum in Schiedam, gave an account of theframings ofworks byCobra artists. In the fifth and lastpresentation, SylviaNijhuis, freelance restorer of pictureframes, advocated the continuing professionalizationof frame restoration as an independent discipline. Shedeems it essential that a specialized training program inpicture frames be established as part of the restorationcurriculumof theUniversity of Amsterdam.The discussion that followedwas led by ArjenKok

(icn) and zeroed in on the history of the use of pictureframes inDutchmuseums. Buvelot remarked thatmanyof theMauritshuis’ frames date from shortly after thereturn of the stadholder’s collection fromFrance (1815).It was next noted that the replacement of a frame givesan idea of the prevailing taste in a given period and thusis sometimes linked to the preferences of themuseumdirector. For example, in the Rijksmuseumone speaksof “Van Schendel frames” and in theMauritshuis of“Bredius frames.” Itwas agreed thatmostDutchmuseumshave not yet sufficiently charted the historyof the reframing of their collections. Another point ofdiscussionwas the dearth of knowledge regardingindividualDutch frame-makers. For instance, to datevirtually nothinghas been published onmost of the19th-century frame-makers, including Jean BaptisteSchelfhout,Hubert vanHove (both fathers of successfulpainters), andMartin Joosstens (Jan Toorop’s frame-maker). The last issue to be broachedwas that of all theliterally hundreds of frames in the depots ofDutchmuseums. For example, the Rijksmuseumand the icn

together own approximately 1,500 frames. Until now,they have been summarily inventoried and are virtuallynever lent out. In themeantime, both institutions haveavidly begun to further disclose their holdings.In 2003 Bernd Lindemanngave a presentation at

thecodartzes congress in Amsterdam inwhichhelaunched a plan to set up a database to disclose emptypicture frames andmake themavailable for internationalloans. Itwould be interesting to investigate the possibil-ities for establishing a small-scale picture frames data-base in theNetherlands. The creation of such a databasecould serve as an extension of the current frames project.Naturally, the support ofDutchmuseums is vital tosuch anundertaking.Moreover, it could be linked tocomparable projects abroad, particularly those in BerlinandBasel. Finally, in assessing our progress, we canreport that the bibliography for the publication is beingdrawnup and the second gathering took place on22 April 2010.

EricDomelaNieuwenhuiswill preside over amarkettable on this subject at thecodartdertien congressin Rotterdam. See ourwebsite formore information:www.codart.nl/codart-dertien-congress

EricDomelaNieuwenhuis is curator at theNetherlands Institute

for CulturalHeritage inRijswijk and acodartmember since 2003.

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’scase

15

Label of theDominicus Sala&Zonen firm from1861-1871 on the back of the frame

around theH.W.Mesdag painting:Fishing boats in the breakers, 1898, icn, Rijswijk.

The label suggests that the frame is at least 20 years older than the painting.

Formany years, JohnWilliamMiddendorf ii (bornin Baltimore,Maryland, 22 September 1924), was anAmerican diplomat. In 1969, RichardNixon appointedhimAmbassador to theNetherlands,where he serveduntil 1973.He later served as Ambassador to the eu andas Secretary of theusNavy. AmbassadorMiddendorfreceived a Bachelor’s degree inNaval Science from theCollege of theHoly Cross in 1945. At the end of theSecondWorldWar he served in theNavy as an engineerofficer andnavigator on theuss lcs (l) 53, beingmustered out in 1946.He earned a Bachelor of Artsdegree fromHarvardCollege in 1947 and graduatedfromNewYorkUniversity’s Graduate School of BusinessAdministrationwith anmba in 1954.He became aninvestment banker and in 1961, in partnershipwithAustenColgate, formedhis own company,Middendorf,Colgate andCompany.

AmbassadorMiddendorf is a great art lover and collectsOldMaster paintings. In that capacity, in 2009 he decidedto supportcodart financially as anAmerican Friend ofcodart. His interest in art in general, andDutch andFlemish art in particular, emerged early on. Actually,Mr.Middendorf aspired to becoming an artist himself,but as the father of five childrenhe opted for financialsecurity andmade a career in the financial and later thediplomaticworld.However, he never renouncedhistrue calling. Inmore than 600 sketchbooks, over 50 years,he has portrayed individualswhomhe encountered indaily life, ranging fromLaura Bush, BarackObama, and

experts onRembrandt, tocodartmember Till-HolgerBorchert.Music, too, is one of his passions.He composedtheHolland Symphony, whichwas performed forQueenJuliana on the 25th anniversary of her ascension (1973)andhaswrittenmany symphonies and an opera.

Wemetwhile AmbassadorMiddendorfwas inMaastricht for The EuropeanArt Fair (tefaf) onSaturday, 13March, at the hotel he stays in every year.Beforewe begin the interview, he showsme a portraitof his daughter that he had painted. She is seatedbefore her easel atwork, and set before a backgroundinwhich several pieces fromher father’s collectionare visible.

Howdid your collection originate; when did you decide tostart collecting art? I always loved art, even as a child, andwanted to become an artist at one time. It just seemednatural to begin collecting. Initially I bought Americanart. Butmy eyeswere opened in the beginning of the1960s, and in 1961 I acquiredmy firstDutchmaster, theManwith the black hat byRembrandt, which is now in,theHammerMuseum, Los Angeles.

Is Rembrandt your favorite artist?Of course I greatly admiretheOldMasters from theGoldenAge, but, to tell you thetruth, I am fonder of early Flemish painters. Theworkof Rembrandt,Hals andVermeermay bemore attractiveto themodern eye, and thatwas alsomy starting pointin the early 1960s.However,my focus shifted for tworeasons. First of all, at that time very fewpeoplewerecollecting art of this period. Second, in away earlyFlemish paintings are complete documents of theirtime, and this iswhat fascinatesme.

