Dutch Painters
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The Dutch Golden Age spanned 150 years (1600-1750), and exhibitions in museums throughout Amsterdam bring the era’s characteristics of prosperity and greatness into focus. They are surprisingly applicable today.
About
"The key elements in the Golden Age certainly were creativity, entrepreneurship, and an international outlook. The Dutch have always looked outward, in regards to the global trading that brought prosperity to the tiny nation. Immigration during this period brought material change.
With global trade and great riches came a demand for not just consumer goods but art. Even the lower classes had paintings. But the art was not religious. The Netherlands had just won their independence from Spain and the Roman Catholic influence had waned.”
Who What When Where Why How
The full development of this specialization is seen from the late 1620s, and the period from then until the French invasion of 1672 is the core of Golden Age painting. Artists would spend most of their careers painting only portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes and ships, or still lifes, and often a particular sub-type within these categories. Many of these types of subject were new in Western painting, and the way the Dutch painted them in this period was decisive for their future development.
The technical quality of Dutch artists was generally high, still mostly following the old medieval system of training by apprenticeship with a master.
Dutch artists were strikingly less concerned about artistic theory than those of many nations, and less given to discussing their art; it appears that there was also much less interest in artistic theory.
Prominent Artists besides Vermeer
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: Dutch: 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a draughtsman, painter, and printmaking. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history.
Rembrandt's works depict a wide range of style and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, and biblical and mythological themes as well as animal studies.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee - 1633
This is an intensely dramatic painting, full of meaning and special beauty. What Rembrandt portrays is precisely the moment of fear and terror of the disciples before the force of nature, in contrast with the tranquility of Christ.
One of the masters of creating brilliant effects in the play between light and dark, Rembrandt draws our attention to the left side of the painting, from where the great waves come and the disciples flock to save the small boat. In the struggle, nature seems to be winning. This work does not portray only a situation of anguish: it is the anguish itself.
Unfortunately, the turbulent and shocking picture was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.
Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar is a 1659 oil on canvas painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt, one of over 40 self-portraits of Rembrandt. It has been noted as a self-portrayal of subtle and somber qualities, a work in which may be seen "the stresses and strains of a life compounded of creative triumphs and personal and financial reverses"
Rembrandt was one of the greatest draftsmen in the history of art. Because he usually regarded his drawings the way a novelist regards the ideas he jots down in his journal--as a purely private record of observations and feelings--they are often deceptively simple. Yet the very spontaneity and economy with which Rembrandt sketched his impressions make them dazzling to connoisseurs.
The Three Trees 1643 Rembrandt possessed great skill as a printmaker. In the etchings of his maturity, particularly from the late 1640s onward, the freedom and breadth of his drawings and paintings found expression in the print medium as well. The works encompass a wide range of subject matter and technique, sometimes leaving large areas of white paper to suggest space, at other times employing complex webs of line to produce rich dark tones.
Landscape with a stone bridge. 1638
Rembrandt was an exceptional seventeenth-century painter in that he did not limit himself to one genre. He challenged the artistic standards in all genres, including that of painting landscapes. Rembrandt s earliest landscapes were not so much realistic depictions of the world around him, which was a typical characteristic of his drawings, but representations of imaginary surroundings. In his studio he combined landscape elements from various sources, completely from his imagination.
Fabritus
Carel Fabricius, a very excellent and outstnading painter, was so quick, so sure in matters of perspective as well as naturalistic coloring and laying on his paint that (in the judgement of many experts) no one has equaled him.
The Goldfinch - 1654
This small painting depicts a European goldfinch, painted to scale at about four inches long, perched on its feedbox, to which it is attached by a fine gold chain looped on the brass ring that holds the box in place. The bird, shown in profile, turns toward the viewer with an alert, evocative expression.
Known for his innovative painting of the effects of light, here Fabritius used light and shadow conveyed in subtle tones to create a three-dimensional effect. He also used trompe d-oeil to make the painting appear real as it was hung in the kitchen, slightly above eye level, where the Dutch often kept goldfinches as pets. As Marco della Cava wrote of the work it is "a stark and faintly modernist rendition," with its fresh and simple immediacy,
A View of Delft. 1652
A View of Delft. 1652
This work is noted for exploring an exaggerated, panoramic perspective. The unusual perspective suggests that it may have been intended to have been displayed on a curved surface at the back of a perspective box.
This work is noted for exploring an exaggerated, panoramic perspective. The unusual perspective suggests that it may have been intended to have been displayed on a curved surface at the back of a perspective box.
Fabritius renders this well-known scene from the Bible, in which Lazarus rises from the dead, in his mentor's distinctive "dark and light" manner. Rembrandt was a master of shading which he used to create intricated reflections of light but Fabritius took his master's technique a step further giving the scene a realistic shadowy depth of field.
