Birgit Reissland

My name is Birgit Reissland (1969). Since 1996 I have been employed as a paper conservation researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN). In addition to my board membership of the International Association of Book and Paper Conservators (IADA), I am editor-in-chief of the Journal of Paper Conservation. After studying paper conservation at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart, I ended up here in Amsterdam. The conservation world is too small to be confined within national frontiers.

Early on in my career I was involved in the development of phytate to prevent ink corrosion. In fact ink corrosion is still a relevant theme today, although nowadays the emphasis is on damage estimates and conservation decision-making. So I was trained as a conservator, but have found over the years that I am fascinated as a researcher by everything that has to do with the genesis of letters, drawings, books and wallpaper: the materiality of the creation process. It is fascinating to see how a single grain of sand in a line of ink can change the significance of a document. Especially in manuscripts and in works of art on paper, material aspects are still largely unexplored. The unravelling of these valuable traces will transform our perception.

Research like this is only possible in a highly specific context. A crucial ingredient is the existence of an institute like the ICN, with an exceptional number of historical sources, unique reference collections (e.g. of early synthetic dyes), non-destructive, highly sensitive techniques of analysis and a team of experts specialising in research on art objects. At the same time, chemical analyses only acquire significance in the context of art historical and art technological data. Looking and understanding – that is the secret.

The research project on Van Gogh’s studio practice offers us a unique opportunity, as a multidisciplinary team of art historians, scientists and conservators, to learn to ‘read’ and understand the materiality of Van Gogh’s work and to see and appreciate it through different eyes. To be continued . . .

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Devi Ormond

My interest in the way in which paintings are made was aroused by the injunction ‘Ne touche pas!’ uttered by an attendant at the Louvre. I was just seven years old when I heard that I had to keep my distance from a painting, when I so passionately wanted to touch it. Many years later I discovered that there was a profession that would not only allow me to touch paintings, but would help me to gain insight into how they were made. And that this work could make a significant contribution to their preservation.

I studied English and French at Trinity College, Dublin, after which I spent some time travelling and teaching in the Middle East. Three years later I returned to Ireland, where I started working with the painting conservators at the National Gallery and took a course in art and chemistry. The following year I was admitted to a master’s course in the conservation of fine art at the University of Newcastle, where I specialised in easel paintings.

During this course I completed internships at several museums, where I gained experience in researching and treating diverse paintings from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries. Before coming to work at the Van Gogh Museum, I prepared paintings for exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, prior to the reopening of the galleries of nineteenth-century art. At the Kröller-Müller Museum I restored my first Van Gogh, along with other nineteenth-century painters. In this period I was sent as a guest conservator to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where I was in the luxurious position of being able to study the materials and techniques of the nineteenth-century French painter Fantin-Latour.

In September 2005 I was invited to take part in the project on Van Gogh’s studio practice, initially to study paintings that Van Gogh produced in his Dutch period. After this I was asked to take a look at the paintings by his Dutch contemporaries, and before I knew where I was I was leading the Holland working group and taking part in the project’s two other working groups.

I am currently coordinating the research conducted by the Holland working group, besides which I am responsible for the technical research on paintings by Van Gogh and his contemporaries. I also research paintings by artists whom Van Gogh knew and met while he was living in Antwerp and France: I compare their techniques and use of materials with Van Gogh’s.

It is precisely this aspect of the project that appeals to me most: not only can I try to identify Van Gogh’s painting techniques and materials, but I can also examine works by other outstanding artists such as Mauve, Breitner, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bernard and Gauguin. What a privilege: the research constantly yields new insights into the practices of artists who were working in the Netherlands and Paris in the late nineteenth century! This work nourishes a fascination for an artist’s thought processes and working methods, which one can end up seeing as a project in its own right! The challenge in this project is to stay focused on the primary goal: trying to find connections between the research done by Van Gogh’s contemporaries and the research done by Van Gogh himself.

Latest article: Hidden in the heath

Ella Hendriks

After completing a Foundation Course at Wimbledon Art College in 1979, where I soon realized that my potential as an artist was limited, I switched to the study of Art History at Manchester University. There I remember being very stubborn about the idea of learning about pictures from books when there were so many real paintings to be seen and enjoyed. It is this deep-seated interest in understanding the painter’s methods and ideas through close contact with art works that steered me towards becoming a paintings conservator (trained at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, UK) and which still gives me strong satisfaction in my work as a conservator today.

