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fig.1
The colour of sculpture, Van Gogh Museum, 1996
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Review
July 1994 - December 1996
On 1 July 1994 the Van Gogh Museum entered a new phase in its history, taking its first steps no longer as a national museum, but as a foundation subsidised by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. But even if there have been all kinds of changes in its day-to-day and financial management, the mission and the duties of the museum have, of course, remained largely the same. With the collection of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation as its unique source of inspiration, the museum has stayed on course as an innovative museum of international 19th-century art, and as the central deposit of knowledge on Vincent van Gogh.
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Acquisitions
Even as a newly independent institution, the Van Gogh Museum makes its acquisitions in the name both of the state and of the collection the state entrusted to it, that of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. We also undertake incidental acquisitions on behalf of the Museum Mesdag. Although the Van Gogh Museum's impassioned plea to the government for an acquisitions subsidy fell anew upon deaf ears, we have nonetheless been able to acquire a varied range of works. For this we can thank the steadily increasing profits of the museum shop, and the highly-valued support of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and of the Vereniging Rembrandt. A supplement to the September 1996 edition of the Burlington Magazine on these new acquisitions, which was accompanied by a very favourable editorial, was a reminder that acquisition can significantly enhance the museum's image.
This Journal features descriptions and illustrations of every work acquired since 1 July 1994. Exceptionally, it has been decided to incorporate in the Journal all the acquisitions made in 1996. The reason is the departure on 1 December of the current director, who, after an eleven-year period of office, will be taking up the post of General Director of the Rijksmuseum. In this way we have been able to give a complete picture of the last acquisitions to be made during the author's directorship.
Unfortunately, the museum has to go without the resources it would need to buy major works by Vincent van Gogh himself. An anonymous bequest made at the end of 1995 was therefore particularly welcome; this was a work painted by Vincent in 1885, Peasant woman digging potatoes. A canvas with this theme was not previously present in the collection.
The representation of French landscape art prior to Van Gogh was also somewhat sparse, a situation that has now been much remedied by the acquisition of a number of pre-Impressionist landscapes. The canvas by Théodore Rousseau purchased at the beginning of 1994 was soon joined by works painted by Rousseau's contemporaries Chintreuil, Jongkind and Harpignies. These were capped by two imposing coastal views by Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet, which had been in private Dutch collections for over half a century, and which we have now been able to retain as part of our permanent heritage.
Other works also came from Dutch sources. These included two works of history painting, Exhausted maenads after the dance by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (once the property of the writer and critic Carel Vosmaer); and Consummatum est, also known as Golgotha, by the French Salon painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, which was widely known as a print in the 19th century. Both pieces are now hanging in the newly-installed section on the art of the Salon, on the ground floor of the museum. Recently-acquired paintings by Gustave Boulanger and Lawrence Alma-Tadema have also been added, as well as sculptures by Barye, Carpeaux, Carrier-Belleuse and Cordier.
An important new impulse over the last period has been the acquisition of sculpture. For this we are grateful for the closer contacts with collectors and art dealers gained during the preparations for the exhibition The colour of sculpture. Here, Prosper d'Epinay's expressive terracotta Medusa, the gilded silver Sappho by James Pradier, and the exuberant orientalist busts by Charles Cordier are just three of the high points. An exceptional
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piece of luck was the acquisition at a London auction of Jules Dalou's chef d'oeuvre Large peasant; now standing in dialogue with Léon Lhermitte's Haymaking, it is a masterful example of late 19th-century naturalism. The combination of paintings and sculpture has considerably enlivened and enriched the appearance of the museum's galleries. In August 1996, the sheer scope of acquisitions in this category made it necessary to devote an extra edition of the Van Gogh Bulletin to newly-acquired sculpture.
Although the collection of drawings is currently growing at only a modest pace, it nonetheless makes a good showing: recent acquisitions include sheets by Doré and Tissot, two capital noirs by Redon from the former Bonger collection, and also a startling view of the Seine by the young Raoul Dufy. There is now a beautiful watercolour of the heath at Laren by Van Gogh's cousin and sole teacher, Anton Mauve, of which the version in oil is in the collection at the Rijksmuseum. A new development since 1996 has been the regular presentation on the second floor of the museum of the ‘drawing of the month,’ featuring the most important new acquisition.
