For Michaela Dehning (GRS`24), a master’s student in the History of Art & Architecture Department, seeing the works of Johannes Vermeer and other Dutch artists in person in the Netherlands over spring break was a reminder of why she is pursuing her field. 

“Academia and research are fulfilling for their own reasons, but simply being around art and discussing it with other people who love art is a purely pleasurable experience,” she said. “It was stimulating to be with people who are passionate about the same things as I am.” 

Dehning was one of 10 students who traveled to the Netherlands over spring break with Michael Zell, associate professor of Baroque and Eighteenth-century art. The undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students had all previously taken GRS AH 863: “A Golden Age? Global and Material Turns in the Study of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art,” with Zell, which met on campus and at the Museum of Fine Arts’s Center for Netherlandish Art (CNA) in Fall 2022. 

In the fall course, students engaged in scholarly discussion and analysis of Dutch art and had the opportunity to work with museum curator Christopher Atkins, director of the Center for Netherlandish Art. But Zell wanted to take students directly to the source, so he and Atkins raised funds to bring students to the Netherlands to “extend the students’ learning beyond the class.”

“We were in CNA for experiential learning, connections, and to think about the materiality of these different objects and artworks and how we frame them in the global studies approach,” Zell said. “But in the Netherlands, they’re alive, they’re vibrant and to have that magical moment of the reproduction versus, being here, it’s life sized. It’s spatially an entirely different experience.” 

Zell received a $3,000 seed grant from the CNA and raised an additional $16,200 in funding from Arts & Sciences Dean Stan Sclaroff’s Experiential Learning Fund, CAS Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Humanities Alice Tseng, the Boston University Center for the Humanities, Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs Daniel Kleinman, National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professor Anthony Petro, and the Department of History of Art and Architecture.

In the Netherlands, students engaged in behind-the-scenes visits with curators, conservators, scientists, and educators at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Mauritshuis in the Hague, Museum Prinsenhof in Delft, Vermeer’s hometown, and at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. At the Rijksmuseum, the head of conservation presented to students on the science of restoring a seventeenth-century painting.

“We spoke with the curator and it’s just a reminder of the sort of incredibly long process with which such exhibitions are organized,” said PhD student Rachel Kase. “It’s a really labor intensive and time consuming process, and so it’s really exciting to be able to see the fruits of the curators’ labors.”

Students also had a unique opportunity to view an unprecedented 28-piece collection  of Vermeer, the mysterious yet greatly studied seventeenth-century Baroque painter from Delft, at the Rijksmuseum that is now “definitively sold out,” according to the museum’s website.

Zell noted that the last time Vermeer’s collection was this widely available was during the National Gallery of Art’s 1995 exhibition in Washington D.C. “[Vermeer] is a celebrity figure, and these artists are heroes for all Dutch people” said Zell. “These students were privileged to be able to get the museum’s sold out tickets.”

Students said that the experience made them feel valued as art historians and will have a lasting impact on their careers.

“This is the sort of exhibit that only happens once every 30 or 40 years,” said Hanna Jew (CAS`22; GRS`27), a third year PhD student, who said that it was fascinating, “to see the [Vermeer] exhibit like that and the full spectrum of what goes into art studies of art history and visual culture beyond just the paintings themselves.”

“To see the department and the CNA really kind of invest in us as students and support us to be able to go on this trip, both financially and academically, I think that was really reaffirming for me as a student and the path I’m taking,” added Sarah Hagglund (GRS’23), a masters degree student in the History of Art & Architecture Department.

Gabriella Sproba (CAS`24), a History of Art & Architecture major, noted the eye-opening experience of seeing Vermeer’s work in person.

“By some miracle . . .  I was able to stand before ‘The Milkmaid,’ perfectly alone, and melt into Vermeer’s illusions of domestic tranquility,” Sproba said. “One’s entire perception of an artwork is transformed, in both formal qualities and emotional gravity, once it is observed in person.”