Can you tell usmore about this?When youbuyAmericanart, you know thatwhat you see iswhat you get. Butearly Flemish paintings have somuchmore to say thanwhat is on the surface of the picture. They have a veryconcentratedChristian iconographic appeal and evidencethemost impressive skills I have ever seen in art. I admirethe remarkable technique underpinning these paintings.What also fascinatesme is that they tell us somuch aboutthe history of civilization; every painting is a continuousliving document. I am intrigued by the fact that artiststraveled throughout Europe and that you can discern somanymutual influences. It alsomovedme to learn thatpainters frequentlyworked on oak panels oftenmadefromone and the same treewith a Baltic origin, and

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/fr

iend’sin

tervie

w

Interviewwith theHonorable Ambassador16

that these panels are nowdispersed all over Europe.I only realized all of this through collecting.Forme, the greatest painting in theworld is theGhent

Altarpiece by the VanEyck brothers. It almost standsalone. I once saw it in pieces on the floor of a restorationstudio. I sat on the groundwith the restorers andwasable to study it closely. Another painting that I admire istheAdoration of theMagi by JanGossart in theNationalGallery in London. It isworth a pilgrimage just to see it.Forme it is a privilege to collect paintings from thisperiod, but I realize that, as a collector,my collection isa distant shadowof the best of these greatmasters – butthat’s close enough.Evenwith respect tomy favorite paintings inmy

collection, I amastounded by the technique.When Istarted collecting, infra-red reflectogramanddendro-chronology had just been developed for technicalresearch. The advent of entirely new techniqueswas areason for re-examining theworks inmy collection andgather new information. These rapid technologicaldevelopments are very exciting.

Doyou still have particular paintings on yourwish list?Why yes, I always try to find rareworks that are stillin good condition, but that’s like looking for a needlein a haystack. Fortunately, I have several excellentadvisers,most ofwhom, incidentally, aremembersofcodart.

What doescodartmean to you?codart is a group ofmydearest friends and advisers, so formecodart isall about the people. Until 5 pm these individuals arevery serious, andwe engage in scholarly and scientificconversations. In the evening, though,wehave a lotof fun.Obviously, I hope thatcodartwill continueto organize these importantmeetings andnetworkmoments, which is also in partwhy I support theorganization financially. And of course I am countingoncodartmembers to retrieve themissing sectionof theGhentAltarpiece!

Youare constantly drawing.What do your sketchesmean to you?Mydrawings helpme to concentrate onwhat is going onaroundme.Moreover, every drawing is a kind of diaryentry.When I revisit them, I remember themoment, theevent, and the person. Imake about ten drawings a day. Ido them in pen rather than pencil so that I cannot eraseanything.When youdraw in pen, youhave to focus andkeep your concentration. Youhave tomake themquicklyand try to get it right the first time. I even draw in thedark, for instance during a ballet performance. Then, Ican’t seewhat I amdrawing; but thoseworks are thepurest. As a collectorwho paints and draws himself, it islike standing at the foot of the Empire State Building: Ilook up andhave the feeling thatwhatever I accomplishis virtually nothing compared to such a great landmark.

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/fr

iend’sin

tervie

w

J.WilliamMiddendorf iiGerdienVerschoor 17

JohnWilliamMiddendorf ii,TheHague’s Rembrandt JohnWilliamMiddendorf ii,Till-Holger Borchert at

Maastricht

JohnWilliamMiddendorf ii,Bode in front of the

Doomer portrait

Could you please introduce yourself?Roughly two threadsrun throughmy life: art and thewomen’s rightsmove-ment. I followed theKünstlerische Abteilung course at theTextil Ingenieur Schule in Krefeld. The programwasestablished after the SecondWorldWar by JohannesItten, one of the leaders of the Bauhaus. Subsequently,I studied art history briefly at theUniversity ofAmsterdam.In 1987 theWorldWomen’s Conferencewas held in

Moscow. As amember of theDutch delegation I visitedthe Tretyakov StateGallery. I was so impressed bywhatI saw that I proposedmounting an exhibition andsetting up an exchange of people at the level of artists’organizations. From then on, regular contactwasmain-tainedwithmuseumstaffs and itwas possible to launchprojects in an atmosphere ofmutual trust. To implementthisweneeded awork organization,whichwas estab-lished in 1996, aimed at disclosing unknown collectionsto a broad public. The StichtingCultuur Inventarisatie(Foundation for Cultural Inventory [sci]) does this inother countries aswell, for example India andCuba.

What is the sci’smain field of activity? Inventoryingunknown collections that add to our knowledge ofDutch and Flemish painting.We drewup a plan togetherwithRudi Ekkart, director of therkd (NetherlandsInstitute for ArtHistory).Withmoney fromprivatefundswe created a pilot project to inventory sixmodestcollections inRussia, to review the attributions – oftenmade around 1900 – and to publicize them in and outsideof Russia. To be honest, the discoveries are not alwaysearth shattering. But, for example, no autographworkby Adamvan Pitten - an artist knownonly from theAntwerp “Liggeren,” or guild lists, was knownuntil thesci found a signed and dated (1598) self-portrait in theOstankino EstateMuseum inMoscow. The results ofthese inventoriesweremade available to therkd.