They say that the Dutch and the English like each other. There must be some truth in this, since I was born in England to Anglo-Dutch parents and moved to Holland in 1986 where I married a Dutchman. In Holland I have worked for twenty-five years as a paintings conservator, divided equally between the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem and the Van Gogh Museum. I look back with affection on my twelve years as Chief Conservator at the Frans Hals Museum, which was a wonderful opportunity to investigate and conserve old master works that are still housed in the city of Haarlem where many of them were made. At first it seemed quite a switch to turn to the nineteenth-century focus of the Van Gogh Museum collection, where I became Senior Conservator in 1999. But there was little time to reflect on this as, almost straight away, I was swept into a campaign of technical and scientific research on the 93 Antwerp and Paris period paintings by Van Gogh in the collection, in preparation for a new collection catalogue (goes to press this week! That is the 20th of May 2011).

From 2005, the existing partnership with scientists at Shell and at the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) expanded into the current studio practice project. Having blogged on the restoration of Vincent’s Bedroom painting in 2010, I now look forward to blogging for the studio practice project on findings that relate to Van Gogh’s French period paintings. As a member of the two last working groups I will be looking into topics ranging from painted borders and serial paintings to double-square format canvases and digital analysis of canvas weaves.

Latest article: With a little help from the computer…

Helewise Berger

Helewise Berger (1985) first came to the Van Gogh Museum as an intern in February 2007 as part of her master’s course in modern art at Utrecht University. For the project on Van Gogh’s studio practice she did research on Van Gogh and his contemporary George Hendrik Breitner, a close acquaintance of his while he was living in The Hague, 1882-1883.

After obtaining her master’s degree, she worked as a junior researcher on diverse subjects from Van Gogh’s Dutch period. For instance, she studied his acquaintances within the Hague School, such as Anton Mauve, Herman Johannes van der Weele and Théophile de Bock, and did research to discover where Dutch artists could purchase their art supplies at the end of the nineteenth century.

She is currently focusing on two subjects: Van Gogh’s coloured drawings and the Technical Dictionary. The latter is a study of the technical terms in Van Gogh’s letters, with a view to charting his vocabulary and views about technique. Helewise takes part in all three working groups (Holland, Antwerp-Paris, Arles-St.Rémy-Auvers). For the Holland working group, she takes responsibility for the art-historical part of the in-depth study of Van Gogh’s contemporary Breitner. Before focusing on Van Gogh, she pursued in depth her interest in art dating from around 1900 (chiefly Dutch) and posters.

Na het behalen van haar master, werkte zij als junior onderzoeker aan verschillende onderwerpen uit de Hollandse periode van Van Gogh. Zo verdiepte ze zich in zijn kennissen van de Haagse School, zoals Anton Mauve, Herman Johannes van der Weele en Théophile de Bock, en onderzocht waar Nederlandse kunstenaars aan het einde van de negentiende eeuw hun ‘kunstbenodigdheden’ konden inkopen.

Momenteel richt zij zich op twee onderwerpen: Van Goghs gekleurde tekeningen en het ‘Technisch Woordenboek’. Dit laatste is een onderzoek naar de technische termen in de brieven van Van Gogh om zijn vocabulaire en opvattingen over techniek nauwkeurig in kaart te brengen. Helewise neemt deel aan alle drie de werkgroepen (Holland, Antwerpen-Parijs, Arles-St.Rémy-Auvers). Voor de Werkgroep Holland neemt zij het kunsthistorische deel van de verdieping in tijdgenoot Breitner voor haar rekening. Voor ze zich op Van Gogh richtte, verdiepte ze haar interesse voor - met name Nederlandse - kunst rond 1900 en affiches.

Latest article: Breitner’s Farrier

Kathrin Pilz

Oorspronkelijk wilde ik graag kinderarts worden, maar bijna per toeval ging ik een korte stage lopen in het restauratieatelier van een klein museum in Hamburg toen ik nog op school zat. Meteen raakte ik gefascineerd door de mogelijkheid dat ik later een bijdrage zou kunnen leveren aan het onderzoek, de conservering en de restauratie van kunstvoorwerpen. Zodat zij voor volgende generaties bewaard blijven.

