The Golden Age of Dutch painting is one of the most outstanding eras in the history of all world painting. The Golden Age of Dutch painting is considered 17th century. It was at this time that the most talented artists and painters created their immortal works. Their paintings are still considered unsurpassed masterpieces, which are kept in famous museums around the world and are considered an invaluable heritage of humanity.

At first 17th century In Holland, a rather primitive art still flourished, which was justified by the mundane tastes and preferences of rich and powerful people. As a result of political, geopolitical and religious changes, Dutch art changed dramatically. If before that artists tried to pander to the Dutch burghers, depicting their life and way of life, devoid of any lofty and poetic language, and also worked for the church, which commissioned artists to work in a rather primitive genre with long-worn subjects, then the beginning of the 17th century was a real breakthrough. In Holland, the dominance of Protestants reigned, who practically stopped ordering paintings on religious themes from artists. Holland became independent from Spain and asserted itself on the historical podium. Artists moved from previously familiar themes to depicting everyday scenes, portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and so on. Here, in a new field, the artists of the golden age seemed to have opened a new breath and real geniuses of art began to appear in the world.

Dutch artists of the 17th century introduced realism in painting into fashion. Stunning in composition, in realism, in depth and unusualness, the paintings began to enjoy enormous success. The demand for paintings increased sharply. As a result, more and more new artists began to appear, who at an amazingly fast pace developed the fundamentals of painting, developed new techniques, styles and genres. Some of the most famous artists of the Golden Age were: Jan Vermeer, Cornelis Trost, Matthias Stom, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Esaias van de Velde, Frans Hals, Adrian Brouwer, Cornelis de Man, Anthony van Dyck and many others.

Paintings by Dutch painters

Cornelis de Man - Whale Oil Manufactory

Cornelis Trost - Fun in the Park

Ludolf Backhuizen - East India Campaign Dock in Amsterdam

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Alchemist's Catastrophe

Rembrandt - Andries de Graef

The first years of the 17th century are considered to be the birth of the Dutch school. This school belongs to the great schools of painting and is an independent and independent school with unique and inimitable characteristics and identity.

This has a largely historical explanation - a new movement in art and a new state on the map of Europe arose simultaneously.

Until the 17th century, Holland did not stand out for its abundance of national artists. Perhaps that is why in the future in this country one can count such a large number of artists, and specifically Dutch artists. While this country was one state with Flanders, it was mainly in Flanders that original artistic movements were intensively created and developed. Outstanding painters Van Eyck, Memling, Rogier van der Weyden, the likes of whom were not found in Holland, worked in Flanders. Only isolated bursts of genius in painting can be noted at the beginning of the 16th century; this is the artist and engraver Luke of Leiden, who is a follower of the Bruges school. But Luke of Leiden did not create any school. The same can be said about the painter Dirk Bouts from Haarlem, whose creations hardly stand out against the background of the style and manner of the origins of the Flemish school, about the artists Mostaert, Skorel and Heemskerke, who, despite all their significance, are not individual talents that characterize them with their originality country.

Then Italian influence spread to everyone who created with the brush - from Antwerp to Haarlem. This was one of the reasons that borders were blurred, schools were mixed, and artists lost their national identity. Not even a single student of Jan Skorel survived. The last, the most famous, the greatest portrait painter, who, together with Rembrandt, is the pride of Holland, an artist gifted with powerful talent, excellently educated, varied in style, courageous and flexible by nature, a cosmopolitan who has lost all traces of his origin and even his name - Antonis Moreau , (he was the official painter of the Spanish king) died after 1588.

The surviving painters almost ceased to be Dutch in the spirit of their work; they lacked the organization and ability to renew the national school. These were representatives of Dutch mannerism: the engraver Hendrik Goltzius, Cornelis of Haarlem, who imitated Michelangelo, Abraham Bloemaert, a follower of Correggio, Michiel Mierevelt, a good portrait artist, skillful, precise, laconic, a little cold, modern for his time, but not national. It is interesting that he alone did not succumb to Italian influence, which subjugated most of the manifestations in the painting of Holland at that time.

