Horst Gerson (2 March 1907 – 10 June 1978) was a German-Dutch art historian.

Biography

Gerson was born in Berlin on 2 March 1907, and after studying art history in Vienna, he became a pupil and assistant of

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator. Life He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned German ...

and worked for Hofstede de Groot's RKD (

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

) during the years 1934–1966, becoming a Dutch citizen in 1940 and becoming director of the RKD on 1 January 1954.Horst Gerson in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

He was the nephew of Karl Lilienfeld, who had assisted Hofstede de Groot before him. In 1966 he became professor of art history at the

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is the second oldest in the country (after ...

, and during the years 1966–1975 he was head of the Kunsthistorisch Instituut Groningen. He is known for his publications, starting with his 'Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts' published in 1942. He assisted

Abraham Bredius Abraham Bredius (18 April 1855 – 13 March 1946) was a Dutch art collector, art historian, and museum curator. Life Bredius travelled widely, visiting various art collections in his youth, and worked at the Dutch Museum for History and Art be ...

with his Rembrandt

catalogue raisonné A (or critical catalogue) is an annotated listing of the works of an artist or group of artists and can contain all works or a selection of works categorised by different parameters such as medium or period. A ''catalogue raisonné'' is normal ...

, and later wrote his own version in 1968 which reduced the number of attributed Rembrandt works from 639 to 420, and the next year published a revision of Bredius's catalog that reduced the number even further.Horst Gerson
in the

Dictionary of Art Historians The ''Dictionary of Art Historians'' (DAH) is an online encyclopedia of topics relating to art historians, art critics and their dictionaries. The mission of the project is to provide free, reliable, English-language information on published art h ...

The

Rembrandt Research Project The Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) was an initiative of the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), which is the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. Its purpose was to organize and categorize research on Remb ...

(RRP) under the direction of

Ernst van de Wetering Ernst van de Wetering (9 March 1938 – 11 August 2021) was a Dutch art historian and an expert on Rembrandt and his work. Background Ernst van de Wetering was born in Hengelo. He was first trained as an artist at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts ...

has systematically gone through the Gerson papers and is in the process of re-attributing paintings to Rembrandt, most notably the self-portrait wearing a white feathered bonnet in

Buckland Abbey Buckland Abbey is a Grade I listed 700-year-old house in Buckland Monachorum, near Yelverton, Devon, Yelverton, Devon, England, noted for its connection with Sir Richard Grenville the Younger and Sir Francis Drake. It is owned by the National ...

. The last installment of the RRP's 'Corpus of Rembrandt paintings' published in 2014 included 348 paintings, of which 295 were included in Gerson's 1968 catalog. A Corpus of Rembrandt paintings VI, Sixth volume of the series of catalogs published by the Rembrandt Research Project and edited by Ernst van de Wetering, 2014, Other books include, with E.H. ter Kuile covering architecture and sculpture, the chapters on painting in ''Art and Architecture in Belgium, 1600-1800'' in the Pelican History of Art (1960, Penguin Books). Gerson was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 1969. He died in

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

on 10 June 1978.

References

External links

* *
Self Portrait, Wearing a White Feathered Bonnet, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1635
on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Your Paintings website
Horst Gerson
on Gerson Lectures
Horst Gerson
in the

* Rembrandt Paintings, by Horst Gerson, Meulenhoff International, 1968, {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerson, Horst 1907 births 1978 deaths Dutch art historians Writers from Berlin German art historians 20th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Rembrandt scholars Scholars of Dutch art German emigrants to the Netherlands Immigrants to the Netherlands