The Sentry. 1654
The Sentry. 1654
While Fabritius was a member of the Delft School, he developed his own artistic style and experimented with perspective and lighting.
Perspective Box
The peepshow was popular among Dutch 17th-century artists, reflecting a fascination with perspectival and optical devices.
Produced in Holland during a twenty-five-year period beginning about 1650, the perspective box is an artistic application of linear perspective to create an optical illusion.
The illusion is created when the viewer looks into the pentagonal box through a peephole and perceives the painted interior as three-dimensional. Light to the interior is supplied by the reflecting mirror.
Claesz
Peter Claesz was the most important still-life painter in Haarlem in the 1620s. He painted with tangible detail and carefully observed light effects, and sought to enhance the illusion of reality by arranging objects on the table so that they appear to recede in space.
Vanitas with Violin and Glass Ball - 1625
In this work the most important exponents of the "ontbijt" or dinner piece. They are painted with subdued, virtually monochromatic palettes, the subtle handling of light and texture being the prime means of expression.
Claesz generally chose objects of a more homely kind, although his later work became more colourful and decorative. It was noted his use of symbolic objects (embodying time, impermanence or decay), like a watch, hour-glass, a wilted flower, a piece of fresh fruit, a skull, a guttering candle, and so on. In fact, the majority of all objects which appeared in this type of realist painting were carefully chosen for their symbolic references to the ephemeral quality of human life.
Still life with Musical Instruments 1623
Claesz stocked his tabletop images with a wide variety of food and drink, smoking implements, and musical instruments.
Still life with a Salt. 1660
Claesz’s innovative compositions and his distinctive ability to recombine the same set of objects into a multitude of original and compelling arrangements influenced artists in Haarlem and beyond.
Vanitas Still life 1630
Claesz's still lifes often suggest allegorical purpose, with skulls serving as reminders of human mortality.
Bosschaert is recognized as one of the earliest painters who created floral still lifes as an independent genre. He founded a dynasty of painters who continued his style of floral and fruit painting and turned Middelburg into the leading centre for flower painting in the Dutch Republic.
Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase -
Bosschaert's bouquets were painted symmetrically and with scientific accuracy in small dimensions and normally on copper. They sometimes included symbolic and religious meanings.
He had three sons who all became flower painters. His brother-in-law Balthasar van der Ast also lived and worked in his workshop and accompanied him on his travels.
Bosschaert was one of the first artists to specialize in flower still life painting as a stand-alone subject. He started a tradition of painting detailed flower bouquets, which typically included tulips and roses. Thanks to the booming seventeenth-century Dutch art market, he became highly successful.
Saenreham
Saenredam specialized in the representation of church interiors. These pictures were based on precise measurements of the building and meticulously-rendered sketches, done on site, in pencil, pen, and chalk, after which washes were applied. Painting took place in the studio, often years after the studies were made.
Interior of St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht 1629
Saenredam's emphasis was on even light and geometry. His views are usually roughly aligned with a main axis of the church.
Saenredam's paintings frequently show medieval churches, usually Gothic, but sometimes late Romanesque, which had been stripped bare of their original decorations after the Protestant Reformation when the altarpieces and statuary were removed, and the walls and ceiling were white washed.
Saenredam wanted to record this time of change by documenting the country’s buildings. Many artists before him had specialized in imaginary and fanciful architecture, but Saenredam was one of the first to focus on existing buildings. It was said that his church paintings..."owe their poetry to his remarkable blend of fact and fiction. He began by making site drawings of buildings that record measurements and detail with archaeological thoroughness." This meticulous preparation helped him to create such accurate and enchanting paintings. The measurements aided him in using scientific linear perspective. He was able to use his measurements to create a realistic image with depth.
Assendelft Church. 1649
Bright, clear light fills this church, in which a sermon is being preached from the pulpit. Saenredam created a sense of space with his consistent use of perspective, in which all the orthogonal lines converge at the same point. This church was special to the painter: not only was he born in Assendelft, but the gravestone of his father, Jan Saenredam, bearing an inscription, can be seen in the right foreground.
Cathedral of Saint John's at Hertogenbosch. 1646
In 1629 ’s-Hertogenbosch had been recaptured by the rebel forces of the United Provinces; as a result, the cathedral became a site of Protestant worship and was stripped of all objects associated with Catholic liturgy, including the stained-glass windows. Priests leaving for exile in the southern Netherlands had carted away the cathedral’s original altarpiece
Saenredam didn't paint this until 1646 but managed resurrecting the cathedral as a place of Catholic worship at a time when it had become a Protestant church.
Interior of the Choir of Saint Bavo. 1660
Saenredam spent most of his life here in Haarlem where he painted this interior view of the town's main church where he would later be buried. His method of working was careful and accurate. He would first make a detailed sketch on the site, followed by an even more precise construction drawing, often with the help of measurements and plans.
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