Loans from museums and private collections have also enhanced the quality and appeal of the permanent collection. While the Amsterdams Historisch Museum augmented the Salon installation on the ground floor with masterpieces by Decamps and Marilhat, the Stedelijk Museum loaned two large canvases by Alma-Tadema and Anton Mauve, as well as sculptures by Degas, Renoir and Rodin. Works on permanent loan from private collections included two early Picassos and fine drawings by Jan Toorop and Odilon Redon.
The renovation of the Museum Mesdag necessitated the purchase of two specially designed display cabinets for the Colenbrander ceramics. Mr and Mrs Maingay-Mesdag donated a portfolio of engravings, reproductions, leather wall hangings and a lectern that were originally the property of Taco Mesdag.
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Conservation
1995 saw the virtual completion of the conservation work undertaken within the framework of the so-called Delta Plan for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. The only ambitions now remaining unfulfilled concern the preservation of the old frames in the Museum Mesdag. A start has been made on the restoration of the collection of drawings, for which purpose a temporary conservation workshop has been instituted. In a project running parallel to the cataloguing of the Van Gogh drawings, Nico Lingbeek was called in for the conservation and, where necessary, restoration, of the sheets.
In recent years the condition of all the Van Gogh paintings in the collection has been assessed. Since then, an up-to-date conditions report has also been made on the state of all the remaining paintings. René Boitelle undertook the restoration of paintings in the Museum Mesdag, and a number of works by the School of Barbizon were contracted out to the Stichting Restauratoren Kollektief Amsterdam. Restorer Cornelia Peres was occupied principally with the Van Gogh collection, priority being given to canvases from Vincent's Paris period. Among the works to be restored were Van Gogh's paintings after plaster casts, his woodland scenes and Boulevard de Clichy and Vegetable gardens on Montmartre, which have now regained the full splendour of their original Impressionist colouring.
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Academic research
The museum is steadily revealing more and more facets of its various collections. In 1995 the totality of Van Gogh's engravings were published as volume six in the scholarly series Cahier Vincent, and, in 1996, volume one of a projected four-volume catalogue of the Van Gogh drawings contained in the collection. The museum's curator of prints and drawings Sjraar van Heugten was the author of both. Chief curator Louis van Tilborgh, supported by newcomer Marije Vellekoop as his research assistant, will shortly embark upon a projected three-volume catalogue of the museum's Van Gogh paintings. A new catalogue by Fred Leeman and Hanna Pennock of the paintings and drawings in the Museum Mesdag has just been published. Meanwhile, the previous Van Gogh Museum Journal published a full survey of paintings acquired since 1963.
At the end of 1994 the Van Gogh Letters Project got under way. Early in the next millennium, collaboration with the Constantijn Huygens Stichting will result in a scholarly annotated edition of the complete letters by and to Vincent van Gogh. The editorial principles have been established, and work on a new transcription of the letters is now proceeding. To support the project, an editorial board consisting of internal and external experts was formed; to introduce the project to the world, a multilingual brochure was also published.
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fig. 2
Vincent van Gogh, Landscape, 1883, private collection
Each year the Van Gogh Museum receives a constant stream of queries regarding the authenticity of works which their owners hope can be attributed to Vincent van Gogh. For our staff this is very time-consuming, and it is only very rarely that their work does not end in disappointment. In the past period, however, there have been two exceptions. First, an unknown early drawing was discovered upon its submission to our experts, and then, on 7 December 1994, a previously unpublished floral still life was convincingly attributed to Van Gogh's Paris period (figs. 2 and 3).
From 22 August to 2 September 1994, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Summer University, the Van Gogh Museum presented a two-week summer course entitled ‘Symbolism: in search of a definition.’ Participants from eight European countries took part in a programme of 25 lectures and workshops provided by 27 specialists from six different countries. Excursions were also made to a number of museums in Holland and Belgium. In 1995 an eight-day summer course was also organised under the auspices of the Amsterdam Summer University. Devoted to ‘Collecting in the Netherlands: the 19th century,’ this involved 20 participants from ten different countries.
At the end of 1996 the museum library will move to the adjoining premises at Museumplein 4. This will simultaneously solve the library's space problems, and create more room in the museum building for the shop. Staff working on the Van Gogh Letters Project will also be accommodated in the new building. Among the recent acquisitions to the museum library has been an important collection of 19th-century Salon catalogues.