Ik heb de opleiding tot gediplomeerd restaurator met als specialisatie schilderijen bij de Fachhochschule Köln in Duitsland gevolgd (2000-2007). Tijdens die academische, maar toch praktisch georienteerde opleiding heb ik meerdere stages gelopen bij een aantal freelance restauratoren en musea in Duitsland, Engeland en Nederland waaronder de Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, het Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge en het voormalige Instituut Collectie Nederland in Amsterdam (nu Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Erfgoed). Daarnaast heb ik aan projecten meegewerkt op het eilandje Lopud in Kroatië, in het Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Keulen en (opnieuw) bij het Instituut Collectie Nederland in Amsterdam. Tijdens mijn studiereizen zag ik niet alleen mooie steden zoals Sankt Petersburg, Londen, Madrid en Antwerpen, maar kon ik ook de musea en hun restauratieateliers van binnen bekijken. Ik houd van deze kant van mijn beroep: het is een hele kleine wereld onder de restauratoren en juist daardoor heb je de kans over de grenzen heen snel contact te maken met collega’s en ervaringen en ideeën uit te wisselen. Dat vind ik zeer verrijkend!

Minstens net zo verrijkend vind ik mijn baan bij het Van Gogh Museum. In 2008 ben ik gevraagd aan het atelierpraktijk project deel te nemen om de schildertechniek en –materialen van Vincent van Gogh te onderzoeken. Een unieke kans om de schilderijen die hij in Arles en Saint-Rémy vervaardigde uitgebreid te bestuderen – in het bijzonder de werken die hij buiten (en plein air) schilderde en de in Saint-Rémy gemaakte kopieën naar door hem bewonderde kunstenaars. En natuurlijk geniet ik van de luxe mogelijkheid om met zeer gespecialiseerde collega’s van verschillende disciplines samen te werken. Ik leer daardoor ontzettend veel!

Latest article: Painting on the beach

Leo Jansen

Since December 2005 I have been curator of paintings at the Van Gogh Museum. I started out there in 1994 as a researcher in the Letters project, which was completed in October 2009 with the new editions of Van Gogh’s correspondence, in book form and as a web edition.

What particularly interests me in literature and art are the questions of its origins and genesis. In other words: what is the underlying artistic programme? with what ideas about art, human beings, eternity and so on did the maker set about doing his work? and then: how did he (which obviously means he or she) set to work?

So the studio practice project gives me an opportunity to indulge this passion to the full. It is obviously the conservators and the researchers at ICN and Shell who dig out the technical information. But it is precisely the linking of their findings to what we see and what we know from the letters and other literature that enables us to really see Van Gogh at work.

In terms of content, my contribution to the project relates primarily to the late period: Van Gogh’s time in France. My main subjects are his relationships with Gauguin and Bernard, his work en plein air and the expansive landscapes (‘double squares’) he produced in his final months.

Latest article: A wider horizon

Luc Megens

Bij de Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed werk ik onder andere aan onderzoek van beschilderde objecten, van schilderijen tot gebouwen, en ben ik verantwoordelijk voor een aantal analysemethoden om anorganische materialen te identificeren. Anorganische materialen zijn bv. metaal, glas, steen, maar ook veel pigmenten, de stoffen die kleur geven aan verf. Een belangrijk deel van mijn tijd besteed ik nu aan het onderzoek naar Van Goghs Atelierpraktijk. Hierin werk met een techniek (XRF) waarmee zonder monsters te nemen van een schilderij of tekening een indruk gekregen kan worden welke materialen Van Gogh gebruikt heeft.

Ik ben in dit werk terecht gekomen, doordat ik tijdens mijn studie Klassieken onderzoek heb gedaan naar pigmenten in Romeinse muurschilderingen. Daarnaast heb ik ook scheikunde gestudeerd. Voordat ik bij het RCE kwam heb ik een promotieonderzoek aan de Universiteit Groningen gedaan naar de oorsprong van organisch materiaal in kustzeeën en heb een aantal jaren als software ontwikkelaar gewerkt.

