The Dutch Method Unfolded
Welcome to the interactive website of the masterclass The Dutch Method Unfolded!
The masterclass is a multidisciplinary program that aims to help professionals in the fields of art history and conservation to better understand the physical condition of wax-resin lined paintings. It also provides a platform to share expertise on the topic of wax-resin lining and reflect on the consequences of the treatment for today’s conservation approaches and art history. By expending the specific knowledge and skills of conservation specialists active in the field, the program contributes to the conservation of paintings that have been subjected to wax-resin lined treatment.
The masterclass is organized by Amsterdam Wax-Resin Project which aims to contribute to the conservation of wax-resin lined paintings through research and educational activities. It is funded by the Getty Foundation as part of its Conserving Canvas initiative. The first edition of it took place from 7th until the 17th of June 2022 in Amsterdam. The second version will be organized from the 22th until the 31st of January 2025.
This website provides general information about the program and organization of the masterclass. It is also an interactive platform for the participants and lecturers. Furthermore, this website presents different types of knowledge resources including video recorded lectures and literature lists on wax-resin linings.
To visit the general website of the masterclass on the website of the University of Amsterdam please click here.
January 2025 – The masterclass #2
The second version of the masterclass will be offered to a new group of participants between the 22nd and the 31st of January 2025. We are grateful to the Getty Foundation for funding the project. We are starting the organization of it. Updates will be posted on this website including some information in open access. We are looking forward to the event.
September 2023 – ICOM-CC conference Valencia
The achievements of the first masterclass were presented at the conference. Emilie Froment, project leader of the Dutch Method Unfolded, together with Melissa Daugherty, Esther van Duijn, and Ella Hendriks, prepared a poster for the event. It is added in the resource page.
July 2023 – The masterclass in the media
Check the News tab for the presentation by Melissa and Emilie at the NICAS colloquium online and the article by Jelena in the IIC News in Conservation.
June 2022 – The Masterclass
From the 7th until the 17th of June the masterclass took place in Amsterdam. Fifteen participants from ten different countries came together to take part. We had workshops, museum and depot visits, lectures, group discussion sessions and social events. At the end of the masterclass we parted ways with new insights, inspiration for further research and having forged new connections.
The presentations by the lecturers and the participants will soon be posted online.
Photo’s by Jerome Schlomoff
May 2022 – It’s going to happen
We are very happy to announce that the masterclass can finally happen! The participants are coming to Amsterdam from the 7th until the 17th of June 2022.
We will be visiting the conservation studios of the museums: Frans Hals Museum, Rijksmuseum, Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Museum and Mauritshuis The Hague. There will be lectures and practical workshops, as well as group discussions. We have some great events organized, such as a historical film screening at The Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.
The program is available through this link: Documents. The list of participants and the program of the presentations is also available in ‘Documents‘. The document page will be updated regularly with information.
A kind reminder to watch all the available material before attending the workshop: Lectures.
There are two new lectures added: one by Saskia van Oudheusden from the Van Gogh Museum and one by Esther van Duijn from the Rijksmuseum. To go to the video’s click here.
See you in Amsterdam this June.
August 2021 I – Alternative lining techniques
This month two new video’s are uploaded for the online program of the Dutch Method Unfolded. These are the last video’s of the online series for now.
The first lecture is by Mireille te Marvelde. She is a paintings conservator at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. Her lecture, that was created in close cooperation with her colleague Liesbeth Abraham, gives insight into the treatment history of the collection of the Frans Hals Museum.
In the second video Kate Seymour and Joanna Strombek, paintings conservators, talk about mist-lining, a minimally invasive technique developed by the Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (SRAL) to stabilize paintings on canvas. It is a technique that was used for the relining of wax-resin lined paintings.
Go to lectures: lectures.
July 2021 – 19th Century Paintings
In this new series of recorded videos the online program of the Dutch Method Unfolded focuses on the wax-resin lining of 19th century paintings in Dutch national collections.
Rene Boitelle is senior paintings conservator in the Van Gogh Museum. His lecture focuses on the history of wax-resin lining in the Mesdag Collection which includes 19th century paintings, works on paper and decorative art from the Netherlands, France and Asia. It was donated to the State in 1903 and is being managed by the Van Gogh Museum since 1990. Through this historical overview Rene shows the change in mentalities towards structural conservation of canvas paintings that occurred in the Netherlands between 1919 and 1974.
Ella Hendriks is professor in conservation at the University of Amsterdam. In her lecture she reviews the career of the Dutch paintings conservator J. C. Traas (1898-1982) focusing on his practice of wax-resin lining. She considers Traas’s early campaigns of restoration treatment on the family collection of around 200 paintings by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890). Today these pictures form the core of the Van Gogh Museum collection. Ella’s talk includes a discussion of the consequences of lining illustrated by technical photographs.
Go to lectures: lectures.
June 2021 – Operation Night Watch
This month we have three lectures. The lectures draw attention to The Night Watch (1642), the world-famous painting by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) housed in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Lectures are by Esther van Duijn and Emilie Froment. In addition Petria Noble gives an introduction to Operation Night Watch filmed in front of the painting.
Go to the lectures: lectures
May 2021 – Literature lists updated
The literature lists are updated. Please visit: Literature list.
We now have literature lists on ‘Color change’, ‘History of wax-resin linings’, ‘Critics of wax-resin lining throughout history’ and ‘Conserving wax-resin lined paintings by Malevich’. The literature lists are composed by the lecturers themselves.
Also a pdf of the article by Mireille te Marvelde is added: Mireille te Marvelde, ‘How Dutch is ‘The Dutch Method’? A History of Wax-resin Lining in its International Context’. In Past Practice – Future Prospects, A. Oddy and S. Smith (eds.), The British Museum Occasional Paper, 2001, no. 145, 143-149.
The pdf is available for download: “How Dutch is ‘The Dutch Method’?”