What kind of institutions can count on collaborationwith thesci?Almost all of the requestswe receive come frommuseums.We askwhat the aim is of the inventory. Quiteoften the institution in question is undergoing renova-tion and the collection is being reorganized.We studythe available information on the collection and if it isinterestingwe drawup a plan. There is one conditionthough, namely that the collection bemade availablefor research and that the outcome and inventory areaccessible either on awebsite or in a study room. Some-times the sci takes the initiative. In 1999 the sciwasfaxed a page of a catalogue of theNationalMuseum inHavana. The names listed there, Jacob Jordaens, JanSteen, Aelbert Cuyp, Johannes Verspronck and Jan de

Baen roused our curiosity. Upon inquiry, it appearedthat themuseumhadbeen closed for years due to renova-tion and, yes, the collectionhad been stored in a bunkeroutside ofHavana. The directoratewaswilling to bringout the paintings from the bunker.Michel van de Laar,conservator, Bernard Vermet, art historian, and Iwentto Cuba and inventoried, documented andwrote upcondition reports ofwhatwas clearly an importantcollection. At the time, themuseumdidnot havespecialized conservators tomaintain the collection. Incollaborationwith the Instituut CollectieNederland(Netherlands Institute for CulturalHeritage [icn]),the sci contacted the StichtingRestauratie AtelierLimburg (RestorationAtelier Limburg Foundation)asking for two youngCuban conservators to receivesupplementary training so that they could take bettercare of theDutch and Flemish collection. The panelpaintings in particularwere in urgent need of treatment.TheGetty Foundationwaswilling to pay for their train-ing. In 2003, two conservators brought six problematicworks from the national collection toMaastricht, wheretheywere able towork on “their” paintings for an entireyear.When theNationalMuseum inHavana reopenedin 2004, a large part of theDutch and Flemishholdingswas put on view. Themuseumnowhas awell-equippedrestoration studio and the expertise tomaintain itscollection. Thanks tocodart, the curator can come totheNetherlands regularly to conduct research.We put apremiumon the transfer and exchange of knowledge.

As the director of the sci you are in a position to compare collec-tions of art in different countries.Different approaches, differentproblems. Are there any commonalities between the collections?Given the range and scope of the collections in Europe,you can say that they have grownhistorically. Thepatrons amassing themwere kings, aristocrats, religiousinstitutions and churches and at a later stagewealthycitizens. These collections encompasswhatwenowconsider to bemasterpieces andnumerousworks inthemanner of artistswhowere in vogue. For example,the Kadriorg ArtMuseum inTallinnhasmany com-missioned copies of paintings byDutch andGermanmasterswhowere popular in the 19th century. Generallyspeaking, this category of painting is not found in theUnited States. Instead, there one finds a limited numberofmasterpieces, whichwere largely acquired bywealthyindividuals in the course of the 20th century.

Do the curators of non-Western collections face the sameproblems as their colleagues inWesternEurope?Becausecurators in non-Westernmuseumshad only limitedaccess toWestern libraries and databanks, their know-

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’sin

tervie

w

LiaGorter, interviewed by Piotr Borusowski18

ledge is lagging behind. This deficiency though canquickly be redressed through the Internet.Within thiscontext, in September 2009 the sci gave a seminar at theYasnaya Polyana estate in Russia.We presented theEnglish-language database the sci developed togetherwith the CulturalHeritage.cc Foundation,withwhichthe Russian regionalmuseums can input theirNether-landish collections. Thiswillmake available a veritabletreasure trove of information for research onDutch andFlemish art in Russia.More-over, Russian curators canconsult colleagues via the Internet. After all, a collectionspanning three centuries requiresmore expertise thanany single curator could possibly possess. Therefore, fromits inception the scihasworked togetherwithcodart.As a network,codart is ideally suited for consultingcolleagueswhen you are conducting your own research.This is not only necessary, it is highly rewarding andaffords useful insights. It is also amatter of courage, ordaring to ask!

Howdoes the sci choose the projects it will work on?The sciselectsmuseums that - on the basis of inventory lists andphotographicmaterial that has been submitted – seem tohave exceptionalworks in their collection. I don’tmeanbyRembrandt or Rubens in the first place, but rather thegreat numbers ofDutch and Flemish paintings producedfor export. The history of collectors and art dealers, ofthe aristocracy and royal houses is often reflected in themuseumcollections in situ. If there are keyworks in acollection, it is important to explore the possibilities– togetherwith themuseum– for restoring themand/or improving conditions in themuseum.

What kind of help can the sci offer a particular collection? Isfinancial support also possible?The assistancewe can offerdepends on the situation: for example, providing extracourses for the training of curators and conservators. Thesci itself does not have funds at its disposal; it relies onsubsidies per project and onprivate donations.We can-not nor dowewish to givemoney directly to amuseum.Only in the case of a joint project can the specificworkin question be paid for. The sci dispenses advice, or helpsto find funding.

What demands does a collection have tomeet to qualify forfinancial support?What is important is the specific requestmade by themuseum.Museumsusually seek assistanceto study its permanent collection.We provide insightinto howwe arrive at an attribution and invite curatorsto therkd to show themhow touse the Internet andacquaint themwithcodart’s international network,so that they can find their ownway.Our principle is toprovide assistance, andmake ourselves redundant. If amuseum’s director and staff arewilling to spend timeandmoney on their own collection,where possiblewithsimplemeans improving the condition of the collection

as awhole and possibly training conservators, thenwehonor the request to inventory the collection. Further-more, themuseummust agree tomake the collectionpublic, disclosing it for researchers and the generalpublic.

