Martin Bijl

Painting Restorer

I do look at paintings instinctively. The painting always tells me what I have to do and not the other way around. For example, during the restoration of Rembrandt’s “Study of an Old Man” I discovered alot of losses in the original paint layers. I would look at the damage and the colours around it and then I would just connect the pieces. – Martin Bijl

Martin Bijl is the former head of restoration at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. He now collaborates with the Bijl-van Urk gallery in Amsterdam, which specializes in Dutch and Flemish Old Master paitings of the 17th century. Martin has been responsible for resotoring over twenty Rembrandts in his illustrious career, not to mention works by Lievens, Frans Hals, Vermeer, Rubens, Jordaens, van Ruysdael and many other masters of the Dutch Golden Age of Painting.