In preparation for the exhibition Rembrandt: True to Life, NGV conservators documented and studied the NGV’s extensive collection of Rembrandt prints, not only to assess their condition and ensure their preservation, but to gain a deeper understanding of the artist’s printmaking materials and processes.
This research is now available for everyone to access, in the form of an online database, Rembrandt’s Watermarked Papers at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Marking the closing weekend of the exhibition, hear from NGV paper conservators Ruth Shervington and Bonnie Hearn, alongside frames conservator Holly McGowan-Jackson, and paintings conservator Caitlin Breare, as this specialist team shares their insights into researching, conserving and caring for works by Rembrandt.
Includes a welcome by Michael Varcoe-Cocks, Associate Director, Conservation, NGV.
Detail on each of the sessions can be found below. The afternoon will finish with a discussion and audience Q&A.
ORDER OF PROCEEDINGS
1.00pm – 1.10pm Welcome and Introduction
1.10pm – 1.25pm Rembrandt’s Printmaking Techniques
Rembrandt is well known as one of the most masterful printmakers in the tradition. In preparation for Rembrandt: True to Life, paper conservators have examined the prints closely and spent time considering how Rembrandt was producing the prints, what equipment, solutions and tools were used, and what the studio may have been like. NGV conservator Ruth Shervington describes the techniques Rembrandt used and what was being used by other artists in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century.
Speaker: Ruth Shervington, Senior Conservator of Paper, NGV
1.25pm – 1.40pm Rembrandt’s Papers and Watermarks
Rembrandt sourced and printed on a great variety of papers of both Western and Eastern origin, sometimes on parchment and a paper known as ‘oatmeal’, so-called for its creamy and lumpy appearance. It is believed that Rembrandt printed on at least 350 different kinds of paper achieving aesthetic variation among his impressions. NGV paper conservators have studied and captured fifty-eight watermarks in Rembrandt’s prints within the NGV Collection, using these hidden clues to reveal the origin and history of the artist’s papers.
Speaker: Bonnie Hearn, Conservator of Paper, NGV
1:40pm – 1:45pm Break
1.45pm – 2.00pm Rembrandt’s Portrait
A portrait of Rembrandt entered the NGV Collection 90 years ago as the first painting by the master in an Australian institution, but questions around its authenticity arose soon after. Hear how conservation research over decades has provided key evidence about the painting’s origins, and what the recent cleaning of the painting by NGV conservator Caitlin Breare uncovered.
Speaker: Caitlin Breare, Conservator of Paintings, NGV
2.00pm – 2.15pm Reframing Rembrandt
Framing in the Netherlands at the time of Rembrandt reflected a taste for understated luxury in interior decoration and picture framing. Exotic timbers such as ebony inspired the dominant fashion for dark timber frames. These frames encompass subtle differences in form, surface finish and decorative details. Learn about the activities undertaken by the NGV to reframe three of its Rembrandt paintings, in historically accurate reproductions of seventeenth century frames.
Speaker: Holly McGowan-Jackson, Senior Conservator of Frames and Furniture, NGV
2.15pm – 3.00pm Discussion and Audience Q&A