Historic Painting Techniques in Oil:
The Confrontation between Rembrandt & Rubens
Sunday, August 19, 2007 - Friday, August 24, 2007

In association with the SRAL - Limburg Conservation Institute.

A series of lectures will introduce participants to the technical, optical and aesthetic properties of mid seventeenth century oil paint in the Netherlands. The essential characteristics of the painting techniques on canvas and panel in the Southern and Northern Provinces will be discussed. Based on the study of original paintings on hand in the Rijksmuseum, special attention will be given to the similarities and differences in paint handling and build up between Rembrandt, Rubens and their respective followers. The course participants will execute reconstructions of various painting techniques and they will be coached by the course leaders in the preparation of canvasses and panels, the handling and build up of paint layers.

If you would like to be kept up to date about this course subject, please send us an email.

Application

Candidates will be selected on the basis of their detailed curriculum vitae and letter of motivation. Please send in your curriculum vitae and letter of motivation together with your application form as soon as possible but no later than Tuesday, May 15, 2007. Applications are completed after full payment of the course fee is received.

AMSU Course Name: ARTH-1.

Details

Date: Sunday, August 19, 2007 - Friday, August 24, 2007.

Application Deadline: Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

Certificate: On completion of course.

Capacity: 20 participants.

Language of Instruction: English.

Fee: € 800,- (including lunches, coffee and tea, materials needed during the workshop).

Materials: Please bring your own apron.

Course Organizer: SRAL - Limburg Conservation Institute.

Registration: Confirmed participants are expected to register between 03.00 PM and 05.00 PM on Saturday, August 18, 2007 at the building Felix Meritis, located at Keizersgracht 324 in Amsterdam. At 05.00 PM welcome drinks will be served and the lecturers will introduce themselves to the participants.

Course leaders

Anne van Grevenstein (Netherlands) - Conservator of Paintings/Director; Limburg Conservation Institute (SRAL).

Ernst van de Wetering (Netherlands) - Art historian, Head of the Rembrandt Research Project; Rijksmuseum.

Nico van Hout (Belgium) - Curator; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.

 

Guest lecturers

Arie Wallert (Netherlands) - Art Historian; Rijksmuseum.

Margriet van Eikema Hommes (Netherlands) - Researcher; UVA - University of Amsterdam.

 

Course assistants

Charlotte Caspers (Netherlands) - Technical Assistant/Student; Limburg Conservation Institute (SRAL).

Programme

Saturday, August 18, 2007
Registration & welcome
2.00 PM Registration at Felix Meritis, Keizersgracht 324, Amsterdam;
2.15 PM Welcome and introduction to the course — Ms Anne van Grevenstein, Director of the Limburg Conservation Institute (SRAL);
3.00 PM Visit to the Rembrandt House — Ernst van de Wetering; Bob van den Boogert.

Sunday, August 19, 2007
Excursion to Antwerp
• Meeting at Amsterdam Central Station — train tickets will be provided);
• Departure train to Antwerp at 8.26 AM — arrival at 10.29 AM;
• Visit to the Rubens House (Wapper 9-11, Antwerp) with Nico van Hout;
• Lunch break;
• Visit to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp with Nico van Hout;
• Departure — at your own discretion.

Monday, August 20, 2007
Preparation & lectures
• Preparation of the supports on canvas and panel;
• Lecture by Arie Wallert — 17th Century Painting Materials;
• Lunch break;
• Lecture by Ernst van de Wetering — The Painting Technique of Rembrandt.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Sketches & lectures
• Imprimatura, sketch — 1st underpaint ("doodverf");
• Lecture by Nico van Hout — the Painting Technique of Rubens;
• Lunch break;
• Lecture by Margriet van Eikema Hommes — The Painters of the Oranjezaal 1647-1652, North/South.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Painting
• Painting on panel.

Thursday, August 23, 2007
Painting
• Painting on canvas.

Friday, August 24, 2007
Painting & evaluation
• Painting on canvas;
3.00 PM Evaluation of the course, farewell drinks and wrap up of the course.

Additional Course Information

Location

From 20 - 24 August, 2006 the course will take place in the Veiligheidsinstituut, Hobbemastraat 22.

Description of the workshops

All participants will do a painting on panel as well as a painting on canvas.
For the painting on canvas we ask you to make a choice between the Rembrandt painting on show in the Rijksmuseum and the Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert painting, which will be present in the workshop. One reason why participants should choose between the two paintings is that they each have a different colour for the ground, and canvases have to be prepared in advance.

All paintings will have been examined in Antwerp and in the Rijksmuseum and the participants will work with 1/1 images.
As stated above, the painting of Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (Southern School) will be in the workshop with the file of the technical examination (X-ray, IR, cross-sections of paint samples). Participants preferring to work close to the "real thing" should make this known in advance.

Remember to bring your own apron!

Painting on panel for the Rubens sketch

Detail of the Triumphal Chariot of Kalloo (1638) on display in the "Koninklijke Museum voor Schone Kunsten", Antwerp.

Materials delivered & working procedure
• the planks of the oak panel support (30 x 40cm) are glued together with animal glue, planed and the edges are bevelled;
• first layer of animal glue;
• drying period / prepartion of the chalk ground;
• first and second layers of chalk/animal glue ground;
• drying period / lecture by Nico van Hout;
• sandpaper;
• third, fourth groundlayers;
• during drying period: lecture by Nico van Hout;
• sandpaper;
• imprimatura;
• preparation of the underdrawing from the 1/1 image;
• preliminary drawing/ sketch;
• alla prima painting.

Painting on a real oak panel is historically justified but the materials have proved to be inordinately expensive (€90,-/panel, assembled, bevelled and planed). If you prefer to use this material — instead of the available non historic plywood — it can be provided at a surcharge.

Painting on canvas

Portrait of the minister Johannes Wtenbogaert (Rembrandt, 1633) on display in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
OR
Apotheosis of Mary (Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, ca.1650), Rijksmuseum, inv.nr A 598, on display during the workshop.

Materials delivered & working procedure
• stretcher, canvasses that have been seamed;
• stretching the canvas with strings;
• preglueing with animal glue;
• during drying period: lecture by Ernst van de Wetering;
• first layer of red groud • during drying period: lecture by Arie Wallert;
• second grey ground;
• switch to an identically prepared dry canvas, Rembrandt or Bosschaert;
• preliminary sketch;
• deadcolouring ("doodverf");
• during drying period: lecture by Margriet van Eikema Hommes;
• final paint layers.