3. Cornelis De Heem 3.1. a Still Life of Flowers and Fruit Arranged on a Stone Plinth in a Garden Dyrham Park, NT 4
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SESSION 6 (Monday 5th February and Tuesday 12th March) Dutch Golden Age Painting 1. Albert Cuyp [FB]. 1.1. The Mass at Dordecht c1650 (115 X 175cm) Oil on canvas NGA Washington 2. Jacob van Ruisdael 2.1. Windmill at Wijk c1665 (83 x 101cm) Oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 3. Cornelis de Heem 3.1. A Still Life of Flowers and Fruit arranged on a Stone Plinth in a Garden Dyrham Park, NT 4. Samuel van Hoogstraten 4.1. A View through a House Dyrham Park, NT 1662 (260 x 140cm) 5. Pieter de Hooch [FB] 5.1. The Courtyard of a House in Delft National Gallery 1658 Oil on canvas (73 x 60cm) 5.2. The Golf players. National Trust, Polesdon Lacey c1660 Oil on panel (63.5 x 46.4cm) 6. Jan Vermeer [FB] 6.1. The Glass of Wine 1660 Berlin (66 x 76cm) 7. Jan Steen 7.1. The World Turned Upside Down c1623 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (105 X145cm) 8. Judith Leyster [FB] 8.1. Laughing Children with Cat 1629 (52 x 61cm) Oil on canva 9. Frans Hals [FB]. 9.1. The Laughing Cavalier 1624 Wallace Collection, London oil on canvas (83 x 67cm) 9.2. The Meagre Company (finished by Pieter Codde) 1637 (209 x 429 cm) Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 10. Rembrandt[FB]. 10.1. The Syndics (De Staalmeesters) 1662 Oil on canvas (191 X 279cm) 10.2. Self portrait with Two Circles 1665-9 Oil on canvas KenWood House, London (114 x 94cm) Title page – Judith Leyster self portrait Historians say that the Dutch Republic in the early 1600s had the greatest concentration of the world’s wealth either before or since. The Protestant churches were not patrons of art but there was a huge private market for paintings and there were specialist artists for landscapes, seascapes, portraits, flower, still life and genre styles; it is estimated that in this period five million paintings were sold to the Dutch public. There is some controversy among art historians about whether these paintings should be seen as primarily “realist” (in both subject matter and execution) or if they frequently come loaded with symbolism and moral messages (“seeming realism” ie. ‘to delight and instruct’). The highly selective approach by Dutch artists (eg remarkably few portrayals of the almost continuous armed conflicts) adds some weight to arguments against seeing the paintings as solely ‘realist’. The republic depended on a large fleet for both its trading wealth and in its defence against the Spaniards. In July 1646 a fleet carrying 30,000 troops gathered at Dordecht at the confluence of the Mass and the Rhine, in a show of force before peace negotiations. The early morning light of the historic scene was later captured by Albert Cuyp in The Mass at Dordecht. The provinces’ wealth also depended on increases in agricultural production by reclaiming from the sea large areas of fertile land. This was achieved by systems of dykes and canals – and by pumping water using windmills. So, the Windmill at Wijk by Jacob van Ruisdael) is given an ‘heroic’ status that dominates the landscape Still life paintings in Europe had traditionally a lowly status in the respect shown to different art types. However, the petty bourgeoisie and traders who were the ‘new market’ for paintings did not share this prejudice which allowed specialist artists in flower and other still life paintings to flourish. Many artists, such as de Heem, used the subject for a ‘vanitas’ painting, comparing the ephemeral beauty of flowers with the brevity of human life, which is why the fruits are beginning to decay and the wild garden is intruding into the picture. Samuel van Hoogstratten (a pupil of Rembrandt) had a keen interest in perspective and illusion, and this type of trompe l’oeil is sometimes called a ‘threshold’ painting because we see beyond the boundary of the image into objects and views that do not actually exist. In the 1650s, Pieter de Hooch developed a style of genre paintings, labelled as the Delft school, which involved groups of people in well-lit spacious rooms or courtyards, usually evoking quiet domestic contentment. Typical is the The Courtyard of a House in Delft, with its careful use of linear perspective and rendering of the architectural features. The tenderness of the glance between the maid and child is a reminder of the importance of careful child care in well-ordered households. In The Golf Players Hooch uses one of his favourite devices - a ‘view-through’ (or doorkijkje) picture. Vermeer’s The Glass of Wine presents an ambiguous courtship scene – probably intended as a moral warning. The man seems to be plying the woman with drink, perhaps with calculated intent; Temperance is depicted in the stained-glass window. A musical instrument, the cittern, lies on the chair with musical notebooks. Wine, a luxury imported product, was both a symbol of the new wealth (and a very important trading commodity) but also alcohol consumption could be associated with moral laxity. ‘Genre’ paintings of daily life, sometimes with a comic or tragic narrative, were extremely popular. Jan Steen seems to have enjoyed puncturing the ideal of a well-ordered Dutch home life as moral messages. In The World Turned Upside Down (or In Luxury, Look Out) he packed as many allusions to vices. Included are references to contemporary proverbs such as ‘the pig runs off with the tap’ (ie heavy drinking). The likely consequences of this behaviour are alluded to in the objects in the basket – crutches, a leper’s rattle, and switches. Judith Leyster painted mainly genre paintings exuding good cheer, or more contemplative illustrations of women’s domestic lives. She is not the only female artist to have had their work mis-attributed to a male artist – in her case to Frans Hals or her husband, Jan Molenear. Frans Hals did paint The Laughing Cavalier, a portrait of an unknown gentleman in the relaxed pose favoured in the united provinces before it became popular in the rest of Europe. The low viewpoint allows the artist to focus on the details of the splendid costume. Probably, the sitter was a member of one of the city militias, such as The Meagre Company. Group portraits were very popular, the subjects’ prominence sometimes depended on their financial contribution to the commissioning of the painting. The better examples seem to reflect the differing personalities of individuals. Rembrandt’s The Night Watch is probably the most famous example of a group portrait, but I’ve chosen The Syndics, in part, because it illustrates his skill at capturing some drama in what lesser artists might have portrayed as a rather dreary meeting of sombrely dressed bureaucrats. It is worth considering Rembrandt’s skill at portraying the heavy table cloth; the illusion of space in paintings can in part be explained by linear and atmospheric perspective but also what has been termed ‘perceptibility’ (kenlijkheyt) – using the apparent rougher texture of objects near to us, compared to a smoother appearance when further away, to give an illusion of depth. Rembrandt’s Self Portrait with Two Circles is one of about 40 self-portraits by the artist. Some of these show homage to the work of the great masters like Titian, but without the idealisation of Italian portraits. As in other late works, it in the ‘rough style’ using especially prepared paints – with no attempt to mask individual brushstrokes. Other artists admire his technique, sometimes without fully understanding how he was able to manipulate paint so successfully. Rembrandt faced financial problems in later life and there is an air of sadness to these later self-portraits of the aging artist which may be part of their power for U3A members! © Patrick Imrie 2019 .