What are the sci’s plans for the near and far future?– Presenting the sci’s work inRussia in a lecture at

the symposiumbeingheld by theDutch-RussianClubin St. Petersburg onDutch engravers in the service of theTsarsMichael and Peter theGreat from13 to 18 April2010.– Inventorying the collection of the KasteevMuseum

inAlmaty, Kazakhstan, from12 to 19 April 2010.– Study trip for four curators fromRussian regional

museums to theNetherlands during thecodart con-gress from28May to 5 June 2010.– Producing the collection catalogue ofDutch and

Flemish drawings in the PushkinMuseum inMoscow.The cataloguewill appear in June 2010 to accompany theexhibition of drawings from the PushkinMuseum in theSuermondt-Ludwig-Museum inAachen,which openson 4 July 2010. This exhibitionwill subsequently be onview in theMuseumHetRembrandthuis in Amsterdam.– Assisting the exhibition in theMuseumMayer

van denBergh inAntwerp,which is beingheld from11 September to 7November 2010. It features therediscovered panel of an altarpiece by Juan de Flandesin Belgrade,whichwas restored in the KoninklijkInstituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium inBrussels(Royal Institute for CulturalHeritage [kik/irpa]).– Organizing a seminarwith eight Russian regional

museums at the Yasnaya Polyana estate in Tula, incollaborationwith the Russian Association ofMuseumProfessionals (amr), inOctober 2010.– Implementing the database in the Russian regional

museums in the coming two years.

Piotr Borusowski is assistant curator at theMuzeumNarodowew

Warszawie (NationalMuseum inWarsaw) and acodartmember

since 2009.

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

urat

or’sin

tervie

w19

codartdertien study trip to

SouthernCalifornia

31 January-5 February 2010

Reviewby SusanAnderson,Harvard Art

Museum/FoggMuseum, Cambridge

“It’s not that people don’twant to come to

Los Angeles,” a formerGetty curator once told

me, “they just think they don’twant to come to

Los Angeles.” This sentimentwas confirmed

by comments from thecodartdertien

participants: quite a fewhadnever been to

SouthernCalifornia before; others had last

visited theGettymany years ago; and still

others had seen only one or two of the

museums on the study trip itinerary. Even

though the journeymayhave been long for

many of us, we all agreed itwould bewell

worth repeating.

The first two dayswere dedicated to a

thorough overview of theGettyMuseum,

Conservation Institute, andResearch Institute,

with a particular focus on the exhibition

Drawings byRembrandt andhis pupils: telling the

difference, (8 December 2009-28 February 2010)

and the accompanying symposiumon

2 February.With the general public and

scholarly community inmind, both exhibi-

tion and symposiumaddressedRembrandt’s

drawn corpus, his practices as a teacher, and

the differences in technique and quality

betweenmaster and student, with special

emphasis on the recent consensus regarding

the oeuvres of Rembrandt pupils. The

exhibitionwas arranged chronologically,

with drawings displayedmostly in pairswith

Rembrandt on the left and one of 15 students

on the right. One areawas dedicated to various

drawingmedia and tools, and cogent and

telling comparative details betweenmaster

and student appeared on object labels, clever

video projection, and interactive touch-screen

computer terminals.

Rembrandt andhis early compatriot in

Leiden, Jan Lievens, appeared near the

beginningwith an installation of their red

and black chalk drawings, arguably themost

vexing area of connoisseurship presented

in the exhibition.During the symposium,

Gregory Rubinstein (worldwide head of

OldMaster drawings, Sotheby’s,NewYork)

concurredwithmany of the Lievens attribu-

tions given by the exhibition’s curators,

whereasMartin Royalton-Kisch (former senior

curator, department of prints and drawings,

BritishMuseum, London) in his critical

response as the final speaker, arguedmore

often for Rembrandt’s hand. The easily

recognizable styles of some students allowed

for a deeper evaluation of their oeuvres, as

WilliamW.Robinson (Maida andGeorge

Abrams curator of drawings,Harvard Art

Museum/FoggMuseum, Cambridge)

demonstrated in his discussion of Samuel van

Hoogstraten’s pictorial drawings and their

significance for his role as an advanced student

inRembrandt’sworkshop. The selection of

drawings by others, such as FerdinandBol,

lacked cohesion and suggested avenues for

further research; in her talk, Jan Leja (research

curator, private collection,NewYork) affirmed

this in her convincing reattribution of three

drawings to Bol that had fallen out of favor

after Albert Blankert’s disattribution of a key

painting. And the corpuses of still other

students have come into sharper focus thanks

to an astute selection of loans, such asGovert

Flinck, Gerbrand van denEeckhout, and

JanVictors, the latter ofwhose oeuvreHolm

Bevers (chief curator forDutch and Flemish

prints and drawings, Kupferstichkabinett,

StaatlicheMuseen zuBerlin, Berlin)wants

to expand.

The history andmethodologies of

Rembrandt drawings scholarship came into

sharp focus, especially during the symposium.

In an ad-hoc debate, audiencememberGary

Schwartz (director emeritus ofcodart)

arguedwith speaker Peter Schatborn (head

emeritus, department of prints and drawings,

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) over the core

group of Rembrandt drawings, a group that

cannot be disputed andmay form the basis

for further attributions. Schwartzwishes to

include drawings that demonstrate a connec-

tion to a known, established painting or print,

whereas Schatborn’smore stringent standards

limit these connections to preliminary studies

or those drawings thatwere demonstrably

part of Rembrandt’sworkingmethod. And,

welcomedwithwarmapplause, Egbert

Haverkamp-Begemann (John Langeloth Loeb

professor emeritus of theHistory of Art,

Institute of Fine Arts,NewYorkUniversity,

NewYork) and Seymour Slive (director

emeritus,Harvard ArtMuseum/Fogg

Museum, Cambridge) both expandedupon

the course of scholarship that has shaped the

study of Rembrandt drawings and their

distinguished personal roleswithin this

history.

During the discussion sections, the speakers

deftly and graciously dealtwith questions

from the general public that often voiced a

familiar sense of anxiety at the “shrinking”

of such an iconic figure as Rembrandt.

