RKD Master classes 2025 | Registration deadline 13 December 2024
Venue: RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History. Prins Willem-Alexanderhof 5 (Royal Library (KB)-complex), The Hague
Organization: RKD
Dates: 21, 28 January 2025, 4, 11 February 2025
Time: 13:00-16:00
Open to: RMA students and PhD candidates, max. 20 participants per master class
Instruction language: Dutch (4 February) and English (21, 28 January and 11 February)
Instructors: Ellis Dullaart MA; drs. Ton Geerts; dr. Suzanne Laemers; Evelien de Visser MA
Coordination: OSK (osk-fgw@uva.nl)
Registration: Via this website
Registration deadline: 13 December 2024
In January 2025, the RKD will offer master classes for RMA students and PhD candidates. During these master classes, you will learn how the RKD’s physical and digital collections can contribute to art historical research. Each workshop will consist of an introduction to the theme, after which you will work on one or more practical assignments. The master classes cover art from the 15th, 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. Each master class will last 2-3 hours.
In January and February 2025, the RKD will offer five master classes for RMA students and PhD candidates. During these master classes, you will learn how the RKD’s physical and digital collections can contribute to art historical research. Each workshop will consist of an introduction to the theme, after which you will work on one or more practical assignments. The master classes cover art from the 15th-17th, 19th and 20th centuries. Due to the source material, one master class will be offered in Dutch. Each master class will last 2-3 hours.
Recognize the hand
21 January 2025 | Ellis Dullaart MA
Attribution has traditionally been important in art history. It is often difficult to tell the difference between an artist’s hand and that of an apprentice or follower. Deliberate forgeries can also be misleading. If you want to recognize the right hand, you should start by looking carefully. In this master class, you will learn how to make a well-considered statement about the possible attribution of a work of art through thorough visual analysis of works of art (by Jan van Goyen, Jan Steen and Adriaen van Ostade, among others) and by putting your observations into words.
Reading suggestions:
Connoisseurship in general
-R.D. Spencer (ed.), The expert versus the object: judging fakes and false attributions in the visual arts, Oxford/New York 2004.
-V. Kobi (ed.), ‘The limits of connoisseurship’, in: Journal of Art Historiography 16 (2017).
-P. Michel (ed.), Connoisseurship: l’oeil, la raison et l’instrument, Parijs 2014.
Dutch painting 17th century
-C. Hofstede de Groot, Echt of onecht? Oog of chemie?, Den Haag 1925.
-A. Blankert, ‘Rembrandt and his followers: notes on connaisseurship, its potential and pitfalls’, in: G. Cavalli-Björkman (ed.), Rembrandt and his pupils: papers given at a symposium in Nationalmuseum Stockholm, 2-3 October 1992, Stockholm 1993.
-A. Tummers, The eye of the connoisseur: authenticating paintings by Rembrandt and his contemporaries, Los Angeles 2011.
Max J. Friedländer and connoisseurship
28 January 2025 | dr. Suzanne Laemers
Attribution has traditionally been important in art history. In the field of early Netherlandish painting the German art historian and museum director Max J. Friedländer contributed significantly to our knowledge of the Flemish primitives. In 1958 his extensive photo archive of paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries was bequeathed to the RKD. Besides numerous publications on specific artists, Friedländer also wrote a number of works on the essence of connoisseurship. In this master class, you will learn about Friedländer’s approach to connoisseurship, follow in his foot steps in a specific attribution issue and make your own visual analyses to distinguish original from copy.
Reading suggestions:
-M.J. Friedländer, Von Eyck bis Bruegel. Studien zur Geschichte der niederländischen Malerei, Berlin 1921 (introduction) / Early Netherlandish Painting. From Van Eyck to Bruegel, London 1956 (introduction by Friedländer).
-M.J. Friedländer, On Art and Connoisseurship, London 1942 / Von Kunst und Kennerschaft, Berlin 1946.
-M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. I (preface by Erwin Panofsky).
Herkomstonderzoek naar schilderijen uit de collectie Fop Smit
4 februari 2025 | Evelien de Visser MA
Fop Smit (1815-1892) was een verzamelaar van eigentijdse kunst uit Rotterdam. Deze reder en multimiljonair gaf honderdduizenden guldens uit aan schilderijen van beroemde – vooral – Franse kunstenaars als Jean-François Millet, Ernest Meissonier en William Adophe Bouguereau.
Na Smits dood werden de kunstwerken onder de familieleden verdeeld. Daardoor was de omvang en samenstelling van zijn verzameling niet bekend. Totdat bij het RKD een tweedelig fotoalbum werd ontdekt, getiteld ‘Cabinet Fop Smit’, met daarin meer dan 250 foto’s van de kunstwerken uit zijn bezit.
In deze masterclass gaan we met dit album aan de slag. Hoe pak je het herkomstonderzoek aan? Welke bronnen zijn belangrijk en hoe gebruik je die? En wat heb je aan de resultaten van het herkomstonderzoek?
Leessuggesties:
-E. de Visser, ‘Collecting contemporary art in Rotterdam between 1870 and 1892: The international taste of Fop Smit Jr (1815-1892)’, Oud Holland 136 (1) 2023, pp. 49-68 (via https://doi.org/10.1163/18750176-13601003).
-W. Krul, ‘Collecting for posterity. Two Dutch art collectors in the nineteenth century and their bequest to the nation’, Journal of the History of Collections 21 (2) 2009, pp. 163-171.
-H. Kraan, ‘Barbizon en het verzamelen in Nederland’, in: tent.cat. De School van Barbizon. Franse meesters van de 19de eeuw (red. John Sillevis en Hans Kraan), Gent/Den Haag/Parijs 1985-1986, pp. 70-88.
Gallery Art & Project
11 February 2025 | drs. Ton Geerts
The Amsterdam gallery Art & Project (1968-2001) has been the focal point for the development of contemporary art in the Netherlands and far beyond for over 33 years. The gallery presents a pioneering programme of work by both national and international artists. Stanley Brouwn, Jan Dibbets, Ger van Elk, Richard Long, Gilbert & George, Carel Visser, Lawrence Weiner and Sol LeWitt are part of the impressive list of artists associated with the gallery. The gallery is also gaining international fame with the publication of their Bulletin, which is used by artists as a carrier of artistic ideas. This master class will introduce you to this gallery’s extensive archive, teach you how to read an inventory and which documents (including artists’ letters) you can use for your research.
Reading suggestions:
-Ch. Cherix (ed.), In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976, New York (The Museum of Modern Art) 2009.
-J. de Goede, L. Pelsers (ed.), Art & Project: A History, Rotterdam (Nai010)/Otterlo (Kröller-Müller Museum) 2023.