Derived principally from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, the Van Gogh Museum's archives are one of the museums strengths as a documentation centre. The basis of a great deal of important provenance research, the archives are currently being used by former curator Han van Crimpen in preparation for an edition devoted to the exchange of letters between Theo van Gogh and Jo Bonger; this will be published in the near future. Recent computerisation also means that much of the archives can be accessed electronically. And at the end of 1995 a start was made on the transfer of the remaining archive material from the room administered by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation.
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Other activities
Virtually all of the museum's academic staff had regular lecture engagements both inside and outside the museum. They also published in the museum's own publications, and collaborated on a variety of publications produced by other organisations. On 12 October 1994 we hosted a congress organised by the art restorers training institute, De Opleiding Restauratoren.
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fig. 3
Vincent van Gogh, Still life with flowers, c. 1886, private collection
The Van Gogh Museum also participates in the Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History, of which it is one of the founding members. The school is a forum for both academic and museological art history; on 17 March 1995 its first public presentation was hosted by the museum, and on 7 and 8 December of the same year it held a symposium in the museum's auditorium on critical editions of art historical texts. On the latter occasion, the Van Gogh Letters Project was also introduced to our colleagues.
The author was an advisor with regard to the appointment of new directors for the Groninger Museum, and, in Rotterdam, for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Nederlands Architectuur Instituut. On 13 June 1995 he was also a speaker at a meeting on collections policy in Dutch museums convened by the Mondriaan Stichting. The author was also a member of the organising committee of the international art historical congress (CIHA) that took place in Amsterdam from 1 to 7 September 1996, and will be CIHA president for the next four years. Chief curator Louis van Tilborgh is an editor of the international art history review Simiolus, and coordinator of the ‘Bronnen & tekstedities’ (i.e., sources and text editions) of the Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History.
On 30 March 1996 it was announced that a subsidy application by the Van Gogh Museum had been accepted by the Mondriaan Stichting. Aukje Vergeest has been appointed for a two-year period as researcher on a project to catalogue all 19th-century French paintings in the collections of Dutch museums. The research will take place in cooperation with the Free University Amsterdam.
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Exhibitions
In the autumns of 1994 and 1995 the second and third parts in the series of exhibition entitled Vincent van Gogh and his time were presented in Tokyo at the Seiji Togo Memorial Yasuda Kasai Museum of Art; these were devoted to portraiture and landscapes respectively, the latter drawing no fewer than 168,000 visitors. Still lifes were the theme of the exhibition held in the autumn of 1996. In the spring of 1996, the Van Gogh Museum and the Vincent van Gogh Foundation made an extensive loan available to an important exhibition at the Kunstforum Wien, in which the early work of Vincent van Gogh was juxtaposed with that of his contemporaries of the Hague School.
During the summer months the Van Gogh Museum goes to the greatest possible lengths to stress its core activities. In 1994 all the Van Gogh self portraits in the museum collection were shown in an exhibition that was later presented in an adapted form at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg. In the second half of the 1990s Van Gogh's output of prints and drawings have occupied a central position. In the summer of 1995 the totality of his engravings was on show, followed in 1996 by part one (Early Works: 1873-1883) of a four-part exhibition of the museum's collection of Van Gogh's drawings. This exhibition, and those to follow in the next three summers, mark the publication of a volume of the complete catalogue (see above); by the end of this four-year period all five hundred sheets will have been displayed.
Between 8 July and 27 August 1995, 30 masterpieces from the Museum Mesdag - which at that time was closed for renovation - were shown in the Haags Historisch Museum in an exhibition entitled De collectie Mesdag op bezoek.
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According to custom, French artists set the tone for the remaining programme of exhibitions. In collaboration with various museums abroad, the Van Gogh Museum presented a series of monographic exhibitions devoted to Odilon Redon, Jean-Louis Forain and Maurice Denis. The extremely successful Redon exhibition was a joint initiative of the Van Gogh Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, but owed much to a third partner, the Art Institute of Chicago. The catalogue, to which Fred Leeman contributed two articles, later received the Wittenborn Memorial Award.
In the spring and early summer of 1995, artists of diverse nationalities and a diversity of styles presented an innovative exhibition. In perfect harmony: picture and frame 1850-1920, in which for the first time considerable attention was paid to the phenomenon of 19th-century frames designed by artists. This exhibition then travelled to the Kunstforum Wien.
