COLLECTING, RESEARCHING, CONSERVING
AND SHARING
These four key tasks are the classic activities of museum work. At the Wallraf it is not only the art historians who research the treasures at the museum, but also the conservators and art technicians. The great difference in the way these two approaches look at the same painting can be a great boon!
It is thanks to this collaboration that specialists the world over acknowledge the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud as a major centre for research, not only into Cologne’s historical paintings, but also for instance into Impressionism.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
The Underdrawings of the "Altarpiece of the City Patron Saints" in Cologne Cathedral
The "Altarpiece of the City Patron Saints" is known as the most important piece of work of the famous Cologne painter Stefan Lochner. Recently, the fascinating sublayers of the large-scale triptych could be made peripherally visible with the help of infrared reflectography by the restorers of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and allowed a fundamental analysis. The website at www.altar-der-stadtpatrone.de presents the results in German as well as in English and invites one to explore the sublayers of the altar in detail.
Altarpiece of the City Patron Saints
Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism
The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud in Cologne is home to the most extensive collection of Impressionist and Post-impressionist painting in Germany. This unique collection provided the ideal preconditions for the research project "Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism" from 2005 until 2008.
