The fellowship was established in order to do justice to one of the aspects of the Fondation Custodia’s mission – the scholarly training of young art historians in the field of ‘art on paper’. This is in line with one of the objectives in article 3 of the Fondation Custodia’s regulations, namely to award grants to Dutch nationals if the budget has the scope to do so. ‘Any extra Foundation income can be used to award grants to Dutch nationals/Le surplus éventuel des revenus de la fondation pourra être utilisé en vue de l’attribution de bourses à des ressortissants hollandais’. The intended research must be related to the primary collecting fields of the Fondation Custodia / Frits Lugt Collection: Western European drawings and prints (‘art on paper’), illustrated books from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth centuries, plein air oil sketches and artists’ letters.
Cooperation between the Fondation Custodia and the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History
The fellowship is a collaborative effort between the Fondation Custodia and the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague. The grant gives an experienced researcher the opportunity to conduct two years of full-time research in the Netherlands (The Hague) related to the collecting fields of the Fondation Custodia and its founders, namely drawings, prints, artists’ letters, illustrated books and oil sketches. An applicant for the grant can propose a subject or can participate in current research projects, such as Dutch and Flemish seventeenth-century figure studies, sketch books of Dutch artists between about 1530 and 1800 or a subject related to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Dutch illustrated books. The research can also be monographic in nature and focus on one or more European draughtsmen, print designers, engravers or print publishers. The research must lead to a publication.
The successful fellowship candidate will work in the RKD in The Hague, which played such an important role in the Lugts’ activities. RKD employees will be among those who supervise the research done under the auspices of the Jacoba Lugt-Klever Fellowship. Applications will be assessed by a committee comprising the director of the Fondation Custodia, one or two art historian members of the Fondation Custodia Board and a senior RKD researcher. The call for applications will be announced on the websites of the Fondation Custodia, the RKD, the Rijksmuseum, de Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History (OSK), and the Association of Dutch Art Historians (VNK).
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