Latest article: Van Gogh shows his true colours…

Maite van Dijk

Maite van Dijk is Curator of Paintings at the Van Gogh Museum, with a focus on Van Gogh’s contemporaries. She is also responsible for the 19th century paintings collection in Museum Mesdag, The Hague. She obtained her degree in Art History and Curatorial Studies at the University of Amsterdam, fulfilling part of her program in Italy. An internship at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where she contributed to the exhibition catalogue Neo-Impressionisme, de Seurat à Paul Klee (2005), and a one-year curatorial traineeship at the Van Gogh Museum, both contributed to her specialization in late 19th century art. In recent years, she worked on several exhibition and research projects in this field. Prior to joining the Van Gogh team, she has worked for the Museum of Modern Art in New York on the exhibition Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night (2008).

Maite is part of the workgroup Holland. As an art historian she focuses on Van Gogh’s Dutch contemporaries, such as Anton Mauve and Van Rappard. She loves tracing Van Gogh’s footsteps and reconstructing his visits to exhibitions and museums, where he not only marveled at the old masters, but also admired 19th century paintings by the The Hague School and Barbizon artists, very well represented in the Museum De Mesdag Collectie. She finds the interdisciplinary approach of the Studio Practice Project very inspiring as it opens up new ways to look at art.

Latest article: The effect of colour

Marije Vellekoop

Since the summer of 2008 I have been project leader of the research project on Van Gogh’s studio practice. I combine this position with my work as curator of prints and drawings at the Van Gogh Museum. I have been involved in the project as a researcher since its launch in 2005, and in the early years I was in charge of the research on drawings within the project. This research focused mainly on the identification of inks that Van Gogh used in his drawn oeuvre, a study conducted in collaboration with associates at the ICN and the paper conservator Nico Lingbeek. The research on this subject is still ongoing.

As project leader I ensured that the work was done according to a transparent structure, that the tasks and competencies of all those involved were clearly defined, besides which I set up multidisciplinary research teams and devised a sound project plan and an ambitious research plan. My main tasks at present are leading the ongoing research and the development of the basic concept of the exhibition planned for 2012.

I have worked at the Van Gogh Museum since 1995, first as an assistant curator, and since 1999 as curator of prints and drawings. I have conducted extensive research on Van Gogh’s drawings, publishing my findings in the series of the museum’s summary catalogue, as well as in essays and articles. I have also collaborated on two major exhibitions about Van Gogh in 2005 (Van Gogh Museum and Metropolitan Museum, New York) and 2008 (Albertina, Vienna).

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Muriel Geldof

I have been researching the materials and techniques that Van Gogh used in his paintings since my appointment as a researcher at the ICN, in 2000.

One of the two major projects I could start on straight away was the was the research on the Van Gogh catalogue of paintings. For that project I examined samples from all the paintings that Van Gogh made in Antwerp and Paris which belong to the Van Gogh Museum’s collection: about a hundred in total. The findings of that study became the basis for the project that I am working on now: Van Gogh’s Studio Practice. Besides my research work on this project, I am also its project leader, from my base at the ICN.

Within the project on Van Gogh’s studio practice, I research samples from paintings by Van Gogh and his contemporaries. The main techniques I use for this purpose are optical microscopy and SEM-EDX. For the latter, I occasionally go to Shell’s laboratories in North Amsterdam, where I operate the equipment together with Kees Mensch, a researcher at Shell.

Before my appointment at the ICN, I spent two years working within the MolArt-project at the FOM-AMOLF in Amsterdam. Besides working as an FT-IR and optical microscopist, I was also active in the field of IR reflectography, having graduated in chemistry from the University of Amsterdam the previous year.

Latest article: A new colour in Van Gogh’s palette

Nienke Bakker

Ik ben sinds 1 november 2010 conservator Tentoonstellingen bij het Van Gogh Museum. Als onderzoekster bij dit museum werkte ik de afgelopen tien jaar mee aan diverse tentoonstellingen en publicaties over het leven en werk van Vincent van Gogh.

