Fulbright – American Friends of the Mauritshuis Grant
By Ellen Nigro
When I learned I was awarded the American Friends of the Mauritshuis-Fulbright Grant, I couldn’t have been more excited. The opportunity to live and study in The Netherlands while I finished the last year of my Master’s in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) was something I’d dreamed of for a long time. The conservators at the Mauritshuis do exceptional research and treatments, and I knew the chance to spend a year learning from them would be unique.
During my internship in the conservation studio, I have focused my time on the painting Fruit Still Life by Cornelis de Heem (inventory number 0050), which normally hangs in the Gallery Willem V. It is a lovely painting featuring a stone plinth piled high with oranges, lemons, peaches, grapes, chestnuts, and medlars. The fruit is precariously balanced, ready to tumble out of the picture plane.
This painting was chosen for treatment because of the thick layers of yellow varnish that had been added to the surface over many decades, which left the colors out of balance and obscured many of the details that make this painting so special. During the treatment, the beautiful luminosity of the painting was restored, and the subtle brushwork and texture on the surface were freed from the surface coatings. With the varnish removed, I was able to see that the painting is in incredible condition with very few losses and abrasions. This painting is truly an exceptional example of de Heem’s work.
From a research perspective, this painting was especially engaging because Cornelis de Heem is an understudied artist and there were opportunities for discovery. Through my research, I identified the ground as one very similar to that in the Pellegrini cycle in the Golden Room of the Mauritshuis. This information tells us the painting was created in The Hague when the artist lived there in the late 1670s and the early 1680s, an important discovery for this undated painting. I was also able to study fourteen other paintings by de Heem in collections in Germany, Belgium, and England, which provided an amazing opportunity for comparison across his oeuvre.
In addition to the wonderful project I had in the Mauritshuis studio, I completed small treatments on two other paintings in the collection, participated in regular gallery checks, and did courier trips to various institutions in Holland. My time outside of the museum was filled with opportunities travel, conferences, and following workshops with my peers in the University of Amsterdam/Stitchting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (UvA/SRAL) program in paintings conservation.
This year has been an incomparable experience full of learning and growth, which would not have been possible without the support of the American Friends of the Mauritshuis and the J. William Fulbright Foundation. The backing of these institutions has helped me become a better conservator by providing an opportunity to work within a world-class museum under incredible mentorship, and I will fondly look back on my time at the Mauritshuis.