Emilie Gordenker
Director
Van Gogh Museum
Emilie Gordenker has been Director of the Mauritshuis since 1 January 2008. She was born in 1965 in Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, and holds dual US and Dutch nationality. Emilie speaks fluent Dutch thanks to her Dutch mother and frequent visits to the Netherlands before moving here in 2007.
Emilie obtained her doctorate in 1998 at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York with a thesis on Dutch seventeenth-century costume and Anthony van Dyck. Her thesis, Van Dyck and the Representation of Dress in Seventeenth-Century Portraiture, was published in 2001 by Brepols Publishers, Turnhout, Belgium.
While in New York, Emilie worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Frick Collection and the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD). She also lectured at Rutgers University, New York University, Vassar College and the Bard Graduate Center for the Decorative Arts.
In 1999, Emilie moved to London, where she worked in the field of new media, while continuing to publish in her area of specialism and related subjects.
In December 2003, Emilie was appointed Senior Curator of Early Netherlandish, Dutch and Flemish Art at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, where she remained until her appointment as Director of the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague.
At the Mauritshuis, she led the major renovation and expansion of the museum, which was completed on time in June 2014. She continues to publish scholarly articles, create exhibitions for the museum and serves on several boards.
Emilie obtained her doctorate in 1998 at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York with a thesis on Dutch seventeenth-century costume and Anthony van Dyck. Her thesis, Van Dyck and the Representation of Dress in Seventeenth-Century Portraiture, was published in 2001 by Brepols Publishers, Turnhout, Belgium.
While in New York, Emilie worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Frick Collection and the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD). She also lectured at Rutgers University, New York University, Vassar College and the Bard Graduate Center for the Decorative Arts.
In 1999, Emilie moved to London, where she worked in the field of new media, while continuing to publish in her area of specialism and related subjects.
In December 2003, Emilie was appointed Senior Curator of Early Netherlandish, Dutch and Flemish Art at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, where she remained until her appointment as Director of the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague.
At the Mauritshuis, she led the major renovation and expansion of the museum, which was completed on time in June 2014. She continues to publish scholarly articles, create exhibitions for the museum and serves on several boards.