Ik heb kunstgeschiedenis en Frans gestudeerd in Utrecht, Leiden en Lille. In 2000 begon ik bij het Van Gogh Museum als projectmedewerker bij de voorbereidingen voor de tentoonstelling De keuze van Vincent. Van Goghs Musée imaginaire (2003), waarin een overzicht werd gegeven van Van Goghs inspiratiebronnen. Deze tentoonstelling was voor een groot deel gebaseerd op het onderzoek voor het zogeheten Brievenproject, waaraan sinds 1994 gewerkt werd door Hans Luijten en Leo Jansen. Een geweldig project waaraan ik in 2002 zelf ook mocht gaan meewerken, en dat in 2009 werd afgesloten met de wetenschappelijke editie van de volledige briefwisseling van Vincent van Gogh (www.vangoghletters.org). Ik heb mij vooral beziggehouden met de annotatie en de vertaling van de Franse brieven van Van Gogh, dus uit de periode 1886-1890, toen hij in Frankrijk woonde. Een van de leukste aspecten van het onderzoek was het identificeren van de werken waarover hij schrijft en de reconstructie van de zendingen schilderijen en tekeningen die hij naar zijn broer Theo stuurde vanuit Arles en Saint-Rémy. Het is als een puzzel die je probeert op te lossen: welk werk zat in welke zending, en over welke versie van de Zonnebloemen heeft hij het hier?

Bij het project Van Goghs atelierpraktijk maak ik deel uit van de werkgroepen Antwerpen-Parijs en Arles-Saint-Rémy-Auvers. Ik heb onderzoek gedaan naar contemporaine bronnen over Van Gogh in Parijs en zal met Devi Ormond de artistieke uitwisseling en beïnvloeding tussen Van Gogh, Bernard en Gauguin onder de loep nemen. Ook ben ik als conservator betrokken bij de tentoonstelling die in 2013 in het Van Gogh Museum te zien zal zijn (werktitel: Van Gogh aan het werk), waarin de resultaten van het onderzoek naar Van Goghs atelierpraktijk aan het publiek worden gepresenteerd.

Latest article: Van Gogh’s contacts with other artists in Paris

René Boitelle

After studying art history at the University of Leiden, I trained as a conservator in paintings and painted objects at the SRAL in Maastricht. Since then I have been working as a conservator of paintings at the Van Gogh Museum. I specialise in research on, and the treatment of, nineteenth-century paintings, with a special focus on the Barbizon School, and on impressionist and post-impressionist painting. I have published my research findings on the painting techniques of artists including Rousseau, Millet and Redon in diverse articles and presented them at symposiums.

In an earlier phase of the studio practice project I belonged to the Holland working group, in which I focused on the early painting techniques of George H. Breitner and Paul J.C. Gabriël’s use of a perspective frame.

I am currently contributing to the Antwerp-Paris working group of the studio practice project, for which I am focusing on Pointillism, and more specifically on Signac’s work in the years 1886-87.

Latest article: Swiftly painted figures

Renske Suijver

As an art historian, Renske Suijver (1984) has been working as a junior researcher at the Van Gogh Museum since January 2009. Since 2009 she has been involved as a coordinator in the project on Van Gogh’s studio practice, besides which she conducts research within the Holland working group. For this project her diverse subjects include Van Gogh’s relationship with H.J. van der Weele, the influence of magazine illustrations on Van Gogh’s work and the role of sketchbooks in his studio practice.

Renske obtained a bachelor’s degree in art history at Utrecht University and a master’s in museum conservation at the Free University in Amsterdam. Before taking up a position at the Van Gogh Museum, she worked at the Rijksmuseum. She specialises in fine art produced in the latter half of the nineteenth century, with a special focus on Dutch art.

Latest article: Van Gogh’s sketchbooks

Rob Bouwman

I work at Shell. In my efforts for the Van Gogh project, I do my utmost to keep the people at Shell satisfied with what is going on. Fortunately, they tend to be fairly easy-going, provided we achieve good results. And we certainly do! It is my task to ensure that Shell’s money is spent well. In other words, to make sure that the hours spent on research work at the Shell Laboratory in Amsterdam are used as effectively as possible.

I was given this task because of my background. I have worked at Shell as a chemist and physicist for 25 years, half of which within the research department, in other words at the laboratory. Over the years I have learned a great deal about complex instrumental analytical techniques – techniques that we use today in our detective work to unlock Van Gogh’s ‘secrets’. I have been fascinated by drawings and paintings since early childhood; after reaching the age of 55, I turned this into a professional occupation. Van Gogh has always been one of my favourite painters, alongside Monet and Gauguin. All these factors combined to make me the obvious choice when Shell’s management was deciding who should watch over the company’s interests in this project.