Heartening, however, was the concurrent

pleasuremany demonstratedwith the

speakers’ well-presented arguments, which

allowed them to see just howRembrandt and

his students differed. This public sentiment

was embodied by the delight ofNational

Public Radio special correspondent Susan

Stamberg as she toured the exhibitionwith

co-curator LeeHendrix, whose conversation

was broadcast just days before. As one of the

chief goals of the exhibition and symposium,

this reaction confirms its success.

Reviewby Sylvia Böhmer, Suermondt-

Ludwig-Museum, Aachen

Since 2008, a number ofmuseums in Los

Angeles, SanMarino, Pasadena and SanDiego

have been collaborating under the title

Rembrandt in SouthernCalifornia to drawpublic

and scholarly attention to one of the largest

collections of paintings byRembrandt in the

United States. Additionally, exhibitions of

Rembrandt prints are beingheld in the

museums.

This provided awonderful opportunity

for thecodartdertien study trip to

SouthernCalifornia to visit the various

collections and exhibitions in thesemuseums.

We began in SanMarino and Pasadena on

Wednesday (3 February). The complex housing

theHuntington Library, Art Collections and

Botanical Gardenswasmade possible through

the transfer of the estate and collections of

Henry EdwardsHuntington (1850-1927) to a

private, non-profit institution. Today, the

Huntingtonholds an extensive collection of

British and French 18th- and 19th-century art.

Of special interest to thecodart groupwas

the painting Ladywith a plume (ca. 1636) that

was formerly attributed to Rembrandt or

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

odar

tac

tivit

ies

codart activities codart dertien reviews20

his studio. CatherineHess, chief curator of

European art, invited us to discuss possibilities

for a new attribution. The painting and

its archival documentationwere closely

examined. Someparticipants thought it

worthwhile to consider an attribution to

Govert Flinck. OtherDutch paintingswere

admired aswell, and the exhibitionThe

GoldenAge in theGolden State:Dutch andFlemish

prints and drawingsgenerated great interest

and provided an opportunity to study selected

works in the print room.

In theNorton SimonMuseum in

Pasadena, Carol Togneri andGloriaWilliams

showedus an extensive range ofworks in

storage, including paintings by Jacob

Ochtervelt, Jan Steen and Jacob Jordaens.

Themuseum’s excellent collection,which

includesmasterpieces of 14th- to 16th-century

European art aswell as classicmodernism,

elicited great enthusiasm.

TheHammerMuseum in Los Angeles,

knownprimarily for its contemporary art,

surprised uswith two important paintings

byRembrandt. OnThursday (4 February),

ClaudineDixon led a discussion about

Rembrandt’s Portrait of aman holding a black

hat and Juno. The Portrait of aman, whichHorst

Gerson rejected as being “too glamorous”

for Rembrandt, is now securely given to

themaster. The debate on Juno revolved

around the question ofwhether the painting,

whichhas anunusual frontal composition,

is unfinished.When viewing theRembrandt

prints exhibition,we focussed on comparing

different impressions of the sameprint.

In the Los Angeles CountyMuseumof

Art (lacma), conservators Joseph Fronek and

ElmaO’Donoghue shared the latest research

results of their investigationswith a digital

microscope. Thiswas particularly helpful in

studyingAmbrosius Bosschaert’sBouquet of

flowers, revealing surprising details about the

commissioning of the painting, and Emanuel

deWitte’s Interior of theNieuweKerk inDelft,

whichhas heavy underdrawing indicating

that a larger formatwas originally intended.

As the crowning finish to our visit to lacma,

AmyWalsh gave a special presentation on

woodcuts byHendrickGoltzius in relation

to his paintingDanae.

As partners in theRembrandt in Southern

California project, themuseums in SanDiego

(5 February) alsomounted exhibitions. From

Rembrandt’s studio: the prints of FerdinandBol

in the SanDiegoMuseumof Art does not

subordinate Bol’s art to that of Rembrandt,

but presents himas a fellow artistwith an

independent oeuvre of equalmerit. Curator

JohnMarciari’s exhibition allowed prints by

the two artists to be examined side by side.

The TimkenMuseumof Art chose the rather

disconcerting titleRembrandt’s recession:

passion and prints in theDutchGoldenAge for

its exhibition.Director JohnWilson drew

parallels betweenRembrandt’s financial

situation and the present economic crisis. He

also asked the group to examineHendrik van

Balen’s Saint John theBaptist in thewilderness,

the background ofwhich is no longer thought

to be by Brueghel. The attribution problems

of this paintingwere discussed by the

specialists in Flemish painting in the group.

Itwas suggested that this is not an original

invention byVanBalen, and that the central

figure group looksmore like a copy based on

a print.

We left SanDiego on the last evening

of our trip and remembered five days filled

with positive impressions, fruitful ideas

and interesting points for discussion for our

ownmuseums, but especially the cordial

hospitality extended to us by all of the

institutionswe visited.

codart veertienin Enschede

Save the date!

In cooperationwith the Rijksmuseum

Twenthe,codartwill be holding

thecodart veertien congress in

Enschede from20 to 22March 2011.

Directly thereafter a short study trip

will bemade to nearby collections in

Germany.

Highlights of the congress in

Enschede include:

An opening reception at PaleisHet Loo,

Apeldoorn.

Visits to the RijksmuseumTwenthe’s

collection and restoration studio,

aswell as theNicolaas Verkolje (1673-1746):

paintings and drawings (1March-

30 June 2011) exhibition.

Excursions to Kasteel Twickel inDelden;

Huis Singraven inDenekamp;

Museumde Fundatie (KasteelHet

Nijenhuis) inHeino;

andKasteelHuis Bergh in ’s-Heerenberg.

