Carla van de Puttelaar
Art Historian and Artist
Frans de Wollantstraat 32
1018 SC Amsterdam
carlavandeputtelaar’at’gmail.com
(photo: Aliona Adrianova)
Period: 17th – century portraiture, 18th – century portraiture, 19th – century portraiture, 20th – century portraiture, Contemporary portraiture
Medium: Painting, Photography, Watercolours, Miniatures & Pastels
Theme: Collectors & Collections, Costume in portraits, Military/Naval & Professional portraiture, Regional British portraiture
Memberships (professional bodies)
Scottish Society for Art History (SSAH)
Association for Art History (AAH)
Vereniging van Nederlandse Kunsthistorici (VNK)
Career summary
Carla van de Puttelaar graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 1996. She was awarded the Esther Kroon Prize, and in 2002 the Prix de Rome Basic Prize. She was nominated for Le Prix Découverte des Rencontres d’Arles in 2006. Carla holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Utrecht University (2017) on Scottish Portraiture 1644-1714 with an emphasis on David and John Scougall. A book based on her dissertation appeared in 2021 with Brepols Publishers. She also published various essays on Dutch portraiture of the seventeenth century in Oud Holland and various other magazines and books. She has lectured on art history at for example Edinburgh University and the Paul Mellon Centre in London and photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and at various other venues. Presently, she researches the work of the painter John Michael Wright in order to publish a monograph and catalogue raisonné.
Her photographic work has gained worldwide recognition, and she has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries around the world. Her photos have appeared in many publications including eight monographs Carla also works for magazines and publishers including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and Random House. In 2016, she created The Rembrandt Series in collaboration with the Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam, and in 2017 she started the (ongoing) acclaimed portrait series Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World. In 2020, she had a retrospective show at the National Museum of History and Art in Luxembourg.
Areas of interest / research
Painting: 17th/18th century British, Dutch and Flemish Portraiture
Photography 19th-21st century
Details of books/publications relating to your work on British portraiture
Scottish Portraiture 1644-1714. David and John Scougall and Their Contemporaries