The work that was subsequently presented around the turn of the year, that by the impudent Bavarian symbolist Franz von Stuck, was such a success with the public that it was decided to extend the exhibition by two months. The manoeuvring of Stuck's bronze statue of an Amazon - 2.40m in height - over the high wall of the museum restaurant made the front page of several newspapers.
An exhibition held at the end of March 1996 was devoted to two leading figures of German Romantic painting, Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge. Entitled The passage of time and based upon the collection in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg (with additional works supplied by other collections), it was the quid pro quo for the exhibition of Van Gogh self portraits held in Hamburg in 1995.
From February to April 1996 the Van Gogh Museum exhibited a large group of 19th-century photographs of museums, exhibitions, monuments and sculptures; these were selected by Andreas Blühm, head of the museum's exhibition department. A new art was the title of this first exhibition to be organized jointly by the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum from the holdings of the former Hartkamp and Diepraam collections, which were acquired by the Dutch state and transferred to the Rijksmuseum in 1994 to form the National Photographic Collection.
In April, May and June 1996 the presentation in the museum atrium of two newly-renovated early 19th-century backdrops from the Royal Theatre in The Hague treated visitors to an immense visual surprise. Owned by the
fig. 4
Theatre backdrops in the Van Gogh Museum, 1996
Netherlands Theatre Institute, these stage decorations are seldom exhibited because of their huge size.
In addition to the Van Gogh drawings, the summer of 1996 also saw the presentation The colour of sculpture, 1840-1910, a highly original exhibition focusing on a much-neglected aspect of 19th century art. The show included nearly 100 sculptures by both lesser and better-known artist from various European countries and was received enthusiastically by both art historians and the general public. The accompanying full-color catalogue, which incorporates many more pieces than were in the exhibition, will, we hope, become a standard reference work on the subject.
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Education and public services
Since the end of March 1996 the museum has had a new signage system, designed by Studio Pieter Roozen in Amsterdam. The lettering on the facade of the building has also been replaced. In the summer of 1996 the museum
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published a new concise guidebook, for which there proved to be a great demand. Each visitor now also receives a free brochure containing basic information on the museum; both this and the guidebook are available in seven languages.
For logistical reasons, guided tours of the permanent collection are still not permitted. During temporary exhibitions, however, it is now possible to request tours guided by the art history bureau ARTTRA. Additionally, the contract for audio-tours arranged by Acoustiguide has been extended. However, the portable cassette-player system used since 1990, which led users on a route past the exhibits, has now been replaced: the previous commentary has been entirely updated and is now available via the so-called inform system. This provides a ‘random access’ facility that frees visitors from the obligation of following a fixed circuit, enabling them instead to request information on any individual work. The programme is currently available in six languages, and is to be expanded.
In 1995 the first series of lunchtime lectures was held. The addresses were provided primarily by the museum's own academic staff, with incidental contributions by guest speakers. Interest in this activity is growing, and there is every intention that it will be continued. In addition, so-called ‘walk-in lectures’ in Dutch and English are organised in collaboration with the ARTTRA bureau.
Separate symposiums or lecture series were organised to accompany most of the large exhibitions. Beside those academics directly associated with any given exhibition, celebrated scholars in the field of 19th-century art - among them Albert Boime and Robert Rosenblum - were invited to speak.
Unfortunately, ever since it was decided to open the museum seven days a week from 10.00 to 17.00, it has been impossible to continue the popular Sunday morning concerts that were previously held in the atrium. The broadening of the opening times offers a greater service to tourists and - much welcome - helps spread the density of visitors.
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The Vincent van Gogh Foundation
During a festive gathering held at the Van Gogh Museum on 13 October 1995, Mr Johan van Gogh resigned as chairman of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. A member of the Foundation from its inception, Mr Van Gogh was chair for a period of eleven years. His successor is his nephew Willem van Gogh. Mrs. Josien van Gogh has joined the board.
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Friends of the Van Gogh Museum
Thanks to the high levels of activity shown by its board, the Stichting Friends of the Van Gogh Museum is operating in an ever more professional manner. Each year special events in the museum are proposed to the Friends; they receive the Van Gogh Bulletin and also an informative newsletter three times a year.