Formore information:

codart

t +31 70 333 9744

e events@codart.nl

A complete andup-to-date program

of the congress and study tripwill

be posted on thecodartwebsite

in due time. Registration begins in

November 2010.

codart veertienin Enschede

Save the date!

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

odar

tac

tivit

ies

codart activities codart dertien reviews 21

Govert Flinck (attributed to) , Ladywith a plume, 1636,

TheHuntingtonArt Collections, SanMarino

Appointments

Kris Callenswas appointed head of

collections and presentations at the Zuider-

zeemuseum inEnkhuizen in September

2009.Hewas formerly a curator of exhibitions

at the Rijksmuseum inAmsterdam.

AnVanCampwas appointed curator of

Dutch and Flemish drawings and prints at

the BritishMuseum. She replacesMartin

Royalton-Kisch, who retired inDecember 2010.

Jan JaapHeij retired from theDrents

Museum inAssen in January 2010.Willemijn

Lindenhovius succeeds himas curator of

Dutch fine and decorative art 1885-1935.

WouterKloek retired from theRijks-

museum,where he had served as curator

since 1973. Duringhis last years at the Rijks-

museum, his duties as head curator included

coordinating plans for themuseum’s

renovation.

Marten Loonstra retired as keeper of the

Koninklijke Verzamelingen in TheHague in

May 2010.

Ger Luijten previously head of the

Rijksprentenkabinet of the Rijksmuseum in

Amsterdam,was appointed director of the

FondationCustodia – Frits Lugt Collection

in Paris as of 1 June 2010.He succeedsMària

vanBerge-Gerbaud, who retired after 38 years

of service.

Gary Schwartz (director emeritus of

codart) was awarded the Prince Bernard

Culture Foundation prize for the humanities

inNovember 2009.

Geert Souvereynsbegan as project

coordinator at the Bruggemuseum inBruges.

Pascal Ennaert succeededhimas coordinator

at the VlaamseKunstcollectie inGhent in

January 2010.

Man,myth, and sensual pleasures:

JanGossart’s Renaissance

With the exhibition devoted to JanGossart

opening inNewYork in less than sixmonths

(6October 2010-17 January 2011; and sub-

sequently at theNational Gallery, London,

16 February-22May 2011), wewould like to

share some recent newswithcodart

members.MaryanAinsworth (curator of the

exhibition and curator of European paintings,

MetropolitanMuseumof Art,NewYork)will

give aworkshop devoted to the (re)consider-

ation of several aspects of Gossart’swork at

the upcomingHistorians ofNetherlandish

Art conference in Amsterdamon Saturday,

28May 2010.Moreover, two study days at

TheMetropolitan (18 January 2011 devoted

to the exhibition; and 19 January 2011 to the

technical analysis and restoration ofGossart’s

paintings)will provide specialists another

opportunity to discuss recent developments

inGossart research. Finally, thanks to the

Mercatorfonds, the publication accompanying

the exhibition (a catalogue raisonné) will be

available to awide audience, as all of the essays

will be translated into French andDutch.

The exhibition inNewYorkwill encom-

pass about 52 paintings byGossart, 36 of his

drawings and 8 prints by or after the artist.

In addition,works by other artistswill be on

view to place his oeuvre in context, including

paintings by Bernard vanOrley and Jan

Cornelisz. Vermeyen; drawings by Albrecht

Dürer andDirk Vellert; and prints by Jacopo

de’ Barbari,Marcantonio Raimondi, Dürer,

andVellert; aswell as illuminations by Simon

Bening andGerardDavid; sculpture by

ConratMeit; and ItalianRenaissance bronzes/

plaquettes and antique sculpture. In all, there

will be around 135 objects in the show.

Manymuseumshave generously agreed

to extend loans to the exhibition, including

theGemäldegalerie andKupferstichkabinett,

Berlin; theNational Gallery, London; the

Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palermo; the

BritishMuseum, London; theNational Gallery

of Art,Washington,D.C.; the Louvre, Paris;

and the KunsthistorischesMuseum, Vienna.

In addition, several paintings have recently

been cleaned preliminary to the show, such as

Gossart’sChrist on the cold stone fromBudapest

and the Antwerp Portrait of aman. This is the

firstmonographic exhibition on the artist

since the 1965 show inRotterdamandBruges,

and it promises to be a visually stunning

experience and an event to look forward to.

AnnaKoopstra, Slifka Foundation

Interdisciplinary Fellow,Department

of European paintings,Metropolitan

Museumof Art,NewYork

Study trip discussion at TheHuntington

In July 1958,Mildred BrowningGreen of Los

Angeles, wife of local judge Lucius Peyton

Green, acquired a painting of awomanwith

a feather in her hair from theRosenberg and

Stiebel Gallery inNewYork. The paintingwas

said to be a 1636 datedwork byRembrandt and

its provenance purportedly followed a path

through important European collections. In

1978, the Ladywith a plumewas part of a large

donation theGreensmade to TheHuntington

Art Collections in SanMarino, California. It is

a beautiful painting by all accounts andno

questionhad ever been raised about it dating

to the 17th century.However, in the 1980s

the Rembrandt Research Project rejected its

attribution to Rembrandt, noting that itwas

nevertheless “very Rembrandtesque!” InMay

1958, Dr.W. R. Valentiner, the first director

ofwhatwas then called theNorthCarolina

Museum inRaleigh,wrote that the painting

had a companion piece – a Portrait of an officer,

in the Erickson collection,NewYork, and

subsequently in the collection ofHungarian

pianist Geza Anda (1921-1976) – although

other scholars disagreedwith the pairing.

