Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995 bron Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995. Waanders, Zwolle 1995 Zie voor verantwoording: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_van012199501_01/colofon.php © 2012 dbnl / Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh 6 Director's Foreword The Van Gogh Museum shortly after its opening in 1973 For those of us who experienced the foundation of the Van Gogh Museum at first hand, it may come as a shock to discover that over 20 years have passed since Her Majesty Queen Juliana officially opened the Museum on 2 June 1973. For a younger generation, it is perhaps surprising to discover that the institution is in fact so young. Indeed, it is remarkable that in such a short period of time the Museum has been able to create its own specific niche in both the Dutch and international art worlds. This first issue of the Van Gogh Museum Journal marks the passage of the Rijksmuseum (National Museum) Vincent van Gogh to its new status as Stichting Van Gogh Museum (Foundation Van Gogh Museum). The publication is designed to both report on the Museum's activities and, more particularly, to be a motor and repository for the scholarship on the work of Van Gogh and aspects of the permanent collection in broader context. Besides articles on individual works or groups of objects from both the Van Gogh Museum's collection and the collection of the Museum Mesdag, the Journal will publish the acquisitions of the previous year. Scholars not only from the Museum but from all over the world are and will be invited to submit their contributions. This volume of the Journal is, in many ways, retrospective. The transition from state museum to independent foundation offers the opportunity to look back over the achievements of the first decades. It is no secret that the Van Gogh Museum had a rough start: unclarity about policy, exhibitions, and interpersonal conflicts all led to a general feeling that the institution was a kind of ill-behaved child. The difficulties of these early years have, however, been resolved, and the Van Gogh Museum is now flourishing. The proof lies not only in the astounding number of visitors, but also in the widespread recognition for recent exhibitions and, last but not least, in the breadth and quality of newer publications. Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995 7 Because of its partially historical nature, the Van Gogh Museum Journal for 1995 contains several articles pertaining to the foundation and early years, collected under the heading ‘The Museum in Perspective.’ The Introduction reviews the development of the Museum's acquisitions and exhibition policy, while the article by Gerard van Bronkhorst recounts the Museum's prehistory and the special role of Dr Vincent Willem van Gogh. The formation of the library - an absolute necessity for any truly functional research centre - is also examined. The heart of this issue of the Journal is also retrospective in character: the catalogue of acquisitions made by the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh - that is, all paintings purchased or donated since the Vincent van Gogh Foundation was established in 1962. It is an interim publication, forming the basis for a complete catalogue of the collection. The following issues of the Journal will include similar catalogues of the collections of drawings, prints, and sculptures. ‘Van Gogh Studies,’ a recurring rubric in the Journal, examines the works of Vincent Van Gogh - not only those executed with a paintbrush - from various perspectives. In ‘Acquisitions in Context,’ again a category to be repeated, the authors look closely at a selection of the Museum's more important recent acquisitions. Much interesting work in art history today is brought to the attention of both specialists and the general public through the medium of exhibition catalogues. The facts and ideas presented often expand on more specialised publications, and it is in this context that the Van Gogh Museum Journal should be seen. The proper channels for the spread of knowledge about the various facets of museum collections are often lacking. Museums should thus actively seek ways to bring their works to the attention of scholars apart from the vehicle of the exhibition catalogue, and to give an impulse to research into them. Without such an outlet, much of what we know about the objects we protect is doomed to a fruitless existence in the archives or to remain untapped in the heads of curators. This publication is definitely object-oriented. Only when a work has become the subject of serious investigation does it truly become part of the history of art. It is our ambition, then, that with the works of art presented here a contribution can be made which goes beyond the specific context of the Van Gogh Museum. It is also hoped that until a more general publication for the art-historical studies of the 19th century is created the Journal can help fill the gap. This first volume consists mainly of contributions by the staff of the Van Gogh Museum. We hope that in the future the Journal will become an international forum for broad and in-depth research into the collection, and are thus counting especially on our readers' participation. Ronald de Leeuw Director Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995 8 [The Museum in Perspective] fig. 1 Rietveld's original model for the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995 9 Introduction: the Van Gogh Museum as a National Museum, 1973-1994 Ronald de Leeuw On 2 June 1973 Her Majesty Queen Juliana officially opened the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh. 21 years later, on 1 July 1994, the Museum gave up its status as a state-run organisation and - together with all other Dutch national museums - became an independent foundation. The Museum's official name is now ‘Stichting Van Gogh Museum’, but it operates under the title ‘Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam’. The former Rijksmuseum H.W. Mesdag in The Hague, under the directorship of the Van Gogh Museum since 1990, is now called ‘Museum Mesdag’. In the two decades that have elapsed since its foundation, the Van Gogh Museum has grown into one of the most popular institutions of its kind in Europe, a place of pilgrimage for millions seeking the unique experience of standing face to face with one of the 19th century's most fascinating artists. When, during a three-day excursion to Amsterdam in October 1885, Vincent van Gogh paid a visit to the recently opened Rijksmuseum, the young artist could not possibly have imagined that in less than a century an entire museum on Amsterdam's Museumplein would be dedicated to his own artistic legacy. The collection of the Van Gogh Museum is by far the largest and most representative of the artist's oeuvre in the world. In addition to over 200 paintings and 580 drawings, it includes 7 sketchbooks and some 600 original letters from Vincent to Theo, all on permanent loan from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. The Museum also houses work by Vincent's friends and colleagues, which the brothers either purchased or acquired through exchange. In the past, this allowed the Museum to present Van Gogh's works in a broader context; more recently, it has also formed the basis of acquisition policy. At the time of the Van Gogh Museum's foundation, a museum dedicated to a single artist was still something of an anomaly. Since then, establishments like the Musée Picasso in Paris have dispelled any lingering doubts about the ‘one-man museum’ formula - provided, of course, that the appeal of the artist is sufficiently universal and that the quality of the collection does justice to his art. During the past decade, however, the Van Gogh Museum has been actively redefining itself, seeking - with Van Gogh as the pivotal figure - to present a broad panorama of European art of the later 19th century. In this respect, the Museum forms an ideal link between its neighbours on the Museumplein: the Rijksmuseum, devoted primarily to Dutch fine and applied art up to approximately 1900, and the Stedelijk Museum, with its international 20th-century collection. Upon Vincent van Gogh's death in July 1890, his brother Theo inherited the entire estate. When, in turn, Theo died on 25 January 1891, his wife Jo van Gogh-Bonger decided to leave Paris, returning with her infant son Vincent Willem to her native Holland. As the widow of an art dealer, she naturally supplemented her income by occasionally selling works from the collection. In 1901, Jo married the painter and critic Johan Cohen Gosschalk, who wholeheartedly supported her tireless effort to promote her late brother-in-law's art. In 1905, both took an active part in organising Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995 the large Van Gogh exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum that helped permanently establish the artist's reputation. In 1914, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, who had reassumed her first husband's name after Cohen Gosschalk's death in 1912, published what could well be called her life's work: an edition of the entire corpus of Vincent's letters to Theo. As for the painting collection, with few exceptions, nothing more was sold until after Jo died in 1925. Jo and Theo's son Vincent Willem had already become actively involved with the collection while his mother was still alive. In 1927, he and his wife settled in Laren. Twenty of Van Gogh's most famous pictures, the majority mounted in flat white frames, served as decoration; the rest were kept in a makeshift storage room. In 1930, following another major exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Dr van Gogh was asked to display his collection in Amsterdam on a Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995 10 more permanent basis.