Since 2000 we have been working on what may be called in retrospect ‘finger exercises’ and exploratory research, and in 2005 a Partnership in Science was established with the Van Gogh Museum. In a small team of people from the Van Gogh Museum, the ICN and Shell, we collaborate on charting the internal features of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings. To do so, we use Scanning Electron Microscopy, along with other techniques on which I shall be publishing a separate article in the near future. We have progress meetings every three months, after which progress reports are drawn up and distributed to those concerned, including Shell, as the sponsor.

On a more personal note: I was born in the former Dutch East Indies in 1940 and came to the Netherlands in 1954 – so I belonged to an ethnic minority, in today’s terms. After graduating in chemistry, I gained a doctoral degree in physics. I spent 12 years working at Shell’s research departments in Amsterdam and Houston, after which I was mainly active in management until 1995. I then started focusing on fine art, and today I live happily at the interface of science and painting. I am married, with two children and six grandchildren; what more could anyone want?

Latest article: A physiological look at complementary colours

Suzanne Veldink

Toen ik vorig jaar zomer solliciteerde naar de functie van assistent-conservator bij het Van Gogh Museum, werd mij als onderdeel van de procedure gevraagd een zaaltekst te schrijven bij Van Goghs schilderij Tuin met geliefden: Square Saint-Pierre. Het werk ontstond in de zomer van 1887 toen Van Gogh intensief experimenteerde met de pointillistische schildertechniek, zoals destijds beoefend door Georges Seurat en Paul Signac. Aangezien ik het werk nog niet kende, besloot ik het in het museum te gaan bekijken. Op zaal aangekomen sprong het werk – een van Van Goghs grootste doeken – direct in het oog: door het contrasterende kleurgebruik en de variëteit aan verfstreken waarmee Van Gogh de zomerse voorstelling opbouwde knalde het werk als het ware van de wand. Ik kon toen nog niet vermoeden dat ik mij in het kader van het onderzoeksproject Van Goghs atelierpraktijk verder in dit werk zou gaan verdiepen.

Binnen Van Goghs atelierpraktijk maak ik deel uit van de werkgroep Antwerpen – Parijs. Mijn onderzoek richt zich op een specifiek aspect uit Van Goghs Parijse tijd: de invloed van pointillisten als Georges Seurat en Camille Pissarro op Van Gogh en de manier(en) waarop hij deze invloeden in zijn eigen werk vertaalde. Het project biedt mij een mooie kans om Van Goghs Parijse werk beter te leren kennen, zowel op kunsthistorisch als op materiaal-technisch gebied. Door Van Goghs werk te vergelijken met tijdgenoten, leer ik zijn artistieke originaliteit nog beter op waarde te schatten.

Voordat ik bij het Van Gogh Museum kwam, ben ik als gastconservator werkzaam geweest bij Museum De Mesdag Collectie en The Burrell Collection in Glasgow. Naast mijn werk in het Van Gogh Museum ben ik als promovendus verbonden aan de University of Edinburgh waarbij ik onderzoek doe naar het verzamelen van de kunst van de Haagse School in negentiende-eeuws Schotland.

Latest article: Missing links

Teio Meedendorp

The art historian Teio Meedendorp has been attached to the Van Gogh Museum as a researcher since March 2009. Before that he spent many years at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, where he first studied the museum’s collection of paintings by Van Gogh with a team of researchers, and subsequently made an independent study of the collection of Van Gogh’s drawings. This culminated in two catalogues of the collection, published in 2003 and 2007. Before specialising in Van Gogh, he researched subjects including the relationship between cults such as occultism and spiritualism and the visual arts at the end of the nineteenth century, besides which he was one of the initiators of the Alma-Tadema exhibition held in 1996/97 at the Van Gogh Museum and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. In addition, he edited the Bulletin of the Rembrandt Society for almost ten years.

For the research project on Van Gogh’s studio practice, Meedendorp belongs to all three working groups (Holland, Antwerp-Paris and Arles-St.Rémy-Auvers). Research on Van Gogh’s drawings is one of his primary points of emphasis. For the Holland working group, he focuses particularly on Van Gogh’s early period of training, his use of handbooks and drawing methods, his academic training and so forth.

Latest article: Studio behind bars

Van Gogh aan het werk

Latest article: Into the lab