By the end of the 16th century, when portrait painters had already created a school, other artists began to appear and form. In the second half of the 16th century, a large number of painters were born who became a phenomenon in painting; this was almost the awakening of the Dutch national school. The wide variety of talents leads to many different directions and paths for the development of painting. Artists test themselves in all genres, in different color schemes: some work in a light manner, others in a dark one (the influence of the Italian artist Caravaggio was felt here). Painters are committed to light colors, and colorists to dark colors. The search for a pictorial manner begins, and rules for depicting chiaroscuro are developed. The palette becomes more relaxed and free, as do the lines and plasticity of the image. Rembrandt's direct predecessors appear - his teachers Jan Pace and Peter Lastman. Genre methods are also becoming more free - historicity is not as obligatory as before. A special, deeply national and almost historical genre is being created - group portraits intended for public places - city halls, corporations, workshops and communities. With this event, the most perfect in form, the 16th century ends and the 17th century begins.

This is only the beginning, the embryo of the school; the school itself does not exist yet. There are many talented artists. Among them there are skilled craftsmen, several great painters. Morelse, Jan Ravestein, Lastman, Frans Hals, Pulenburg, van Schoten, van de Venne, Thomas de Keyser, Honthorst, Cape the Elder, and finally Esayas van de Velde and van Goyen - all of them were born at the end of the 16th century. This list also includes artists whose names have been preserved by history, those who represented only individual attempts to achieve mastery, and those who became teachers and predecessors of future masters.

This was a critical moment in the development of Dutch painting. With an unstable political balance, everything depended only on chance. In Flanders, where a similar awakening was observed, on the contrary, there was already a sense of confidence and stability that was not yet there in Holland. In Flanders there were already artists who had formed or were close to this. Political and socio-historical conditions in this country were more favorable. There was a more flexible and tolerant government, traditions and society. The need for luxury gave rise to a persistent need for art. In general, there were serious reasons for Flanders to become a great center of art for the second time. For this, only two things were missing: several years of peace and a master who would be the creator of the school.

In 1609, when the fate of Holland was being decided - Philip III agreed on a truce between Spain and the Netherlands - Rubens appeared.

Everything depended on political or military chance. Defeated and subjugated, Holland would have to completely lose its independence. Then, of course, there could not be two independent schools - in Holland and in Flanders. In a country dependent on Italian-Flemish influence, such a school and talented original artists could not develop.

In order for the Dutch people to be born, and for Dutch art to see the light with them, a revolution, deep and victorious, was needed. It was especially important that the revolution be based on justice, reason, necessity, that the people deserve what they wanted to achieve, that they be decisive, convinced that they are right, hardworking, patient, restrained, heroic, and wise. All these historical features were subsequently reflected during the formation of the Dutch school of painting.

The situation turned out to be such that the war did not ruin the Dutch, but enriched them; the struggle for independence did not deplete their strength, but strengthened and inspired them. In the victory over the invaders, the people showed the same courage as in the fight against the elements, over the sea, over the flooding of lands, over the climate. What was supposed to destroy the people served them well. Treaties signed with Spain gave Holland freedom and strengthened its position. All this led to the creation of their own art, which glorified, spiritualized and expressed the inner essence of the Dutch people.

After the treaty of 1609 and the official recognition of the United Provinces, there was an immediate lull. As if a beneficial, warm breeze touched human souls, revived the soil, found and awakened sprouts that were ready to bloom. It is amazing how unexpectedly and in what a short period of time - no more than thirty years - in a small space, on ungrateful desert soil, in harsh living conditions, a wonderful galaxy of painters, and great painters at that, appeared.

They appeared immediately and everywhere: in Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Leiden, Delft, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Haarlem, even abroad - as if from seeds that fell outside the field. The earliest are Jan van Goyen and Wijnants, born at the turn of the century. And further, in the interval from the beginning of the century to the end of its first third - Cuyp, Terborch, Brouwer, Rembrandt, Adrian van Ostade, Ferdinand Bohl, Gerard Dau, Metsu, Venix, Wauerman, Berchem, Potter, Jan Steen, Jacob Ruisdael.

But the creative juices didn’t stop there. Next were born Pieter de Hooch, Hobbema. The last of the greats - van der Heyden and Adrian van de Velde - were born in 1636 and 1637. At this time, Rembrandt was thirty years old. Approximately these years can be considered the time of the first flowering of the Dutch school.

Considering the historical events of that time, one can imagine what the aspirations, character and fate of the new school of painting should be. What could these artists write in a country like Holland?

The revolution, which gave the Dutch people freedom and wealth, at the same time deprived them of what constitutes the vital basis of great schools everywhere. She changed beliefs, changed habits, abolished images of both ancient and gospel scenes, and stopped the creation of large works - church and decorative paintings. In fact, every artist had an alternative - to be original or not to be at all.

