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| archives |
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| Progress report |
On the 5th of April, the Rubenianum organized a study day on the scattered collections originating from the Van Herck family business. Their business played a prominent role in the Antwerp art trade from the mid-19th century until the end of the 20th century. The results of the fascinating study day, at which many Van Herck family members were present, will soon be published in an online web exposition on Archiefbank Vlaanderen.
The inspiration for this study day was the completion of the inventory of Charles Van Herck's research archive, which is preserved in the Rubenianum. His archive was inventoried together with the archive of Adolf Jansen – his good friend and research partner in crime.
- Both archives were secured in the Rubenianum in the 1990s by our eminent honorary curator Frans Baudouin.
- Charles Van Herck and Adolf Jansen both specialized in 17th- and 18th-century sculpture. They published multiple articles on this subject, mostly in the yearbook of the Koninklijke Oudheidkundige Kring van Antwerpen (Royal Society of Archeology of Antwerp) of which they both were members.
- The core of Charles Van Herck's archive evidently focuses on sculpture and more specifically on drawings and terracottas. The content of the archive aligns with Van Herck's own collection, which is now the property of the King Baudouin Foundation. There is also a large "miscellaneous" category, which contains general art historical documentation among other things.
- The rich documentation of Adolf Jansen is arranged according to several classifications: alphabetically by artist; alphabetically by location; iconographical theme; object type; and material type. Both this archive and the archive of Van Herck contain preparations for publications, exhibitions, lectures and other projects.
- To quote Dr. Léon Lock (Apollo 2001 nr. 467): “…the documentation he [Charles Van Herck] assembled, together with the archival sources discovered by his frequent collaborator, Adolf Jansen, still form the basis for all baroque sculpture studies in Belgium today.”
The inventories are available for consultation through our online archival database: Van Herck & Jansen. You may consult these collections in our reading room after placing a request through the collection catalogue: Van Herck & Jansen.
However, some mysteries remain unsolved. For example, the archives hold many photographs of an unknown man. The only thing we know is that he had something to do with the Koninklijke Oudheidkundige Kring van Antwerpen. Any suggestions that may help with the identification of this man are very welcome via elise.gacoms@antwerpen.be.
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| documentation |
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| Internship assignments on artwork documentation |
Although the Rubenianum's artwork documentation is primarily oriented to early modern paintings and drawings, this winter we directed our attention to other, less well-known parts of the collection. KU Leuven students Frédèrique van Duppen and Tom Eerkens both completed internships at the Rubenianum. Frédèrique – whose internship mainly focused on gaining experience in event planning – delved into our documentation on 16th- to 18th-century tapestries as an additional assignment. Tom’s internship, on the other hand, concentrated on the documentation of historic collections.
Report on the arrangement of documentation on early modern tapestries:
- Frédèrique analysed the organization of the documentation on 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century tapestries. The documents – photographs, reproductions, reprints and handwritten notes by experts such as Ludwig Burchard – are arranged in 10 boxes and spread over the entire collection of artwork documentation according to century. In order for researchers to navigate through these boxes, and for the Rubenianum to add new documents to these files, it was important to learn how the material is organized within the boxes. Arranging documents on tapestries calls for a specific approach as both designer and weaver and/or producer must be taken into account.
- Tapestries designed by well-known artists such as Rubens and Jordaens are documented within the artist’s files (either on subject-matter or in a separate tapestry file). The separate boxes on tapestries contain material arranged by the name of the weaver or the producer. These files also contain documents on tapestries whose designers are unknown. However, tapestries designed after (and not by) known masters – such as the many pieces that were woven after paintings by David Teniers II or Bernard van Orley – are also primarily filed under weaver/producer (unless unknown). When neither designer nor producer or weaver is known, documents are filed within the tapestry boxes under "anonymous artists" and organized by subject matter.
- Needless to say, some difficulties arise from this classification system. If both the designer and the executor of a tapestry are known, one would expect documentation in two places. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Therefore, users should check both the artist files and the tapestry boxes. The Rubenianum will make sure that new additions are cross-referenced when possible: for instance, by filing a document in one place and a photocopy in another, or – in the event an artist and weaver collaborated on many tapestries – by adding a cross-reference note on both files.
- Frédèrique also managed to file a back-log of documents on early modern tapestries by using the classification system and flow-chart she created for this assignment.
Report on the analysis and inventory of the documentation on historic collections:
- During his internship, Tom inventoried the 28 boxes – containing 275 files – with documentation on historic collectors and collections. This subcategory of the Rubenianum artwork documentation originated in Ludwig Burchard’s research files. The content ranges from information on collections from the early 16th century until the beginning of the 21st century.
- The core of the documentation was made by Burchard (and his assistants) prior to its transfer to the Rubenianum in the 1960s. Burchard developed a research instrument consisting of many handwritten index cards with key information on historic collectors. This detailed system of index cards was expanded with the aforementioned files including off-prints and excerpts from published as well as unpublished sources. Burchard’s handwritten notes (individual sheets of paper as well as beautifully bound notebooks) include transcriptions/copies from archival sources, such as inventories and publications (e.g. sale and exhibition catalogues). Later, these files were added by Rubenianum employees, who included references to more recent publications.
- Unsurprisingly, Burchard mainly focused on 17th-century art collectors, with a particular emphasis on the renowned collections formed by the Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), the Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) and king Charles I of England (1600-1649). Comprehensive entries are also available for similarly significant collectors from the early modern period in the Southern Netherlands and neighbouring countries. Examples of these are those of the Antwerp collector Diego Duarte (1612-1691), the Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642), and the Parisian banker Everhard Jabach (1618-1695). Rather important (and curious) absentees from the volume of separate documentation files are the art collecting members of the House of Habsburg, both the Spanish and the Austrian branches of the family.
- August Neuerburg (1884-1944), a wealthy cigarette merchant and art collector from Hamburg, also received special attention. The documentation on his collection, which includes two files on the collections of his brothers Heinrich (1883-1956) and Hermann (1890-1937), consists of two boxes, containing 60 separate files subdivided by artist's names. Apart from handwritten notes and preparatory texts for catalogue entries, these files include 195 items of photographic material dating from the end of the 1920s into the middle of the 1950s. Presumably Neuerburg employed Burchard to catalogue his art collection.
- While inventorying the boxes, Tom replaced staples and metal paperclips with more sustainable material for better preservation. Photographs were placed in protective slipcovers for the same purpose. Tom’s detailed inventory of the boxes as well as his analysis of this fascinating sub-collection was executed in preparation for a larger future project: the Rubenianum will make its research material on the history of collecting more readily available to researchers. Combined with Burchard’s index cards, the collection of 28 boxes is also a unique source of information for provenance research.
- The collection is available through our collection catalogue by name of collector.
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