Paul B. Coremans
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Paul Bernard Joseph Marie Coremans (29 April 1908 – 11 June 1965) was a Belgian scientist who advanced the fields of
cultural heritage management Cultural heritage management (CHM) is the vocation and practice of managing cultural heritage. Ann Marie Sullivan, Cultural Heritage & New Media: A Future for the Past, 15 J. MARSHALL REV. INTELL. PROP. L. 604 (2016) https://repository.jmls.edu/cg ...
and cultural heritage curation. He was the founder and first director of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. The Institute organizes an international symposium in honour of Coremans on 15–17 June 2015.


Early career

Coremans studied Latin and Greek at Koninklijk Atheneum Antwerp from 1920 to 1926. After completing a doctorate in
analytical chemistry Analytical skill, Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to Separation process, separate, identify, and Quantification (science), quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute t ...
at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in 1932, he stayed on as a library assistant. In 1934,
Jean Capart Jean Capart (February 21, 1877 – June 16, 1947) was a Belgium, Belgian Egyptologist, who is often considered the "Father of Belgian Egyptology". Biography Capart was born to Alphonse Capart, an Otorhinolaryngology, otolaryngologist, and Alid ...
, curator of the Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels, invited him to assemble a laboratory and to reorganize the RMAH's system for photographic artifacts. In his new position, Coremans used laboratory techniques to authenticate artifacts and evaluate their condition. Analysis through
radiography Radiography is an imaging technology, imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation to view the internal form of an object. Applications of radiography include medical ("diagnostic" radiog ...
,
thermography Infrared thermography (IRT), thermal video or thermal imaging, is a process where a thermal camera captures and creates an image of an object by using infrared radiation emitted from the object in a process, which are examples of infrared im ...
, and
ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...
light enabled Capart to study objects quickly; he published his results in the ''Bulletin des musées'' (Journal of the Royal Museums of Art and History). In 1935, Coremans published his initial researches into the
air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US) or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior temperature, and in some cases, also controlling the humidity of internal air. Air c ...
of museums. All the while, Coremans took pertinent courses:
metallography Metallography is the study of the physical structure and components of metals, by using microscopy. Ceramic and polymeric materials may also be prepared using metallographic techniques, hence the terms ceramography, plastography and, collecti ...
at ULB;
spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...
at the
University of Liège The University of Liège (), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium founded in 1817 and based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French (language), French. History The university was foun ...
; history of Flemish painting in the fifteenth century at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.


World War II

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Capart asked Coremans to oversee a
cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by socie ...
documentation project. Coremans invited volunteers to photograph
monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...
s and
public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...
around Belgium, to complete the collection of 30 000 negatives belonging to the photographic service of the Royal Museums of Art and History (among which 12 000 realized by the Germans during the First World War). He was supported in this task by Jozef Muls, director of the Administration of Fine Arts, and Constant Leurs, director of the « Commissariat général à la Restauration du Pays ». Coremans recruited young people, preventing them from being sent to Germany for compulsory labour. He obtained photographers' collaboration in all the provinces of the kingdom. 160 000 views were taken. It was the basis of the « Archives centrales iconographiques d'Art national ». Armed Resistance fighter, Coremans hid young resistance fighters and objectors to forced labour in Germany, in the buildings of the Jubilee park (Parc du Cinquantenaire). His team fulfilled emergency missions to save fragments of the Saint Gertrude of Nivelles shrine, and mural paintings in the churches of Saint-Brice and Saint-Quentin in Tournai. He also focused on the preservation of artworks in the Bruges museums, moved them to the castle of Lavaux-Sainte-Anne, as well as those stored in various shelters in Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels. He made every effort to prevent their condition from deteriorating. In 1942, he was assigned to the direction of the laboratories of the Royal Museums of Art and History .


