About the restoration
The painting’s relevance
25 June 1969. The Friends of the Rubens House succeeded in acquiring The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest for 24,000 pounds at an auction at Sotheby’s in London. This acquisition was deemed extremely important for the museum, because of the Antwerp origins of the genre, the work’s quality, and the personal link with Rubens.
On 18 March 2005, the painting was recognised as a Flemish masterpiece. In May 2021, The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest was added to the CODART Canon, a list of the 100 most important works of art from the Netherlands and Flanders (1350 – 1750) by CODART, an international network for curators of Dutch and Flemish art.
In 2009, the museum developed an exhibition centring on this painting and the unique genre of the painted art galleries, titled Kamers vol Kunst/Rooms full of Art. The work was restored for the occasion. At the time, the emphasis was on the paint layer and the frame. A climate box was applied around the painting to increase the painted panel’s stability.
Consecutive restorations
Despite all these measures, craquelures (crack patterns), cracks and tenting reappeared in various places ten years later. The restraint of the cradle proved to be a problem. The oak panel is formed by seven horizontal boards and one vertical board, which swell and shrink in opposite directions. This complex structure causes tensile stresses in the panel, resulting in cracks. The panel’s central join must have failed as early as the 18th century.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, several attempts were made to stabilise the panel. Circa 1850, a non-flexible wood lattice or ‘parquet’ was applied to the back of the panel. The structure impeded the natural swelling and shrinking of the boards, causing even more cracks to form, in combination with temperature and humidity fluctuations. In 1970, the parquet was replaced with wooden clamps, which also provided insufficient support and blocked the damaged panel’s movement, causing visible damage to the paint layer.
A durable restoration
It therefore became clear that a durable solution was needed, which took the panel’s movement into account. On 1 April 2019, William van Haecht’s masterpiece left for the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Brussels for analysis and restoration by panel expert Aline Genbrugge. As a result of its Flemish Masterpiece status, the painting received subsidies from the Flemish Community.
Scientific analysis
The KIK-IRPA started by subjecting the painting to an extensive examination to understand how it was created and map its physical history. The multidisciplinary investigation revealed that the panel was altered, with two boards added during its execution, around the time of signing phase. The inscription was altered at the same time. The imaging reveals that almost every individual smaller painting was painted on a mise-au-carreau, a grid used to square off an image.
The researchers were also able to identify the vanishing point in the gallery. The invisible perspective lines direct the observer’s gaze towards Rubens’s The Battle of the Amazons (currently on display in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich). This discovery underscores the link with Rubens and the relevance of The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest for the museum.
Van Haecht’s original eye colour
The paint layer was carefully cleaned, revealing the original, fresh colours. All later additions and restorations were removed step by step. The cracks and joins were also cleaned. The original paint layer was even revealed under some old inpainting. The original colour of the eyes of Willem van Haecht (who is presumably standing in the door opening) was thus restored.
After cleaning, the cracks and joins were glued and filled with small pieces of softwood, to avoid additional pressure from being applied to the oak boards.
Flexible support
The structural support of the panel, which had to facilitate controlled movement of the wooden boards, proved to be the main challenge during the restoration process.
To this end, restorer Aline Genbrugge designed a flexible secondary support, made of Sitka spruce. As a result of its high elasticity, this wood is extremely suited for absorbing the panel’s movement, without blocking it. The pioneering system was tailor-made for the gallery picture, ensuring that this masterpiece is durably preserved for future generations.
Framing system with a climate box
A flexible framing system, also made of Sitka spruce, facilitates maximum movement. The climate box, which has been incorporated in the frame, protects the panel against temperature and humidity fluctuations. A wireless logger monitors the climate in the box.
Durably preserved
Following all these durable conservation measures, this Flemish and international masterpiece in the collection of the Rubens House has once again been stabilised, both at the level of the cradle and the paint layer. The flexible support, in combination with the climate box, ensures that this panel and its complex structure can withstand the test of time.
