Isabelle Garachon

Isabelle Garachon is Head of the Ceramics and Sculpture Restoration Workshop.

Curriculum vitae and work

garachon Isabelle Garachon was born in Paris in 1957. Between 1975 and 1981, she completed a Bachelor Honours degree in Archaeology and a Master’s degree in Conservation and restoration of art objects, specialising in ceramics at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris. As part of her studies, she did different work placements in the Netherlands in 1980-1981. She spent eight months in the Dutch History department of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam restoring porcelain and pottery from the wreckage of the ship the ‘Witte Leeuw’ [White Lion]. At the National Service for Archaeological Heritage (ROB) in Amersfoort, she worked on restoring protohistoric pottery.
From 1981 to 1989, Isabelle Garachon was employed at the ‘Porselein Studio’, a private restoration workshop in Amsterdam headed by Lindsey Bogle. In 1988 and 1989, they worked together on setting up the ceramics and glass restorer course at Opleiding Restauratoren in Amsterdam.
Isabelle Garachon has worked at the Rijksmuseum as Head of the Ceramics, Glass and Stone Workshop since 1989. Her key tasks include the safe-keeping, exhibiting and making presentable of the approximately 20,000 objects of pottery, stone, porcelain, glass and natural stone. Another important aspect of the work of the Rijksmuseum workshop is sharing knowledge and experience of conservation and restoration with students and those doing work experience.
Isabelle Garachon is particularly interested in the ethical and historical aspects of the restoration of ceramics, glass and stone, and since 2009 she has been the assistant coordinator of the ‘history of ceramics and glass restoration’ subgroup of the ICOM-ICC ceramics and glass restoration specialist group.

Publications

  • 'Conservation processes of ceramics from the Witte Leeuw', in The Ceramics Load of the Witte Leeuw, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, pp. 266-267, 1982

  • 'Lijmen van poreus en niet poreus materiaal', in Uitgangspunten bij het gebruik van synthetische materialen voor conservering en restauratie, Centraal Laboratorium voor onderzoek van voorwerpen van kunst en wetenschap, pp 72-83, 1992

  • Voorzichtigheid is de moeder van de porseleinkast, preventieve conservering van ceramiek en glas, CL informatie boekje nr. 16, Centraal Laboratorium voor Onderzoek van Voorwerpen van Kunst en Wetenschap, 1994

  • 'De restauratie van een tegelwand in het Poppenhuis', Poppenhuis symposium
    Mededelingenblad van IIC Nederland, jaargang 13, maart en juli 1996

  • 'The treatment of six Delftware tiles', Transcript of lectures given at the Ceramics and Glass Conservation group meeting, UKIC, October 1998

  • 'Restauration de céramiques et terres cuites au Rijksmuseum d’Amsterdam: choix de visibilité et de lisibilité', Visibility of restoration, Legibility of the works of art, Araafu, Paris, pp. 131-137, 13-15 Juni 2002

  • 'Le restaurateur salarié au Rijksmuseum d’Amsterdam', Les métiers du Patrimoine en Europe, Paris Institut National du Patrimoine, 21-22 januari 2005

  • 'Old repairs of china and glass', The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 58 (2010, 1), pp. 35-54

  • 'From mender to restorer: some aspects of the history of ceramic repair', in Glass and ceramics conservation 2010, Interim meeting of the ICOM-CC Working group, October 3-6, 2010, Corning, New-York, USA, pp. 22-31

  • Met L. van Valen,' Gewapende paarden en kamelen', in Aziatische Kunst 42 (2012), nr. 3, pp. 15-23

  • '…Platelen cram ic' van porseleinkrammer tot keramiekreparateur, in Vormen uit vuur 217 (2012/2), pp. 38-51

  • Met L. van Valen en L. Jacobs, 'On the production and firing of 7th century reinforced ceramics horses and camels', in Recent advances in glass, stained-glass and ceramics conservation 2013, ICOM-CC glass and ceramics working group interim meeting, Amsterdam 2013, pp.149-158