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Lesley Peterson is a Toronto-based writer specializing in travel, art, culture, history and legendary landscapes. She has a degree in Art History from the University of Manitoba and is a member of NATJA (North American Travel Journalists Association). Catch her on Twitter as @culturetripper or contact her at lesley@culturetripper.com. All content by Lesley Peterson copyright © 2009 - Until the Present. All photos by Lesley Peterson except where other credit noted.
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ArtSmart Roundtable: Genre paintings of Holland’s Golden Age
Johannes Vermeer, The Kitchenmaid (1660), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Time again for ArtSmart Roundtable, a group of travel bloggers with a contagious passion for art. Each month, Roundtable members publish a post on a chosen topic; this month is Art Genres. Be sure to scroll down for links to my colleagues’ unique blogs and perspectives. And now, genre paintings of Holland’s Golden Age.
A quick check of Webster’s Dictionary defines genre as (1) a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form or content (2) kind, sort (3) painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usu. realistically. It’s the last category that flourished from 1610 to 1670 during Holland’s Golden Age. Here’s why.
Hendrick Avercamp’s Winter Landscape (1608) is a conversation piece that sprinkles entertaining vulgarity (people squatting in an outdoor privy or urinating in public) in an appealing landscape. Rijksmuseum collection.
17th century Holland, or the Netherlands, enjoyed unprecedented wealth from its vast shipbuilding industry and trading empire. It was an independent, Protestant republic. Traditional sources of art commission and patronage did not exist because its Protestant churches forbade religious art and there was no royal court. Art became democratized in both subject matter and ownership. A prosperous middle class were the new collectors and for the first time in history, artists produced art for an open market rather than by individual commission.
Pieter Claesz, Still Life (1660).
Demand for paintings of pleasing subject matter in smaller sizes was extremely high and thousands of artists worked to fill the demand with lovely land- and seascapes, still lifes featuring food or flowers including everyone’s beloved tulips. Genre paintings depicted scenes dear to Dutch hearts: merrymaking in taverns, serene domestic interiors, the care of children and the home.
Peter De Hooch, The Mother (1658), Rijksmuseum. The mundane subject of a mother searching her child’s hair for lice is elevated by De Hooch’s virtuosity in depicting multiple light sources and an appealing domestic calm. (Note: Hooch is pronounced Hoogh)
Following in the tradition of the detailed realism of early Netherlandish art (Bosch and Brueghel), the best Dutch genre artists elevated their prosaic subject matter to fine art through meticulous attention to detail and extraordinary rendering of light. Though he left fewer than 40 canvases and died bankrupt, Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is now considered second only to Rembrandt among Dutch Masters.
Vermeer, The Little Street (1658), Rijksmuseum collection.
All paintings in this post are in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. One of the world’s great treasurehouses of art, the Rijksmuseum has undergone a ten-year, 375 million Euro renovation. A selection of 400 masterpieces of the Golden Age – including Rembrandt’s Night Watch and more masterpieces of Dutch painting – are on display in the Philips Gallery until March 17, 2013. The spectacular new Rijksmuseum will reopen April 13, 2013, with 8,000 works in 80 rooms showcasing 800 years of Dutch art and culture.
From The European Fine Art Fair TEFAF Maastricht 2013, the grand reopening of the Rijksmuseum, and millions of tulips in bloom, Holland in spring is a feast for the senses. For more on visiting one of the world’s great art and culture destinations, see Visit Holland, official website of the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions.
Johannes Vermeer, Woman Reading a Letter (1662), Rijksmuseum collection. Vermeer’s true subject matter was the rendering of light on form and colour.
Sometimes genre paintings depicted a moral or common Dutch saying. With its guzzling parents and smoking children, Jan Steen’s The Merry Family (1668) illustrates the Dutch proverb ‘as the old sing, so pipe the young’, cautioning parents against setting a bad example.
The ArtSmart Roundtable:
Erin of A Sense of Place: Mosaics Aren’t Square
Christina of Daydream Tourist: Self-Portraits
Kelly of Travellious: Old Master Prints
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Ever since I read the book and saw the movie Girl with a Pearl Earring, I’ve been fascinated by Vermeer’s paintings, How interesting to understand the context it was painted in and how sad to hear he died bankrupt. I’d love to get to the Rijksmuseum.
I LOVE Vermeer, Bruegel, Avercamp and all the Dutch masters and so happy they were included in your discussion. You recount such a fascinating history of the Dutch Golden Age and how the Protestant Church stifled the religious commissions…sad at the time, I am sure, but the world has benefited greatly with the progeny of the Dutch masters and the legacies they left behind. I have fallen in love with Avercamp most of all…I love his portrayal of Dutch life! Great article my friend.
I love the snow scenes, too, Jeff. There actually was a ‘mini ice age’ in Europe that got worse around 1650 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
I loved this explanation of Holland’s Golden Age. I also read the novel The Girl with a Pearl Earring and quite enjoyed it but it is my 9 year old who very much wants to see the painting. She has a list of famous works of art that she wants to see and this one is high on her list. I think there is a visit to the Rijksmuseum in our future.
Hi Lisa, thanks for stopping by. The Girl with the Pearl Earring is in the Mauritshuis collection, The Hague, a short day trip from Amsterdam. Vermeer certainly did love those shades of yellow and blue, sigh:))
Thanks, Lesley! I expect that if I would have stopped to ask Emma that she would have known which museum we needed to go to!
Ooh yes, the kids are way ahead of us:)) And in Holland nothing’s ever that far away. Did you see Lonely Planet named Amsterdam a Top 10 must-see city for 2013? http://www.cnngo.com/best-cities-travel-2013-307296
How lovely to get a glimpse of the homely facts of life in that most interesting era. The colours are so warm and the scenes so touching.
You picked a beautiful collection of images for this post! There is something so peaceful about the Dutch interior scenes and the luminous still lives of this time period. Thanks for the news on the Rijksmuseum’s renovation and tulip-filled reopening!
Dutch paintings always grab my attention. I really enjoy the still lifes of curiosities and metaphors for memento mori. The attention to detail and ability to render so many textures are just amazing.