CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

RKD Appoints Elmer Kolfin as Leader of Its Research Program Moving Masters

The RKD ─ Netherlands Institute for Art History and the University of Amsterdam have announced the appointment of dr. Elmer Kolfin as the RKD’s new leader of its research program Moving Masters. Art & artists from the Low Countries in international dialogue, c. 1500-1940. Elmer Kolfin will start his one-year appointment on 1 February 2018.

Information from the RKD, 11 December 2017

Elmer is a very respected colleague. He studied Art History and Modern Literature at Utrecht University. In 2002 he gained his PhD. cum laude at Leiden University with his dissertation The young gentry at play (2005) on early 17th-century genre scenes, honored with a research prize by Praemium Erasmianum. Since 2002 he has held positions as a post-doc at Free University Amsterdam and a assistant professor  at Leiden University (up to 2004) and the University of Amsterdam (since 2004). He is specialized in paintings and prints of the ‘long Golden Age.’ Over the years he published widely on different topics such as the Oranjezaal in Huis ten Bosch, the Batavian Series in the Town Hall of Amsterdam, the iconography of black slavery, print publishers, Jan van Huysum and more generally on 17th- and 18th century prints, focusing on the relationship between the production and social functions of works of art.

Elmer is used to disseminating his research to wider audiences, especially in close collaboration with museums. Over the years he contributed to many exhibitions and publications including the current exhibition in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, The Art of Laughter: Humour in the Golden Age. He is also member of several (editoral) boards, such as Early Modern Low Countries and the series Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age.

Elmer will join the RKD while holding a position as assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam for one day per week. See for his bibliography the website of the University of Amsterdam.