It was necessary to create art for a nation of burghers that would appeal to them, depict them, and be relevant to them. They were practical, not prone to daydreaming, business people, with broken traditions and anti-Italian sentiments. We can say that the Dutch people had a simple and bold task - to create their own portrait.

Dutch painting, was and could only be an expression of external appearance, a true, accurate, similar portrait of Holland. It was a portrait of people and terrain, burgher customs, squares, streets, fields, sea and sky. The main elements of the Dutch school were portraits, landscapes, and everyday scenes. Such was this painting from the beginning of its existence until its decline.

It may seem that nothing could be simpler than the discovery of this ordinary art. In fact, it is impossible to imagine anything equal to it in breadth and novelty.

Immediately everything changed in the manner of understanding, seeing and conveying: point of view, artistic ideal, choice of nature, style and method. Italian and Flemish painting at its best is still understandable to us, because they are still enjoyed, but these are already dead languages, and no one will use them anymore.

At one time there was a habit of thinking loftily and generally; there was an art that consisted in the skillful selection of objects. In their decoration, correction. It loved to show nature as it does not exist in reality. Everything depicted was more or less consistent with the person’s personality, depended on it and was its likeness. As a result, an art arose in which man is at the center, and all other images of the universe were either embodied in human forms, or were vaguely displayed as a secondary environment of man. Creativity developed according to certain patterns. Each object had to borrow its plastic form from the same ideal. The man had to be depicted more often naked than clothed, well-built and handsome, so that he could play the role assigned to him with appropriate grandeur.

Now the task of painting has become simpler. It was necessary to give each thing or phenomenon its true meaning, to place a person in its proper place, and, if necessary, to do without him altogether.

It's time to think less, look closely at what's closest, observe better and write differently. Now this is the painting of the crowd, the citizen, the working man. It was necessary to become modest for everything modest, small for the small, inconspicuous for the inconspicuous, to accept everything without rejecting or despising anything, to penetrate into the hidden life of things, lovingly merging with their existence, it was necessary to become attentive, inquisitive and patient. Genius now consists of not having any prejudices. There is no need to embellish, or ennoble, or expose anything: all this is a lie and useless work.

Dutch painters, creating in some corner of the northern country with water, forests, sea horizons, were able to reflect the entire universe in miniature. A small country, carefully explored according to the tastes and instincts of the observer, turns into an inexhaustible treasury, as abundant as life itself, as rich in sensations as the human heart is rich in them. The Dutch school has been growing and working like this for a whole century.

Dutch painters found subjects and colors to satisfy any human inclinations and affections, for rough and delicate natures, ardent and melancholic, dreamy and cheerful. Cloudy days give way to cheerful sunny days, the sea is sometimes calm and sparkling with silver, sometimes stormy and gloomy. There are many pastures with farms and many ships crowded along the coast. And you can almost always feel the movement of air over the expanses and strong winds from the North Sea, which pile up clouds, bend trees, turn the wings of mills and drive light and shadows. To this must be added cities, home and street life, festivities at fairs, depictions of various morals, the need of the poor, the horrors of winter, idleness in taverns with their tobacco smoke and mugs of beer. On the other hand - a wealthy lifestyle, conscientious work, cavalcades, afternoon rest, hunting. In addition - public life, civil ceremonies, banquets. The result was new art, but with subjects as old as time.

Thus arose a harmonious unity of the spirit of the school and the most astonishing diversity ever to arise within a single movement of art.

In general, the Dutch school is called genre school. If we decompose it into its component elements, then we can distinguish in it landscape painters, masters of group portraits, marine painters, animal painters, artists who painted group portraits or still lifes. If you look in more detail, you can distinguish many and genre varieties- from lovers of picturesqueness to ideologists, from copyists of nature to its interpreters, from conservative homebodies to travelers, from those who love and feel humor to artists who avoid comedy. Let us recall the paintings of Ostade's humor and the seriousness of Ruisdael, the equanimity of Potter and the mockery of Jan Steen, the wit of Van de Velde and the gloomy dreaminess of the great Rembrandt.

With the exception of Rembrandt, who must be considered an exceptional phenomenon, both for his country and for all times, then all other Dutch artists are characterized by a certain style and method. The laws for this style are sincerity, accessibility, naturalness, and expressiveness. If you take away from Dutch art what can be called honesty, then you will cease to understand his vital basis and will not be able to determine either his moral character or his style. In these artists, who for the most part have earned the reputation of short-sighted copyists, you feel a sublime and kind soul, loyalty to truth, and love of realism. All this gives their works a value that the things depicted on them themselves do not seem to have.