Perhaps themost tantalizing detail about

TheHuntington’s Ladywith a plume is that

the compositionwas copied on a large

porcelain vasemade in the Imperial Porcelain

Factory, St. Petersburg, in the second quarter

of the 19th century (Christie’s, London,

29-30November, 2006, lot 90). One can only

imagine that the image, almost certainly in

print form,was reproduced elsewhere.

Thecodart group’s visit to The

Huntington in February 2010was the perfect

opportunity for showing the painting to a

respected group of specialists. It was placed on

an easel in the gallery and brightly lit. The

ensuing animated and friendly discussion

yielded a nearly unanimous attribution of the

painting toGovert Flinck, an idea that had

been suggested in the past. I look forward to

investigating this avenue in greater depth,

andwouldwelcome any ideas thatwould

further our understanding of this beautiful

and interesting picture.

CatherineHess, chief curator of European

art, TheHuntingtonArt Collections,

SanMarino,ca

chess@huntington.org

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/fait

sdive

rs

faits divers22

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/c

odar

tmembersan

dnews

codart members and news

codartmembership news

As ofMarch 2010,codarthas 510 full

members and 63 associatemembers from

329 institutions in 43 countries. All contact

information is available on thecodart

website and is kept up to date there:

www.codart.nl/curators/

welcome new members!

Claire Baisier, curator,MuseumMayer van

denBergh, Antwerp

Emile van Binnebeke, curator of sculpture

and furniture, KoninklijkeMusea voor

Kunst enGeschiedenis - Jubelpark-

museum, Brussels

Marjan Brouwer, curator, StedelijkMuseum

Zwolle, Zwolle

An vanCamp, curator ofDutch and Flemish

drawings and prints in the department of

prints and drawings, BritishMuseum,

London

Peter Carpreau, curatorOldMasters,m,

Leuven

Stephanie S. Dickey, Bader chair in northern

Baroque art, Queen’sUniversity,

Department of Art, Kingston; and

president,Historians ofNetherlandish

Art (hna) (associatemember)

Judith vanGent, head of documentation and

photography, AmsterdamsHistorisch

Museum, Amsterdam

AndréGroeneveld, curator, Zuiderzee-

museum, Enkhuizen

Claudia Koch, curator, Gemäldegalerie der

Akademie der bildendenKünsteWien,

Vienna

Justus Lange, chief curator,MuseumSchloss

Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel

Willemijn Lindenhovius, curator ofDutch

fine and decorative art 1885-1935, Drents

Museum, Assen

DaantjeMeuwissen, guest curator, Stedelijk

MuseumAlkmaar, Alkmaar (associate

member)

Victoria Sancho Lobis, curator of the print

collection and fine art galleries, University

of SanDiego, SanDiego

IgorMartynov, curator of theWest European

art department, Perm State Art Gallery,

Perm

JudithNiessen, research curator print room,

15th- and 16th-centuryNetherlandish

drawings,MuseumBoijmans Van

Beuningen, Rotterdam

José Juan Pérez Preciado, research assistant,

MuseoNacional del Prado,Madrid (associ-

atemember)

Steph Scholten, director,uvaErfgoed,

Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam,

Amsterdam

ErikHendrikWalsmit, curator, Zuiderzee-

museum, Enkhuizen

Kees Zandvliet, head of research, exhibitions

and education, AmsterdamsHistorisch

Museum, Amsterdam

Double vision:Dirk van der Aa

for Los Angeles

A pair of rareNeoclassical tondos byDirk van

der Aa (1731-1809), a leading 18th-century

decorative painter in TheHague, has recently

surfaced, thereby significantly augmenting

the artist’s surviving oeuvre. Previously

knownonly fromarchivalmentions, the

large roundels portraying landscapeswith a

bacchanal and an offering to the huntress

Dianawere attributed to Van der Aa by

codartmember CharlesDumaswhen they

appeared at auction (Sotheby’s, London,

4November, 2009, lot 83). Lynda and Stewart

Resnick acquired the pair for their collection,

whichwas one of the highlights of the

codartdertien study trip to Southern

California in February. Recent cleaning

revealed delicately painted gray subjects set

against a vivid, deep blue background in the

manner of a cameo or even popular blue and

whiteWedgewood jasperware.Measuring

128 cm in diameter, the size andmagnificence

of the canvasses suggest decoration on a

palatial rather than a private scale. Dumas

identified theworks as two of six overdoors

commissioned by StadholderWillem v in

1790 for the “kleine eetkamer,” or small

dining room, in the new section of the

Stadholder’s Quarter in TheHague. The

tondoswill be included in the Los Angeles

CountyMuseumof Art (lacma) exhibition,

Eye for the sensual: selections from theResnick

collection (2 October 2010-2 January 2011).

Anne T.Woollett, associate curator,

J. Paul GettyMuseum, Los Angeles,ca

23

Dirk van der Aa, Satyrs andFauns dancing before a shrine,

ca. 1790, Lynda and Stuart Resnick, Los Angeles,

photo: GraydonWood

Dirk van der Aa,Diana in a landscapewith the attributes

of hunting and dancing figures, ca. 1790, Lynda and

Stuart Resnick, Los Angeles, photo: GraydonWood

Museumshave announced 35 exhibitions on

Dutch and/or Flemish art to open between

March 2010 and February 2011. They are

arranged by country and city in alphabetical

order in the list below.

austria

Salzburg, Residenzgalerie,Die ganze Pracht

(The full splendor), 26March-4 July 2010

Vienna, KunsthistorischesMuseum,

Hofmaler inEuropa:Hans vonAachen (1552-1615)

