The Biography of an object

The material history of paintings

Article

No. 35 • September 2024

Behind every painting in the museum lies a hidden biography,” says Esther van Duijn, paintings conservator at the Rijksmuseum. Although the traces are often erased, the turbulent histories of these masterpieces determine how they are restored for the future.

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text: Esther van Duijn

When visitors step into the Gallery of Honour at the Rijksmuseum, they immediately realize: these are works by the Old Masters. Old works with long lives behind them. Some visitors might even remember incidents that made the news. In 1990, Rembrandt’s The Night Watch (1642) was attacked with acid, and in 1975 with a knife. In 1971, Vermeer’s The Love Letter (c. 1669–1670) was cut from its frame and stolen for ransom during an exhibition in Brussels. Other stories reach further back. In 1939, Vermeer’s The Milkmaid (c. 1658–1659), along with five other paintings, traveled to the World’s Fair in New York.

Because the end of the exhibition coincided with the mobilization in the Netherlands, the paintings could not return. They would eventually wander through America and Canada for seven years before returning by ship in December 1946. In 1932, a public controversy broke out between artists and the museum concerning a 1929 restoration of Rembrandt’s The Syndics (1662). These are just a few of the stories that make up the material history of the paintings—there are dozens, if not hundreds more. Conservation professionals today often speak of the “biography” of an object, a term I find wonderfully apt.