The Art of Conservation XVII Jan Cornelis Traas, paintings restorer of the Van Gogh family collection

This article traces the early restoration history of the paintings by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) that now form the core of the Van Gogh Museum collection in Amsterdam. The paintings came from the collection of Vincent’s younger brother, Theo van Gogh (1857-1891), and remained in the Van Gogh family until 1962 when, with the help of the government of the Netherlands, the collection was donated to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, which then gave the collection to the Van Gogh Museum on permanent loan. For the first thirty-five years the paintings were looked after by Theo’s widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger (1862-1925), who in her efforts to raise the artist’s stature had frequently loaned them out, exposing them to much travel, and in consequence they were in a poor state of conservation. After she died, from 1926 to 1933 almost the entire collection, nearly two hundred works – many of which had not been treated – was subjected to a major campaign of restoration by the Dutch conservator Jan Cornelis Traas (1898–1982). These treatments typically involved surface cleaning, wax-resin lining and varnishing the pictures, which were fitted with new stretchers. Later in his career Traas treated some of the works again, and in hindsight we may observe how the cumulative effects of these interventions have profoundly influenced the condition and appearance of the collection today. Moreover, Traas provides an interesting case study to examine early twentieth-century attitudes towards the treatment of paintings by late nineteenth-century ‘modern’ artists such as Van Gogh. It also demonstrates how subsequently it became clear of the need to develop conservation approaches and methods that were tailored to suit the specific requirements of paintings by Van Gogh and his contemporaries, as distinct from old-master works.