A highly successful membership-drive conducted by a firm of solicitors celebrating its anniversary in 1995 meant that the Friends gained 115 new members in a single swoop. As a contribution, the chairman of the Friends presented the museum with a sculpture by Jean-Jacques Feuchère.
The information desk run by volunteers in the atrium meets a great need. As well as carrying out regular visitor surveys in collaboration with the Free University Amsterdam, the information desk provides useful feedback on visitors' perceptions of the museum.
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Budget for the 1997-2000 period
At this time, the Van Gogh Museum's budget is around 14.5 million guilders per year. The largest part thereof (c. 9 million guilders) is generated by admission fees. The museum also benefits from a subsidy from the Dutch government of 4.5 million guilders. In addition, it receives 50% of the net profit of the museum shop, run by BV 't Lanthuys.
Employee salaries represent by far the greatest percentage of all expenditures (c. 45%), followed by maintenance costs (c. 15%). Around 20% of the total available budget is spent on the museum's various projects, including exhibitions.
In connection with its request for a governmental subsidy for the period 1997-2000, the Van Gogh Museum presented detailed policy papers to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science at the end of 1995. At the time of the publication of this volume of the Van Gogh Museum Journal it had already been announced that the museum had received the enthusiastic support of the Council for Culture, and that its recommendations had been adopted by the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science. Unfortunately, it also appears that the subsidy will remain at the same nominal level it has been in the past. The scarcity of state funds for culture was given as the reason that no extra money could be granted for new initiatives, although they conformed with the museum's overall policy. Still more disturbing, as no account has
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been taken of indexation, in absolute terms the museum continues to be financially in decline. Not only are the services and goods the museum uses subject to inflation, future wage costs will also put great pressure on the available monies. The transition from a 38 to a 36 hour work week in May 1997, with the resulting need for new staff, will take an additional financial toll.
However, in 1996 new regulations came into force regarding the Value Added Tax payable by museums; these mean that most Dutch museums now have slightly greater financial leeway. In his capacity as treasurer of the Nederlandse Museum Vereniging, the museum's deputy director Ton Boxma took part in negotiations with the Ministry of Finance; the benefits now accruing from the new VAT regulations mean that much of the credit should go to him.
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Attendance figures
For many years the Van Gogh Museum has been Holland's second most-visited museum (the first being the Rijksmuseum). In 1994 we had a total of 872,744 visitors. With the exception of the exceptional ‘Van Gogh year’ 1990, this was a record. While the number fell slightly to 837,620 in 1995, it is expected to be about 100,000 higher in 1996: up to and including week 46 it stood at 885,119. The figures for the number of visitors during the last five years are shown here:
| 1991 |
802,545 |
| 1992 |
850,965 |
| 1993 |
753,264 |
| 1994 |
872,744 |
| 1995 |
837,620 |
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The building
The facelift given to the building was continued in 1995. The galleries on the first and second floors were reorganised to designs by Peter Sas, and parquet was laid on all floors. To take further advantage of the situation, explanatory texts were added in the permanent collection. The permanent collection of Van Gogh's works was expanded with a display cabinet in which a combination of plaster casts and a number of oils are shown.
Discussions continued with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science regarding the Rietveld building. Both in terms of logistics and with regard to climate control it leaves much to be desired, and it would therefore be desirable if extensive renovations could run parallel to the construction work on the new wing of the museum. The insulation and technical installations are in particularly urgent need of attention. Up to now, barely half of the amount needed (approximately 25 million guilders) has been found. In 1995 the architectural bureau Greiner & Van Goor were appointed to carry out this renovation work.
In anticipation of the projection expansion of office space, a large number of museum staff moved to quarters rented at Paulus Potterstraat 8. These are expected to provide temporary accommodation for the next few years.
Although the donation for architect Kisho Kurokawa's new exhibition wing was made in 1991, no building work could proceed until the municipal development plans for the Museumplein had been completed. This process advanced at a snail's pace, and the start on the much-needed new wing was continually postponed; the museum staff's sense of frustration was therefore considerable. In the meantime, the management team's preparations involved orientational visits to recently-built museums in Germany, Spain and Japan.
Finally, however, just as this Van Gogh Museum Journal is going to press, we are delighted to announce that building permission for the new wing was granted on 25 October 1996. We can now looking forward to our new building opening its doors to the public sometime within the next two years.
Ronald de Leeuw
Director
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