(Court painter inEurope:Hans vonAachen [1552-

1615]), 19October 2010-9 January 2011

belgium

Bruges, Groeningemuseum,VanEyck tot

Dürer: de Vlaamse Primitieven en hun oosterburen,

1430-1530 (VanEyck toDürer: the Flemish

Primitives and their eastern neighbors, 1430-1530),

15October 2010-31 January 2011

czechrepublic

Prague, PragueCastle Gallery,Hofmaler in

Europa:Hans vonAachen (1552-1615)(Court

painter inEurope:Hans vonAachen [1552-1615]),

1 July-3October 2010

germany

Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum,

Hofmaler inEuropa:Hans vonAachen (1552-1615)

(Court painter inEurope:Hans vonAachen [1552-

1615]), 11March-13 June 2010

Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum,

FromRussiawith love: the bestDutch drawings

from the PushkinMuseum, 2 July-3October 2010

Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum,

Wein,Weib undGesang: Adriaen vanOstade und

das Bauerngenre inHaarlem (Wine, womenand

song: Adriaen vanOstade and the peasant genre in

Haarlem), 15October 2010-15 January 2011

Dresden, Gemäldegalerie AlteMeister,

Staatliche KunstsammlungenDresden,Der

früheVermeer (The youngVermeer), 3 September-

28October 2010

Emden,Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum,

Schein oderWirklichkeit?Realismus in der

NiederländischenMalerei des 17. Jahrhunderts

(Illusion or reality?Realism in 17th- centuryDutch

painting), 9May-12 September 2010

Hamburg, Bucerius Kunst Forum,Rubens,

VanDyck, Jordaens: Barock aus Antwerpen

(Rubens,VanDyck, Jordaens: Baroque art from

Antwerp), 6 June-19 September 2010

Hamburg,Hamburger Kunsthalle, Segeln,

was dasZeughält.NiederländischeMalerei des

GoldenenZeitalters, (Sailing as far as the canvas

stay the course.DutchMasters of theGoldenAge),

4 June-12 September 2010

Munich,Haus der Kunst,MarleneDumas:

“tronies,” 29October 2010-6 February 2011

Schwerin, StaatlichesMuseumSchwerin,

Scheinbar vertraut:Niederländische genrebilder

in Schwerin (Seemingly familiar:Dutch genre

paintings in Schwerin), 22 July-14November 2010

ireland

Dublin,National Gallery of Ireland,

GabriëlMetsu, 4 September-5December 2010

the netherlands

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum,GabriëlMetsu,

16December 2010-20March 2011

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum,Miró& Jan

Steen, 15 June–13 September 2010

Dordrecht, DordrechtsMuseum,Het por-

trait historié in deNederlandse schilderkunst

(The portrait historié inDutch painting),

1 January-31December 2011

TheHague,Mauritshuis,De jongeVermeer

(The youngVermeer), 12May-22 August 2010

TheHague,Mauritshuis,Kamers vol kunst,

in 17e eeuwsAntwerpen (Room for art, in 17th-

centuryAntwerp), 25March-27 June 2010

TheHague,Mauritshuis,Made inHolland:

OudeMeesters uit eenAmerikaanse privéverzame-

ling (Made inHolland:OldMasters froman

American private collection), 4November 2010-

30 January 2011

Rotterdam,MuseumBoijmans Van

Beuningen,Devalse Vermeers vanVanMeegeren

(VanMeegeren’s fake Vermeers), 12May-

22 August 2010

Voorschoten, Kasteel Duivenvoorde,

Tijdloos trendy:modern licht op interieur en collectie

vanDuivenvoorde (Timeless trendy:modern light

on interior and collection ofDuivenvoorde),

1May-3October 2010

russia

St. Petersburg, StateHermitageMuseum,

FromGothic toMannerism. EarlyNetherlandish

drawings from the 15th to the 16th centuries in the

HermitageCollection, 18May-1 August 2010

St. Petersburg, StateHermitageMuseum,

TheFlemings through the eyes ofDavidTeniers

the Younger (1610-1690), 15October 2010-

16 January 2011

united kingdom

Edinburgh,Queen’s Gallery, Palace of

Holyroodhouse,Dutch landscapes,

30 April 2010-9 January 2011

Edinburgh,National Gallery of Scotland,

The youngVermeer, 10December 2010-

13March 2011

London,National Gallery,Man,myth,

and sensual pleasures: JanGossart’s Renaissance,

16 February-22May 2011

usa

Cambridge,Harvard ArtMuseum/Arthur

M. SacklerMuseum,Rubens and theBaroque

festival, 19March-29 August 2010

Evanston,Mary and Leigh BlockMuseum

of Art,NorthwesternUniversity,The brilliant

line: following the earlymodern engraver, 1480-

1650, 9 April-20 June 2010

Los Angeles, Los Angeles CountyMuseum

of Art (lacma),Eye for the sensual: selections

from theResnick collection, 2 October 2010-

2 January 2011

Minneapolis,Minneapolis Institute of

Arts,Desire and deliverance: drama in theOld

Testament, 6March-12 September 2010

NewYork,MetropolitanMuseumof Art,

The art of illumination: the LimbourgBrothers and

the BellesHeures of Jean de France,Duc deBerry,

2March-13 June 2010

NewYork,MetropolitanMuseumof Art,

Side by side:Oberlin’smasterworks at theMet,

16March-29 August 2010

NewYork,MetropolitanMuseumof Art,

Man,myth, and sensual pleasures: JanGossart’s

Renaissance, 6 October 2010-17 January 2011

Washington,National Gallery of Art,

Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634): the little ice age,

21March-5 July 2010

codar

tCourant20/sum

mer2010/u

pcomin

gexh

ibitio

ns

More information on all these exhibitions and other events atwww.codart.nl/exhibitions/

Not on the list? Pleasewrite to: webmaster@codart.nl

upcoming exhib it ions24