We are incredibly saddened to learn of the passing of art historian, Rembrandt expert, and friend to many in the world of art and museums, Professor Volker Manuth. Dr. Manuth served as the inaugural Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art at Queen’s University from 1995 to 2003. At Agnes, he organized the landmark exhibition Wisdom, Knowledge and Magic: The Image of the Scholar in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art (1996-1997); a project notable not only for its scholarly excellence and ambition, but also as an exemplary opportunity for Queen’s students, who co-curated the exhibition under his supervision and co-authored the accompanying catalogue. He guided the early careers of many young art historians and curators who went on to achieve remarkable careers in their own right, and his significant contribution to the field as a mentor is widely recognized.

Volker Manuth received his PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin in 1987. Before coming to Kingston, he was an assistant and associate Professor at the FU Berlin from 1988 to 1995 and assumed the role of Professor of Art History at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, from 2003 until his retirement in 2023. He published widely on the topic of seventeenth-century Dutch Art and was considered one of the world’s leading experts on the artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669). He co-authored Rembrandt: the Complete Paintings (2019) with his partner Dr. Marieke de Winkel, and Dr. Rudie van Leeuwen. Most recently he had resumed, together with Marieke, a research project on the Monogrammist I.S. that informed the first major exhibition dedicated to this artist in 2025-2026.

His brilliance and kindness will be remembered in equal parts. As Dr. Alfred Bader wrote of him: “Volker has a very good eye for quality, makes attributions cautiously and sensibly and takes a great deal of time to help others.”

Dr. David de Witt, currently Senior Curator at Museum Rembrandthuis, and the first Bader Curator of European Art at Agnes following the completion of his PhD at Queen’s under Dr. Manuth, has written a tribute to him on the website of CODART (Curators of Dutch and Flemish Art).

You can read it here: CODART Website: In Memoriam: Volker Manuth .