Dr. Marion de Koning with the museum’s original Rembrandt hanging in the background (By Frank Sabatini Jr.)
Docent Marion de Koning Tells Us What We Might Not Know About Balboa Park’s Timken Museum of Art
By Frank Sabatini Jr.
Leave it to someone who holds a doctorate in art history and shares the same Dutch roots as master painters like Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Johannes Vermeer to lead us through one of San Diego’s most celebrated art museums.
Dr. Marion de Koning, a resident of University Heights, is in her element as a volunteer docent at the Timken Museum of Art. After teaching art history at Grossmont College for 26 years, she possesses a keen knack for teasing out the inner art historian in all of us (including kids) as she guides visitors through a collection of priceless paintings, sculptures and tapestries by European, American and Russian artists.
As de Koning explains, the Timken is a place that also combines Mid-Century architecture with natural light. And yes, it’s where an original Rembrandt is displayed. Adding to the museum’s lure is that it welcomes visitors with free admission and docent tours during regular hours, which run from 10:00a to 5:00p, Wednesday through Sunday.
Downtown Condo Guys: What is a docent?
Dr. de Koning: We sometimes call ourselves ‘guides’ because not everyone knows what a docent is. If you want to hear more about works that interest you, a docent can tell you. Oftentimes if I see someone standing in front of a painting and they are looking at it for more than 10 seconds, I will walk up to them wearing my museum name tag and we just start talking. I will offer to show them around the museum using my normal volume of voice. I always say, ‘You don’t have to whisper because the art doesn’t care.’ [Chuckle.]
A docent raises people’s appreciation of art. If someone is looking at a landscape painting, for example, I will help them step more into the painting by asking questions about what it would smell like inside that landscape; if it is warm or cold; quiet or loud.
Downtown Condo Guys: How many other docents serve the museum?
Dr. de Koning: We have about 50 and 60. It’s a fairly big group, and we’re all volunteers.
Downtown Condo Guys: How long do the tours last? And how can people sign up for them?
Dr. de Koning: The tours run between 45 minutes to an hour. And they can include anywhere between one and 25 people. If they’re mostly adults, we cover highlights of the museum. If it’s children from school groups, we might highlight something that their teachers request.
To arrange a docent tour, you go into the website and click onto ‘group visits and tours.’ You then fill out a form. If there is a docent you specifically want to guide you, you can enter in that name. You also choose a day and time, and state how many people will be in your group. The form must be filled out at least two weeks ahead. You will then receive confirmation.
Downtown Condo Guys: At what age did you develop an appreciation for art?
Dr. de Koning: Probably at the age of 5. I was born in a small town in Holland and raised in The Hague. One of my earliest art memories was inside a small museum in The Hague called The Mauritshuis. It’s where the painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring is housed. I remember looking up at it and thinking, wow, this is so beautiful. My love of art has always been there.
Downtown Condo Guys: Where and when did you receive your education?
Dr. de Koning: I first went to a teacher’s college and became an elementary school teacher in the Netherlands. Then after a few years I decided I couldn’t live in the world of 11-year-olds my whole life, so I went to work for Heineken as an intern coordinator. That was fun. I was in my 20s. It was a big company with very few women. But after a couple of years, I wanted to follow my original dream, which was to study art history. So I became a student at Utrecht University and pursued my degree in art history. I came very close to finishing it, but I met a man and moved to San Diego—and everything changed drastically.
In order to finish earning my bachelor’s in the U.S. system, I had to catch up on all of the general, required education courses. That took me three years. Right after that I earned my master’s in art history. Both degrees were from San Diego State University. Afterwards I was an intern for nine months at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu. I then went on to earn my doctorate in art history at USC in Los Angeles.
Downtown Condo Guys: And then you began teaching?
Dr. de Koning: Yes. I taught art history full-time at Grossmont for 26 years, and retired in 2022. For the last five years I was also chair of Grossmont’s Visual Arts and Humanities Department. During my time at Grossmont, I taught in Paris with college students over several summers. I was able to guide them through The Louvre. I also did two semesters in Florence.
Downtown Condo Guys: Tell us about the Timken’s only Rembrandt painting. Are many people in your tour groups surprised when they encounter it?
Dr. de Koning: Yes, many are very surprised. The Timken is the only museum in San Diego to house a Rembrandt. The painting, titled Saint Bartholomew, is part of a series of apostles that Rembrandt did in 1657. It is signed and dated. What I say to people is that ‘this could be the first Rembrandt painting you’ve seen in your life—let it sink in that you are seeing the real thing.’
There is another Saint Bartholomew in Los Angeles by Rembrandt, although it is of a totally different guy, a different model.
Downtown Condo Guys: Where in the Timken is the Rembrandt painting displayed?
Dr. de Koning: It’s in the Dutch/Flemish room.
Downtown Condo Guys: What elements of the museum might people overlook if they are wandering through it without the guidance of a docent?
Dr. de Koning: They might not fully appreciate the very conscience building that houses the collection. There is a lot of natural daylight inside the Timken that is meant to reproduce the lighting conditions that the artists painted under. So I always tell people a little about the museum’s architecture. Another thing they might overlook is the carefully curated collection that the Putnam sisters [Anne and Amy] acquired over time. They purchased what they could with the money they had from their big inheritance, and they were really well-advised. They insisted that the museum always be free admission.
And, people might overlook the mystery and intrigue of some of the paintings that tell stories that you wouldn’t discover just by looking at them. Also, the Timken is one of a dozen small museums in the U.S. that has been designated a “jewel box museum.” Last year the museum attracted over 250,000 visitors. [Note: “Jewel-box” is an informal term for museums that focus on quality rather than quantity].
Downtown Condo Guys: What is your favorite section of the museum?
Dr. de Koning: Being Dutch, it’s the Dutch/Flemish room with the Rembrandt. And I really love the American Room with American paintings by artists such as Benjamin West, Eastman Johnson, and John Singleton Copley.
Downtown Condo Guys: When giving the tours, who are your ideal participants?
Dr. de Koning: Many times over they are children around 9 or 10 years old who seem completely bored. I will engage them in a little bit of conversation before asking them to look around the room and pick a favorite painting. I tell them to then come and find me and tell why that is. We will then talk about it. I am a firm believer in limiting the time spent with young children in a museum to about a half hour so that they remain interested, and so that they are not lost to appreciating art and museums forever.
Downtown Condo Guys: Do you have a favorite art period over the millennia?
Dr. de Koning: It’s hard to say after teaching so many art periods. I love Japanese art very much and I like German expressionism. But I can say that every art period I love a lot.
Downtown Condo Guys: Are you an art collector?
Dr. de Koning: I am—and very eclectic. They are things I’ve brought back from travels and inherited from my family, plus works of art that I’ve acquired from artist friends within the San Diego community.
Downtown Condo Guys: If you could have any piece or pieces of art from the entire Timken collection, which would they be and where in your home would you display them?
Dr. de Koning: Well I take the Rembrandt home every night in my head. I think I would also take home the painting, Mrs. Thomas Gage by John Singleton Copley because I can always have interesting conversations with her. She would have to be in my living room so I can talk to her while having my morning coffee.