The beginning for this sincere style and the first result of this honest approach is a perfect drawing. Among Dutch painters, Potter is a manifestation of genius in precise, verified measurements and the ability to trace the movement of each line.

In Holland, the sky often takes up half, and sometimes the entire picture. Therefore, it is necessary for the sky in the picture to move, attract, and carry us along with it. So that the difference between day, evening and night can be felt, so that heat and cold can be felt, so that the viewer is both chilly and enjoys it, and feels the need to concentrate. Although it is probably difficult to call such a drawing the noblest of all, try to find artists in the world who would paint the sky, like Ruisdael and van der Neer, and would say so much and so brilliantly with their work. Everywhere the Dutch have the same design - restrained, laconic, precise, natural and naive, skillful and not artificial.

The Dutch palette is quite worthy of their drawing, hence the perfect unity of their painting method. Any Dutch painting is easy to recognize by its appearance. It is small in size and distinguished by its powerful, strict colors. This requires great accuracy, a steady hand, and deep concentration from the artist in order to achieve a concentrated effect on the viewer. The artist must go deep into himself in order to nurture his idea, the viewer must go deep into himself in order to comprehend the artist’s plan. It is the Dutch paintings that give the clearest idea of ​​this hidden and eternal process: to feel, think and express. There is no picture in the world more saturated, since it is the Dutch who include such great content in such a small space. That is why everything here takes on a precise, compressed and condensed form.

Every Dutch painting is concave, it consists of curves described around a single point, which is the embodiment of the concept of the picture and shadows located around the main spot of light. A solid base, a running top and rounded corners tending towards the center - all this is outlined, colored and illuminated in a circle. As a result, the painting acquires depth, and the objects depicted on it move away from the viewer’s eye. The viewer is, as it were, led from the foreground to the last, from the frame to the horizon. We seem to inhabit the picture, move, look deep, raise our heads to measure the depth of the sky. The rigor of aerial perspective, the perfect correspondence of color and shades with the place in space that the object occupies.

For a more complete understanding of Dutch painting, one should consider in detail the elements of this movement, the features of the methods, the nature of the palette, and understand why it is so poor, almost monochromatic and so rich in results. But all these questions, like many others, have always been the subject of speculation by many art historians, but have never been sufficiently studied and clarified. The description of the main features of Dutch art allows us to distinguish this school from others and trace its origins. An expressive image illustrating this school is a painting by Adriaen van Ostade from the Amsterdam Museum "Artist's Atelier". This subject was one of the favorites of Dutch painters. We see an attentive man, slightly hunched over, with a prepared palette, thin, clean brushes and transparent oil. He writes in the twilight. His face is concentrated, his hand is careful. Only, perhaps, these painters were more daring and knew how to laugh more carefree and enjoy life than can be concluded from the surviving images. Otherwise, how would their genius manifest itself in an atmosphere of professional traditions?

The foundation for the Dutch school was laid by van Goyen and Wijnants at the beginning of the 17th century, establishing some laws of painting. These laws were passed down from teachers to students, and for a whole century Dutch painters lived by them without deviating to the side.

Dutch mannerism painting

Holland. 17th century The country is experiencing unprecedented prosperity. The so-called "Golden Age". At the end of the 16th century, several provinces of the country achieved independence from Spain.

Now the Protestant Netherlands have gone their own way. And Catholic Flanders (present-day Belgium) under the wing of Spain is its own.

In independent Holland, almost no one needed religious painting. The Protestant Church did not approve of luxury decoration. But this circumstance “played into the hands” of secular painting.

Literally every resident of the new country awoke a love for this type of art. The Dutch wanted to see their own lives in the paintings. And the artists willingly met them halfway.

Never before has the surrounding reality been depicted so much. Ordinary people, ordinary rooms and the most ordinary breakfast of a city dweller.

Realism flourished. Until the 20th century, it will be a worthy competitor to academicism with its nymphs and Greek goddesses.

These artists are called "small" Dutch. Why? The paintings were small in size, because they were created for small houses. Thus, almost all paintings by Jan Vermeer are no more than half a meter in height.

But I like the other version better. In the Netherlands in the 17th century, a great master, the “big” Dutchman, lived and worked. And everyone else was “small” in comparison with him.

We are talking, of course, about Rembrandt. Let's start with him.

1. Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Rembrandt. Self-portrait at the age of 63. 1669 National Gallery London

Rembrandt experienced a wide range of emotions during his life. That's why there's so much fun and bravado in his early work. And there are so many complex feelings - in the later ones.

Here he is young and carefree in the painting “The Prodigal Son in the Tavern.” On his knees is his beloved wife Saskia. He is a popular artist. Orders are pouring in.

Rembrandt. The Prodigal Son in a Tavern. 1635 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden

But all this will disappear in about 10 years. Saskia will die of consumption. Popularity will disappear like smoke. Big house with a unique collection will be taken away for debts.

But the same Rembrandt will appear who will remain for centuries. The bare feelings of the heroes. Their deepest thoughts.

2. Frans Hals (1583-1666)

Frans Hals. Self-portrait. 1650 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Frans Hals is one of the greatest portrait painters of all time. Therefore, I would also classify him as a “big” Dutchman.

In Holland at that time it was customary to order group portraits. This is how many similar works appeared depicting people working together: marksmen of one guild, doctors of one town, managers of a nursing home.

In this genre, Hals stands out the most. After all, most of these portraits looked like a deck of cards. People sit at the table with the same facial expression and just watch. It was different for Hals.

Look at his group portrait “Arrows of the Guild of St. George."

Frans Hals. Arrows of the Guild of St. George. 1627 Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands

Here you will not find a single repetition in pose or facial expression. At the same time, there is no chaos here. There are many characters, but no one seems superfluous. Thanks to the amazingly correct arrangement of figures.

And even in a single portrait, Hals was superior to many artists. His patterns are natural. People from high society his paintings are devoid of contrived grandeur, and the models from the lower classes do not look humiliated.

And his characters are also very emotional: they smile, laugh, and gesticulate. Like, for example, this “Gypsy” with a sly look.

Frans Hals. Gypsy. 1625-1630

Hals, like Rembrandt, ended his life in poverty. For the same reason. His realism ran counter to the tastes of his customers. Who wanted their appearance to be embellished. Hals did not accept outright flattery, and thereby signed his own sentence - “Oblivion.”

3. Gerard Terborch (1617-1681)

Gerard Terborch. Self-portrait. 1668 Royal Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands

Terborkh was a master of the everyday genre. Rich and not-so-rich burghers talk leisurely, ladies read letters, and a procuress watches the courtship. Two or three closely spaced figures.

It was this master who developed the canons of the everyday genre. Which would later be borrowed by Jan Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch and many other “small” Dutchmen.

Gerard Terborch. A glass of lemonade. 1660s. State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

"A Glass of Lemonade" is one of Terborch's famous works. It shows another advantage of the artist. Incredibly realistic image of the dress fabric.

Terborch also has unusual works. Which speaks volumes about his desire to go beyond customer requirements.

His "The Grinder" shows the life of the poorest people in Holland. We are used to seeing cozy courtyards and clean rooms in the paintings of the “small” Dutch. But Terborch dared to show unsightly Holland.

Gerard Terborch. Grinder. 1653-1655 State Museums of Berlin

As you understand, such work was not in demand. And they are a rare occurrence even among Terborch.

4. Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)

Jan Vermeer. Artist's workshop. 1666-1667 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

It is not known for certain what Jan Vermeer looked like. It is only obvious that in the painting “The Artist’s Workshop” he depicted himself. The truth from the back.

Therefore, it is surprising that a new fact from the master’s life has recently become known. It is connected with his masterpiece “Delft Street”.

Jan Vermeer. Delft street. 1657 Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

It turned out that Vermeer spent his childhood on this street. The house pictured belonged to his aunt. She raised her five children there. Perhaps she is sitting on the doorstep sewing while her two children play on the sidewalk. Vermeer himself lived in the house opposite.

But more often he depicted the interior of these houses and their inhabitants. It would seem that the plots of the paintings are very simple. Here is a pretty lady, a wealthy city dweller, checking the operation of her scales.

Jan Vermeer. Woman with scales. 1662-1663 National Gallery of Art, Washington

Why did Vermeer stand out among thousands of other “small” Dutchmen?

He was an unsurpassed master of light. In the painting “Woman with Scales” the light softly envelops the heroine’s face, fabrics and walls. Giving the image an unknown spirituality.

And the compositions of Vermeer’s paintings are carefully verified. You won't find a single unnecessary detail. It is enough to remove one of them, the picture will “fall apart”, and the magic will go away.

