Dutch Landscapes and Seascapes of the S

Dutch Landscapes and Seascapes of the s he seventeenth-century Netherlands had a passion for depictions of city and countryside, either real or imaginary. Local scenery asserted Holland’s national Tpride, while vistas of foreign sites recalled the extent of its overseas commerce. Holland’s ocean ports teemed with fishing and trading ships, and the tiny country’s merchant fleet was almost as large as all the rest of maritime Europe’s combined. Obviously, the Dutch prized seascapes and insisted on accurate renderings of each hull and rigging line. Incorporating genre incidents from everyday life, most Dutch landscapes and seascapes are animated by people working or playing. Much of the Netherlands is a low marsh formed by the deltas of the Rhine and Maas rivers. A third of the country was actually below sea level, reclaimed behind dikes and drained through pumps run by windmills. In such a flat environment, the horizon seems to lie below one’s feet; so, the sky overhead dominates the view. Hendrick Avercamp Ludolf Backhuysen Jan van Goyen (pronounce: hen-DRICK AH-VER-kamp) (pronounce: LOU-dolf BAKH-how-zen) (pronounce: yan van HOY-yen) A quality that sets Dutch landscape paintings apart from those of other nations Dutch, ‒ Dutch, ‒ Dutch, ‒ is the amount of space devoted to the moist, ocean air and the sun glowing through A Scene on the Ice Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil the ever-present clouds. With their emphasis on atmosphere, Dutch landscapes about . Oil on panel, . . m (½ dated . Oil on canvas, . . m ( dated . Oil on panel, . . m (½ might better be called “sky-scapes.” ⅜ in). Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund .. ⅞ in). Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund .. ¾ in). Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund .. All classes of Dutch society mingle while enjoying The three ships in this large painting are the wide- During the s and s, Dutch landscapes and The Art Market: Collectors and Critics in Holland winter sports. From the lower left corner, a poor bellied, seagoing vessels that transported much of still lifes underwent a monochrome phase in which fisherman surveys the many skaters. At the center, Holland’s mercantile cargo. They display the a single color pervades and unifies each view of Foreigners were constantly amazed at the quantity and quality of pictures in Holland. A British traveler in well-dressed ladies ride in an elegant sleigh driven Dutch flag of orange, white, and blue. These sym- nature. Here, a golden brown aura dominates the 1640 remarked, “As for the art of painting and the affection of the people to pictures, I think none other by a groom; the horse’s shoes are spiked for traction bols of national optimism, however, are in peril of picture, from the vaporous clouds to the city sky- go beyond them . All in general striving to adorn their houses, especially the outer or street room, with on the slippery surface. Two little boys in the right crashing against rocks during a storm. Each ship line. Jan van Goyen increased the spaciousness of costly pieces—butchers and bakers not much inferior in their shops, which are fairly set forth; yea, many corner play a game of kolf, a cross between modern- has a broken mast and, in the lower right fore- his scenes by lowering the horizon to give more times blacksmiths, cobblers, etc. will have some picture or other by their forge and in their stall.” day hockey and golf. And in the background, ground, floating wreckage reveals that one vessel emphasis to the atmospheric conditions overhead. Another Englishman suggested that the phenomenal investment in art was due to Holland’s small sledges act as commercial freighters on the ice. has already sunk. Amid the dark gray and steely Van Goyen was instrumental in leading size, which prevented the more usual speculation in land and livestock. Instead, the Dutch stockpiled their Avercamp, who combined the Dutch love of blue clouds and water, the sun’s golden rays give Dutch landscape painting to its full maturity. profits in pictures acquired through art dealers, at auctions, or from commercial fairs. landscapes with scenes of daily life called genre, hope that calmer weather will soon return. The Compare his realistic view to Hendrick In order to attract clients in this open and competitive market, many Dutch artists began to specialize was among the first European artists to specialize subject may be considered a vanitas, a reminder of Avercamp’s Scene on the Ice in this room; both in depicting particular subject areas. Such specialization helped establish a painter’s reputation in a way in depicting winter. The pearly gray tonality here the fleeting nature of earthly existence. works are monochrome in style. The earlier very comparable to modern brand names, whereby the buyer seeks a product based upon a company’s becomes ever paler and the forms less distinct