Eddy de Jongh


Eduard Siegfried "Eddy" de Jongh is a Dutch art historian specialized in iconography. He was professor of art history with a teaching assignment in iconography at Utrecht University between 1976 and 1989.

Life

De Jongh was born on 7 June 1931 in Amsterdam. He attended the Hogere Burgerschool and subsequently studied art history in Amsterdam. In the 1960s De Jongh became lecturer at Utrecht University. In 1976 he became a professor of art history with a teaching assignment in iconography at the same university. He retired in 1989 for health reasons. In 1976 he was guest curator of the exposition Tot lering en vermaak at the Rijksmuseum. In the exposition signs provided explanations for the meaning of the art. The method introduced by de Jongh would be used for decades at the Rijksmuseum. In the Netherlands de Jongh was influential in the debate between iconography and iconology.
De Jongh was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1987. In 2011 he received the Gijselaar-Hintzenfonds Prijs, intended for art historians who manage to reach a broad audience. In 2019 he was awarded honorary membership of the Dutch Association of Art Historians, which called him the "founding father of iconography in the Netherlands".