'Language is so important, and particularly right now; especially when differentiating the Dutch Republic from the Southern Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Not only in terms of what that meant politically, but also religiously, and how these factors influenced the way the art produced then and there, looks. I've found that when speaking to museum visitors, they would often use the words Dutch and Flemish interchangeably; so I wanted to unpack this code art historians use—when we say Dutch or Flemish—and make this distinction front and center, in the gallery didactics, here at the Art Institute of Chicago.'
—Jacquelyn N. Coutré
For the 18th episode of 'Dutch Art & Design Today', I sat down with Jacquelyn N. Coutré—an art historian, a curator, an all-around fascinating academic of Dutch art and history—who, since 2019, has been the Eleanor Wood Prince Curator in Painting and Sculpture of Europe, at the Art Institute of Chicago, in the USA. Jacquelyn completed her BA at the Indiana University in Bloomington, where she expanded her early interest in seventeenth-century Dutch paintings. She then moved to New York City, where she completed her MA and PhD at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts, writing her dissertation under Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, particularly focusing on Jan Livens and his contemporaries. After her studies she returned to Indiana, where she was a curatorial fellow at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, marking her mark on the collection in numerous ways.
In 2015 Jacquelyn moved to Canada, taking on the role of the Agnes Bader Curator and Researcher of European Art ,at the Etherington Art Centre, in Ontario. There she utilized her expertise in Lievens, and curated 'Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges', which ran from 24 August-1 December 2019 and accompanied by a open-access catalogue exploring Rembrandt's peers. Since her appointment at Chicago's Art Institute, she has curated several exhibitions, initiated a rehang of the Dutch and Flemish galleries, and expanded the collection she's responsible for.
In this conversation, Jacquelyn discusses her early-fascination with art, and how she found her way to Dutch and Flemish art in particular. During her research for her dissertation, she combined her interest in the literature, politics, and paintings produced during the Dutch Republic, by applying the writings of Constantijn Huygens to artistic production—leading her to become a world's leading authority on the life and work of Lievens. A Francophile since her childhood, her work in Canada left a profound impact on the ways that she approaches institutional nuances concerning the ways the past is viewed, which she unravels in our talk. To conclude, Jacquelyn talks about her plans for a future catalogue of highlights from the Art Institute's collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings and sculpture, relaying the importance of mapping the collection's formation, and the history of its curation.
Learn more about Jacquelyn's work at The Art Institute.
Read Walter Liedtke's 2000 article 'The Study of Dutch Art in America', originally published in Artibus et Historiae.
Download the catalogue Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges
You can find John on X @johnbezold and at his website johnbezold.com.
'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by Semicolon-Press.
ISSN: 3050-6662