Anna Tummers

Anna Tummers is a Dutch art historian, curator, and researcher, known for her extensive work on Dutch Golden Age painting and Flemish painting, particularly those of the seventeenth century. She currently serves as a Professor in Early Modern Art at Ghent University.

Biography

Tummers has had an illustrious career in the field of art history.

She worked as a research assistant at the Print Room, The Royal Library in Windsor Castle, England (1999-2000), and as an assistant curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (2000-2003). From 2003 to 2008, she was a lecturer and research associate at the University of Amsterdam. On 1 November 2008, Tummers became the curator of old masters at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, succeeding Pieter Biesboer. She held this position until 2021 when she transitioned to focus more on her academic and research roles.

Since May 2021, she has been the cluster manager of the newly formed cluster Art, Heritage and Science at the Centre for Global Heritage and Development and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of IPERION HS.

Tummers has collaborated on various notable exhibitions, including "Aelbert Cuyp" (Washington D.C., Amsterdam, and London, 2001-02), "Five centuries of trompe-l’oeil painting" (Washington D.C., 2002-03), "Rembrandt’s late religious portraits" (Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, 2004-05), and "Gerard ter Borch" (Washington D.C. and Detroit, 2005).

Tummers has also been a prominent advocate for the development of new methodologies in art authentication. Her work often bridges traditional connoisseurship with modern scientific techniques, reflecting her innovative approach to art history. She has been involved in several high-profile research projects and received significant grants, including an ERC grant of nearly two million euros to explore new methods of identifying art forgeries.

Publications

The Eye of the Connoisseur: Authenticating Paintings by Rembrandt and His Contemporaries (2011)

Tummers authored The Eye of the Connoisseur: Authenticating Paintings by Rembrandt and His Contemporaries, which explores the challenges and methodologies of authenticating paintings attributed to Rembrandt and his contemporaries. This work is noted for its thorough research and insightful analysis into connoisseurship.

Other Publications

• Frans Hals: Eye to Eye with Rembrandt, Rubens, and Titian
• The Art of Laughter: Humour in the Dutch Golden Age (2018) - Exhibition catalogue
• Art Market and Connoisseurship

• First Woman to Become a Master Painter
• Frans Hals or not Frans Hals

Selected Articles

• Anna Tummers et al.: “Supplementing the Eye: The Technical Analysis of Frans Hals's Paintings – I”, in: Burlington Magazine 161 (2019), pp. 934–941.

Research and Grants

Tummers heads and co-heads several research projects funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). These include:

• Frans Hals/Not Frans Hals: A project investigating the criteria for attributing paintings to Frans Hals and exploring new methods in art authentication.
• 21st Century Connoisseurship: A collaboration with Professor Robert Erdmann, focusing on developing advanced technical and digital tools for analyzing 17th-century paintings.
• ArtDetect: A project aimed at developing new ways to detect forgeries, supported by the Centre for Global Heritage and Development and the Scientific Advisory Board of IPERION HS.

Exhibitions

During her tenure at the Frans Hals Museum, Tummers curated several notable exhibitions, including:

• Celebrating in the Golden Age
• The Art of Laughter: Humour in the Dutch Golden Age
• Frans Hals: Eye to Eye with Rembrandt, Rubens, and Titian (2013). This landmark exhibition, staged from 23 March to 28 July 2013, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Frans Hals Museum. It showcased key works by Frans Hals alongside paintings by Titian, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Jordaens, and Rubens, highlighting Hals’s masterful brushwork and the broader context of his artistic ambitions.