THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE AT THE LOUVRE Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting VERMEER AND THE MASTERS OF GENRE PAINTING February 22 to May 22, 2017, PUBLICATION THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE AT THE LOUVRE in the Hall Napoléon of the Louvre Exhibition catalog, co-published by the Musée “Masterpieces of the Leiden Collection. du Louvre/Somogy, 448 pages, The Age of Rembrandt,” February 22 to 300 illustrations, €39 May 22, 2017, Sully rooms. Curated by This exhibition has been organized by the Blaise Ducos, Department of Painting, Musée Musée du Louvre, Paris, the National Gallery du Louvre. of Ireland, Dublin, and the National Gallery of DOCUMENTARY Publication Exhibition catalog, co-published Art, Washington D.C. It enjoys the support of Vermeer’s Revenge, directed by Jean-Pierre by the Musée du Louvre/Somogy, 80 pages, primary sponsor Kinoshita Group as well as and Guillaume Cottet. Jointly produced by: 40 illustrations, €12. the support of ING Bank France and Deloitte. ARTE France, Martange Production, Soho Online catalog at It will be on view at the National Gallery of Moon Pictures, Musée du Louvre. www.theleidencollection.com. Ireland in Dublin from June 17 to September 17, 2017 and at the National EXHIBITION EVENTS Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. from Lectures in the Louvre Auditorium “Drawing the Everyday. Holland in the October 22, 2017 to January 21, 2018. - February 23 at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Golden Age” presentation of the exhibition by Blaise Ducos. March 16, 2017 to June 12, 2017, Rotonde Sully Curated by Emmanuelle Brugerolles, CURATORIAL STAFF - March 2, 9, 16, and 30 (Thursdays) at Curator of Drawings, Beaux-Arts de Paris and Blaise Ducos, Curator, Department of 6:30 p.m., Understanding Vermeer, ―The Olivia Savatier Sjöholm, Curator, Department Paintings, Musée du Louvre. Adriaan E. Sphinx of Delft,‖ a series of four lectures: of Prints and Drawings, Musée du Louvre. Waiboer, Curator, National Gallery of Ireland, From ―Drolleries‖ to Interior Scenes: The Birth Publication Exhibition catalog, co-published Dublin. and Beginnings of Dutch Genre Painting by by the Musée du Louvre/Liénart Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Curator, National Sabine van Sprang (March 2). 208 pages, 250 illustrations, €29. Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. ―The Fabric of Society.‖ Fashion in the Republic (1650-1680), by Bianca du Mortier Lecture on March 24 at 12:30 p.m., (March 9). presentation of the exhibition with the curators HOURS Johannes Vermeer’s Milkmaid, by Blaise in the Louvre Auditorium. 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. except Tuesday. Night Ducos, Musée du Louvre (March 16). opening until 9:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Vermeer Forgeries, by Jonathan Lopez Fridays. SEE ALSO (March 30). “Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632). Beyond Caravaggio” February 22 to ADMISSION FOR MORE INFORMATION May 22, 2017, Musée du Louvre, Hall Single museum admission: €15. Daniel Arrasse, Vermeer’s Ambition, Éditions Napoléon To purchase tickets: at the auditorium desk/by Adam Biro, 2001. Further Reading: Valentin de Boulogne. phone: 01 40 20 55 00/online at: Jan Blanc, Vermeer. The Creation of Glory, Beyond Caravaggio, Dossier de l’Art issue www.fnac.com Éditions Citadelles & Mazenod, 2014. 246, February 2017. Gary Schwartz, Vermeer in Detail, Éditions INFORMATION Hazan, 2017. 01 40 20 55 55, Monday to Friday from Gabriel Metsu and Dutch Genre Painting, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., or at www.louvre.fr Dossier de l’Art issue 181, January 2011. CONTENTS THE DUTCH 04 The Modernity of the Golden Age at the Louvre GOLDEN AGE Interview with Blaise Ducos, Curator of the Department of Paintings of the Musée du AT THE LOUVRE Louvre, curator of the exhibition. Interview by Laurence Caillaud 10 AN ICON, The Milkmaid By Alexis Merle du Bourg 54 Richelieu Wing, 12 TIMELINE The Netherlands during the Golden Age Painting of the Northern School in All Its Splendor 14 Vermeer, or the Two Sphinxes of Delft By Laurence Caillaud By Jan Blanc, Professor of Art History of the Modern Period, Université de Genève 22 SPOTLIGHT ON A WORK The Lacemaker By Jan Blanc 56 The Treasures of the Leiden Collection Unveiled 24 A History of Genre Painting By Laurence Caillaud By Olivier Zeder, Head Conservator, Director of Conservation Studies, Institut national du patrimoine 60 The Everyday as 34 Themes and Motifs of Daily Life Viewed by Draftsmen By Alexis Merle du Bourg By Emmanuelle Brugerolles, Curator of Drawings, Beaux-Arts de Paris, Curator of the exhibition ON THE COVER Johannes Vermeer, A Lady Writing a Letter, ca. 1665-67. Oil on panel, 45 x 39.9 cm. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. ON THE BACK COVER Samuel van Hoogstraten, View of an Interior (―The Slippers‖), ca. 1655-62. Oil on canvas, 103 x 71 cm Paris, Musée du Louvre Press Photo Service © RMN (musée du Louvre) – T. Querrec L’OBJET D’ART SPECIAL EDITION is published by Éditions Faton, S.A.S. (simplified joint-stock company) with a capital of €343,860, 25 rue Berbisey, CS 71769, 21017 DIJON CEDEX SUBSCRIPTIONS AND ORDERING 1 rue des Artisans, CS 50090, 21803 Quetigny Cedex, Tel. 03 80 48 98 45, Fax 03 80 48 98 46, [email protected] DIRECTOR OF PUBLISHING Jeanne Faton EDITORIAL STAFF Jeanne Faton, Laurence Caillaud, Mathilde Ouvrard ARTISTIC DIRECTORS Bernard Babin, Laure Personnier IMAGE PROCESSING Emmanuel Calheiros DISTRIBUTION IN BELGIUM Tondeur Diffusion, 9 av. Van Kalken, B- 1070 Brussels. Tel. 02 555 02 17. Account no. 210-0402415-14. [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS IN SWITZERLAND Edigroup SA - Case postale 393 - CH-1225 Chêne- LEFT PAGE Bourg. Tel. 00 41 22/860 84 01. [email protected] MEDIA RELATIONS [email protected] ADVERTISING ANAT Régie, 29 rue de Miromesnil, 75008 Paris, Tel. 01 43 Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, 12 38 19, Fax 01 43 12 38 18, [email protected] Printed in France by IMPRIMERIE DE ca. 1657-58. Detail CHAMPAGNE in Langres. Joint Committee: 0419 K 84745. ISSN: 2426-0096. © 2017, Press Photo Service Éditions Faton SAS. The reproduction of the text or images published in this issue is © The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam prohibited. The titles, introductions, and subheadings are written by the editorial staff. VERMEER AND THE MASTERS OF GENRE PAINTING THE MODERNITY OF THE GOLDEN AGE AT THE LOUVRE Vermeer, the tutelary figure of Dutch genre painting, is being honored at the Louvre, where viewers can see 12 of his paintings exhibited together. However, the reason why viewers should see this exhibition goes well beyond this tour de force: it lies in the assembling of works around these paintings by numerous Dutch painters from the second half of the 17th century who, like Vermeer, brought genre painting to its zenith, and in the reevaluation of Vermeer’s contribution to the movement. This exposition, a collaborative effort between the Musée du Louvre, the National Gallery of Ireland, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., investigates within the artists’ studios by using the works both as proof of and witnesses to the bonds and exchanges that connected them. Interview with Blaise Ducos, Curator of the Department of Paintings of the Musée du Louvre, curator of the exhibition. Interview by Laurence Caillaud This exhibition attempts to retrace the In this very specific case, when we talk Vermeer was primarily a genre scene many relationships that formed among about genre painting, it should not be painter, but the exhibition is not solely the Dutch genre painters of the 17th considered a representation of every- dedicated to him, hence the absence of century, of which Vermeer was a day life. Quite the contrary. The scenes famous works like Girl with a Pearl Earring member. What does elegant genre are quite posed, thought-out, and and View of Delft (both at Mauritshuis in painting mean, exactly? theatricalized with luxurious props. For The Hague), which are not a part of this Genre painting was a very localized and the elite of the young Dutch Republic, it category. brief historical phenomenon. Between was a means for asserting themselves around 1650 and 1680, at the economic in the face of a world dominated by What elements have been used in apex of the Dutch Republic, a very monarchies. This exhibition is based on order to retrace the history of these sophisticated style of painting was the intuition that the active artistic connections between artists and to developed called the elegant genre scene, networks that existed on a local scale in find out how their ideas circulated? the most well-known practitioners of which Delft and that were studied in 20011 We do not have written records of the trips were Gerrit Dou, Caspar Netscher, Frans also existed on a national scale. In that the painters took from one city to van Mieris, Gabriel Metsu, Gerard ter other words, in Deventer, Amsterdam, another. Borch... and Johannes Vermeer, who was Rotterdam, The Hague, and in Delft, not the dominant figure at the time. artists were working together and knew what their counterparts were painting. 4 Johannes Vermeer, Woman with a Pearl Necklace, 1663-64. Oil on canvas, 51.2 x 45.1 cm Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie © BPK, Berlin, dist. RMN – J. P. Anders 5 ―Vermeer worked through subtraction. He removed, he stripped away, he painted the essentials, bareness, space‖ In reality, the documents that we have are Given the similar chronology—many of The relationship between Vermeer and his the paintings themselves, because certain these paintings are not dated—it would colleagues is a part of this variety.