After the war

Coremans helped officials return artworks stolen from Belgian citizens by the Nazis. This confidential mission raised questions concerning the protection of heritage in wartime: Coremans undertook an international survey on the subject. This led to drafting a series of directives published in 1946 in the handbook ''La protection scientifique des œuvres d'art en temps de guerre; l'expérience européenne pendant les années 1939 à 1945''. Meanwhile, museum services of which Coremans was in charge grew bigger, resulting in 1948 in the creation of the « Archives Centrales iconographiques d'Art national et Laboratoire central des musées de Belgique (ACL) », an autonomous institution of which Coremans became the first director. ACL would be renamed in 1957 « Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage ». In the same year, Coremans was appointed as an expert in the trial of the forger
Han van Meegeren Henricus Antonius "Han" van Meegeren (; 10 October 1889 – 30 December 1947) was a Dutch painter and portraitist, considered one of the most ingenious Art forgery, art forgers of the 20th century. Van Meegeren became a national hero after World ...
, which earned him great fame afterwards, but also numerous attacks emanating from collectors who had been duped. In 1948, he was appointed lecturer at the University of Ghent where he introduced, for the first time in Belgium, the teaching of technology and scientific examination of works of art, for archeology and art history students, with the aim to include physical characteristics of artwork alongside aesthetic and historical considerations. This experience of the meeting between hard and social sciences led him to reorganize the ACL into three departments: Documentation, Conservation-Restoration and Laboratories: the concept of interdisciplinarity was born. The first major restoration project of the ACL, in 1950, was the restoration of the
Ghent Altarpiece The ''Ghent Altarpiece'', also called the ''Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'' (), is a very large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420s and completed by 1432, and it ...
by the brothers Hubert and
Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Nort ...
. Other restorations would follow in the same spirit of collaboration. The need to disseminate the methods implemented in these restorations led to publication of the Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Cultural heritage from 1958. At the same time, under the leadership of Coremans, the National Research Centre « Flemish Primitives », was set up, in collaboration with Herman Bouchery and Jacques Lavalleye . The Centre went on to publish several series of books, enabling the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage to increase its international activity. Because of his experience in the field of research centres, Coremans is appointed in 1957 a member of the Special Review Board of Scientific Research, established by the National Council for Science Policy. Between 1951 and 1954, he participated actively in the creation of the Brussels Art Seminar, a university programme established by the Belgian American Educational Foundation, where he proposed courses in techniques used in painting. Eminent specialists, such as
Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 – March 14, 1968) was a German-Jewish art historian whose work represents a high point in the modern academic study of iconography, including his hugely influential ''Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art ...
, took part. This intense activity, on a national and international level, called for the Royal Institute of Cultural Heritage to move into new premises, independent and custom-built. Coremans studied in detail the requirements of each of the departments of the Institute with René Sneyers, assistant director, and Maurice Vanden Stock, administrative director. Begun in 1959, the new building was completed in 1962, and was seen as a model of its kind to inspire other foreign institutions. For Coremans, it was mainly the opportunity to rationalize and to develop the training activities of the Institute, by creating a regular programme of post-graduate courses in scientific examination and the preservation of cultural property. Coremans devoted his last years with intense energy to this educational activity. The concept and the dissemination of interdisciplinary teaching in this field was one of its primary concerns. During 1963 he gave courses in both theoretical and practical conservation at the Royal Institute of Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with the Belgian American Educational Foundation and the Conservation Center of the
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
Institute of Fine Arts. He died on 11 June 1965 in Noorden. His laboratories manager, René Sneyers, became the second director of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. Paul Coremans is internationally recognized as a promoter of interest in the world's artistic heritage, an interest he helped to develop by the implementation of his innovative concepts.


See also

*
Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit (MFAA) was a program established by the Allies of World War II, Allies in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II. The group of about 400 service membe ...


References


Publications

* Paul Coremans, ''Sur le déplacement des électrolytes adsorbés'', Ph.D thesis, université libre de Bruxelles, 1932. * Paul Coremans, ''De wetenschappelijke bescherming der kunstwerken in oorlogstijd'', Laboratoire central des musées belges, Bruxelles, 1946, 32 p. * Paul Coremans et Aquilin Janssens de Bisthoven, ''Van Eyck. L'adoration de l'Agneau mystique'', De Nederlandsche Boekhandel, Anvers, 1948, 45 p. * Paul Coremans, ''Van Meegeren's faked Vermeers and de Hooghs. A scientific examination'', J. M. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam, 1949, 40 p. * Centre national de recherches "Primitifs flamands", ''L'Agneau mystique au laboratoire : examen et traitement'', De Sikkel, Anvers, 1953, 132 p. * Paul Coremans (ea), ''Utilisation des lampes fluorescentes dans les musées. Considérations générales et conseils pratiques à l'usage des directeurs et des conservateurs de musées'', ICOM, Paris, 1953, 14 p.


Bibliography

* Paul Philippot, « Coremans, Paul, Bernard, Joseph, Marie », in'' Nouvelle Biographie nationale '', 4, Bruxelles, 1997, p. 69–73. * Marie-Christine Claes, « Un héritage bénéfique des guerres mondiales en Belgique. Le concept et les collections de l'IRPA », in '' Bruxelles Patrimoines '', n° 11–12, 2014, pp. 60–73.


External links


Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage



Monuments men foundation

Symposium Paul Coremans 2015
*
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels
*
Koninklijke Academie voor Overzeese Wetenschappen
*
Symposium Paul Coremans 2015
* Hendrik Deelstr
Coremans (Paul)
in: Biografisch woordenboek van de Belgen overzee, digitale notities
BALaT (Belgian Art Links and Tools)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coremans, Paul Bernard Joseph Marie 1908 births 1965 deaths Scientists from Antwerp 20th-century chemists 20th-century Belgian scientists Belgian chemists Monuments men Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni University of Liège alumni People from Borgerhout