Behind the Scenes at the RKD: Tracing Dutch Art Through History
Why Provenance Research Matters
What happens when a painting disappears from public view? Who owned it before a museum acquired it - or before it vanished entirely? These are some of the questions that drive provenance research, the systematic study of an artwork’s ownership history.
In early 2025, I joined the RKD – Platform for art historical research in The Hague as part of my Master’s in Art History at the University of Amsterdam. The focus of my internship: uncovering stories hidden in the archives through the study of 17th-century Dutch paintings and one of the dealers who traded them.
The RKD: A Global Knowledge Centre
The RKD was founded in 1932 to collect and make accessible information on the visual arts of The Netherlands and Belgium. Today, it is a leading hub for art historical research on Dutch art, housing:
- Vast photographic collections
- Historic auction catalogues
- Artists’ archives and personal papers
- A specialist library
Most of this material is searchable through RKD Research, which integrates several databases. This digital infrastructure allows researchers worldwide to trace artworks across time and collections.
The Project: Photo Albums from Kunstzaal Oudt Holland
My research focused on a unique archival source: seven photo albums from Kunstzaal Oudt Holland, a small The Hague art dealership active between 1932 and 1957. The dealer, Aad J. Boer (1904–1955) traded mostly in paintings of the 17th century and left behind albums containing black-and-white photographs with handwritten notes.
At first glance, these albums appear simple, yet they reveal the dynamics of the Dutch art market before, during, and after the Second World War, a period marked by forced sales, looting, and years later, restitution.
For one of the paintings, a note in the margin sparked a deeper investigation that challenged an existing attribution and revealed unexpected connections between prints, paintings, and networks of dealers. I’ve written a separate, detailed post about this case study, which you can read here.
How Do You Identify a Painting from a Photo?
Working on Album 5, which contains 46 photographs, my goal was to confirm or find attributions, trace provenance histories, and update entries in RKDimages.
The process began with uploading photographs into RKD’s visual search tool to find matches in the database. When that failed, I turned to historic auction catalogues, RKD card indexes and literature such as catalogues raisonnés to further investigate.
One of the first works I traced belonged to the NK Collection, a group of paintings recovered after WWII, many of which had been looted or sold under duress. Other works in the album have not surfaced since the 1940s, their fate unknown.
Context: The Dutch Art Market in Wartime
The albums also shed light on Aad Boer’s network. Boer traded with prominent figures in the Nazi art acquisition system, including Hans Posse, Hitler’s chief art buyer. He also worked with Jacob Gans, a Swiss-born dealer based in The Hague.
Boer himself reflected on the art world in his 1943 publication Kluchten en drama’s in den kunsthandel, where he outlined his “Ten Commandments for Art Buyers.” Both the book and the albums reveal a dealer deeply embedded in a market shaped by war and politics.
Why This Research Matters
Provenance research is more than an academic exercise. It is essential for restitution cases, ensuring artworks return to rightful owners, museum transparency, providing accurate object histories and understanding the art market, past and present.
For me, working with these albums was a reminder that art objects are never static - they carry histories of ownership, displacement, and rediscovery. Each photograph, each scribbled note, holds the potential to uncover stories that connect us to the cultural complexities of the past.
You can read more in this article I wrote with my fellow interns
"De tien geboden voor de kunstkoper" uit Kluchten en drama's in den kunsthandel
