Hulst, Roger Adolf, d'

Date born: 1917

Place born: Ghent, Belgium

Date died: 1996

Place died: Brussels, Belgium

Professor of art history, scholar of Jacob Jordaens. In 1941 d'Hulst obtained a degree in civil engineering in architecture at Ghent University and was appointed to the Belgian Ministry of Works. He received a licencié in economic and social sciences a year later. While working at the Ministry, he pursued his Ph.D. in art history at Ghent. d'Hulst left the Ministry in 1948. He joined the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique as deputy keeper. He used his position at the museum to found the Bulletin des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, which he edited from 1952 to 1963. Beginning in 1951 he participated in the newly established "Belgian Art Seminar," summer courses founded by the Belgian American Educational Foundation, coordinated by the Librarian of the Royal Library of Belgium, Herman Liebaers. The 1954 Seminar was conducted by Erwin Panofsky (q.v.), which d'Hulst published in the Bulletin as "Miscellanea Erwin Panofsky." He built on the following year's seminar, conducted by Ludwig Burchard (q.v.) at the Rubenhuis. under the direction of Frans Baudouin (q.v.). That year, 1955, too, his dissertation, on the drawings of Jacob Jordaens, won the 'Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België' prize. It was subsequently published by that institution in 1956. His association with Burchard resulted in the 1956 Rubenshuis exhibition (and 75th-birthday celebration of Burchard) on Rubens drawings. The catalog was expanded in 1963 to become Rubens Drawings, and remains one of the most important monographs on the topic. In 1957, he began teaching art history at the Hoger Institut voor Kunstgeschiedenis en Oudheidkunde at the University of Ghent. Two years later he added duties of architectural history at the Faculty of Engineering. d'Hulst was also instrumental in negotiating the papers of Burchard for the City of Antwerp (Kunsthistorische Musea) and setting up the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, which was administered by the Nationaal Centrum voor de Plastische Kunsten van de 16de en de 17de Eeuw, chaired by d'Hulst. He became a member of the Royal Flemish Academy (the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie, which had awarded him its dissertation prize) in 1969. His major work, Jordaens Drawings appeared in 1974. In 1978 he became a member of the sister institution of the Belgian academy in The Netherlands, the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie voor Wetenschappen. A monograph on Jordaens appeared in 1982. d'Hulst retired from the University in 1985.

Home Country: Belgium

Sources: Baudouin, Frans. "Preface." Rubens and his World: Studies [in honor of R.-A d'Hulst]. Antwerp: Het Gulden Cabinet, 1985, pp. xiv-xvii; Baudouin, Frans. "d'hulst, Roger." Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek.

Bibliography: [dissertation]: De tekeningen van Jakob Jordaens : bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van de XVIIe-eeuwse kunst in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden. Brussels: Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten, Paleis der academiën, 1956, English: Jordaens Drawings. 4 vols. New York: Phaidon Press, 1974; and Burchard, Ludwig. Tekeningen van P. P. Rubens. Antwerp: Uitgeverij ontwikkeling, 1956, revised English edition, Rubens Drawings. Brussels: Arcade Press, 1963; Choix de tapisseries flamandes du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Brussels: Cultura, 1961; Jacob Jordaens. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982; Jacob Jordaens, tekeningen en grafiek: catalogus. Antwerp: Museum Plantin-Moretus, 1978; Rubens: the Old Testament. Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard 3. London: Harvey Miller, 1989; and Vey, Horst. Antoon Van Dyck, tekeningen en olievenfschetsen. Deurne-Antwerp: Rubenshuis/C. Govaerts, 1960; Tekeningen van Jacob Jordaens. 1593-1678. Antwerp: Rubenshuis, 1966; and Baudouin, Frans. Rubens en zijn tijd. Tekeningen uit Belgische verzamelingen. Antwerp: Rubenshuis, 1971.