A wealth of documentation and information about the Boijmans Van Beuningen Rembrandts
1 February 2014
Visitors of The Rembrandt Database can now view hundreds of documents and new insights on five Rembrandt paintings from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The new data includes the controversial painting Man with a red beret, of which the attribution is still in debate; the differences in opinion are referred to extensively in the art historical data. Samples that were taken by Annetje Boersma in 2006, and other technical documentation further enriches the interesting studies on this painting. The painting Tobit and Anna has received quite some media attention recently due to its also controversial status regarding authenticity. The database reflects this discussion, but also presents the remarkable X-ray showing a still life underneath the visible paint layer. Other paintings from the Rotterdam collection in the database are: Portrait of Aletta Adriaensdochter, Titus at his desk and The concord of the state.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was willing to take new high quality photographs of the paintings, also available on the website. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been very generous in both sharing data and collaboration: almost 600 documents were made digitally available on the website. A huge amount of work for the database was carried out at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen by Justa Vuister and Roselien van Wijngaarden, supported by the expertise of Jeroen Giltaij and Friso Lammertse, and under the guidance of Jonieke van Es and Nynke van der Wal.
New documents regarding paint sample analyses from the RCE archives will soon be added to the rich set of documentation.