as Although realistic in appearance, the painting Avercamp, however, uses an artificial, bird’s-eye proven expertise. The artists who chose to define their careers so narrowly are sometimes called the they move into the distance, subtly conveying a combines imaginary elements that Backhuysen often vantage that looks down onto the scene, whereas “Dutch minor masters” to distinguish them from painters such as Rembrandt, Cuyp, or Steen who por- sense of deep space on a frosty day. used in his theatrical compositions. Complex shapes Van Goyen creates the illusion of someone stand- trayed a broader spectrum of life. The setting may be the quiet village of and sharp contrasts of light and shadow heighten the ing on the shore opposite this bustling port. Seventeenth-century theorists held that the principal goal of art was to depict the human body Kampen northeast of Amsterdam. Very successful drama as do the massive cliffs and frothy spray. Another view of the same city is on display engaged in heroic or moral action. In this aesthetic classification, landscapes and still lifes ranked at the financially, Avercamp was called de stomme van Backhuysen, German-born, moved to elsewhere in the Dutch galleries. Aelbert Cuyp’s very bottom. As is often the case, however, critical opinion did not correspond to popular taste. Dutch Kampen, meaning “the mute of Kampen.” It is Amsterdam in to study marine painting. Maas at Dordrecht, painted about 1660, owes its artists created far more scenes of nature than historical allegories, and Dutch collectors often paid as much known he was deaf throughout his life. During the last quarter of the seventeenth century convincing perspective to Van Goyen but adds a or more for such seemingly trivial subjects than they did for literary themes. he was Holland’s leading seascape artist, with full range of colors, typical of the later, classical royal and noble patrons throughout Europe. phase of Dutch landscapes. GALLERY 50 GALLERY PLEASE RETURN THIS SHEET TO GALLERY 50 Meindert Hobbema Aert van der Neer Jacob van Ruisdael Pieter Jansz. Saenredam Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (pronounce: MINE-dare’t HOE-buh-mah) (pronounce: AIR’t van dur NARE) (pronounce: ya-COB van RUE-iss-doll) (pronounce: PEA-tare yanss SAN-rue-dam) ‒ ⁄‒ ‒ ‒ Cathedral of Saint John at Dutch, Dutch, c. Dutch, or Dutch, ‘s-Hertogenbosch The Travelers Moonlit Landscape with Bridge Forest Scene Church of Santa Maria della Febbre, Rome dated . Oil on panel, . . m (⅝ dated . Oil on canvas, . . m (⅞ about . Oil on panel, . . m (⅜ about ⁄ . Oil on canvas, . . m dated . Oil on panel, . . m (⅞ ¼ in). Samuel H. Kress Collection .. in). Widener Collection .. ⁄ in). Patrons’ Permanent Fund .. (½ ½ in). Widener Collection .. ¾ in). Samuel H. Kress Collection .. The fifteenth-century Gothic cathedral at Hobbema studied under Jacob van Ruisdael, who Van der Neer was in his late twenties when he Ruisdael, who learned his craft from his father and As the foremost innovator in the accurate depic- ‘s-Hertogenbosch, a town near the Maas river, glows is also represented in this room. As friends, they decided to become an artist. He first painted win- uncle in Haarlem, became the supreme master tion of buildings, Saenredam has earned the title in soft daylight. The iconoclasts, or “image destroy- made sketching trips into the countryside together. ter scenes, partly under the influence of Hendrick of Holland’s mid-seventeenth-century classical of “first portraitist of architecture.” The son of ers” of the Protestant Reformation, had replaced the The same motifs occasionally appear in the work of Avercamp. By the late s, however, Van der period of landscape. Here, the precise textures of an engraver, he developed draftsmanship so precise church’s stained glass and whitewashed its vaults. both artists, but their attitudes differed greatly. The Neer developed his own specialty of nocturnes, or foliage, bark, grass, rocks, and cascading water are that it is difficult to believe he never visited Italy to On the choir stall at the lower left corner, Saenredam older Ruisdael invested nature with poetic, brood- night scenes. These mysteriously dark, moonlit illuminated by the cold, gray light of an approach- see the site of Saint Peter’s, the subject of this con- identified the subject and dated the picture . ing grandeur. Hobbema approached nature in a pictures belong to the early monochrome period ing storm. For all its realism, though, the awesome vincing view. In the s, the Flemish artist At no single moment in the cathedral’s histo- more straightforward manner, depicting quaint, in Dutch art, much as Avercamp’s cool grays or scene is not actually part of the Dutch countryside, Maerten van Heemskerck had worked in Rome, ry, however, would all these furnishings, statues, rural scenery enlivened by peasants or hunters. Jan van Goyen’s warm tans.

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