All this was not easy for Vermeer. Such amazing quality required painstaking work. Only 2-3 paintings per year. As a result, the inability to feed the family. Vermeer also worked as an art dealer, selling works by other artists.

5. Pieter de Hooch (1629-1884)

Pieter de Hooch. Self-portrait. 1648-1649 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Hoch is often compared to Vermeer. They worked at the same time, there was even a period in the same city. And in one genre - everyday. In Hoch we also see one or two figures in cozy Dutch courtyards or rooms.

Open doors and windows make the space of his paintings layered and entertaining. And the figures fit into this space very harmoniously. As, for example, in his painting “Maid with a Girl in the Courtyard.”

Pieter de Hooch. A maid with a girl in the courtyard. 1658 London National Gallery

Until the 20th century, Hoch was highly valued. But few people noticed the small works of his competitor Vermeer.

But in the 20th century everything changed. Hoch's glory faded. However, it is difficult not to recognize his achievements in painting. Few people could so competently combine the environment and people.

Pieter de Hooch. Card players in a sunny room. 1658 Royal Art Collection, London

Please note that in a modest house on the canvas “Card Players” there is a painting hanging in an expensive frame.

This once again shows how popular painting was among ordinary Dutch people. Paintings decorated every home: the house of a rich burgher, a modest city dweller, and even a peasant.

6. Jan Steen (1626-1679)

Jan Steen. Self-portrait with a lute. 1670s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Jan Steen is perhaps the most cheerful “little” Dutchman. But loving moral teaching. He often depicted taverns or poor houses in which vice existed.

Its main characters are revelers and ladies of easy virtue. He wanted to entertain the viewer, but latently warn him against a vicious life.

Jan Steen. It's a mess. 1663 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Sten also has quieter works. Like, for example, “Morning Toilet.” But here too the artist surprises the viewer with too revealing details. There are traces of stocking elastic, and not an empty chamber pot. And somehow it’s not at all appropriate for the dog to be lying right on the pillow.

Jan Steen. Morning toilet. 1661-1665 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

But despite all the frivolity, color solutions Wall is very professional. In this he was superior to many “little Dutchmen”. Look how perfectly the red stocking goes with the blue jacket and bright beige rug.

7. Jacobs Van Ruisdael (1629-1882)

Portrait of Ruisdael. Lithograph from a 19th century book.

Dutch painting, in fine arts

Dutch painting, its emergence and initial period merge to such an extent with the first stages of the development of Flemish painting that the latest art historians consider both for the entire time until the end of the 16th century. inseparably, under one general name of the “Dutch school”.

Both of them, constituting the offspring of the Rhine branch, are dumb. painting, the main representatives of which are Wilhelm of Cologne and Stefan Lochner, consider the van Eyck brothers to be their founders; both have been moving in the same direction for a long time, are animated by the same ideals, pursue the same tasks, develop the same technique, so that the artists of Holland are no different from their Flemish and Brabant brethren.

This continues throughout the rule of the country, first by the Burgundian and then by the Austrian house, until a brutal revolution breaks out, ending in the complete triumph of the Dutch people over the Spaniards who oppressed them. From this era, each of the two branches of Dutch art begins to move separately, although sometimes they happen to come into very close contact with each other.

Dutch painting immediately takes on an original, completely national character and quickly reaches a bright and abundant flowering. The reasons for this phenomenon, the like of which can hardly be found throughout the entire history of art, lie in topographical, religious, political and social circumstances.

In this “low country” (hol land), consisting of swamps, islands and peninsulas, constantly washed away by the sea and threatened by its raids, the population, as soon as it threw off the foreign yoke, had to create everything anew, starting with the physical conditions of the soil and ending with moral and intellectual conditions, because everything was destroyed by the previous struggle for independence. Thanks to their enterprise, practical sense and persistent work, the Dutch managed to transform swamps into fruitful fields and luxurious pastures, conquer vast expanses of land from the sea, acquire material well-being and external political significance. The achievement of these results was greatly facilitated by the federal-republican form of government established in the country and the wisely implemented principle of freedom of thought and religious beliefs.

As if by a miracle, everywhere, in all areas of human labor, ardent activity suddenly began to boil in a new, unique, purely folk spirit, among other things, in the field of art. Of the branches of the latter, on the soil of Holland, one was lucky mainly in one - painting, which here, in the works of many more or less talented artists who appeared almost simultaneously, took on a very versatile direction and at the same time completely different from the direction of art in other countries. The main feature that characterizes these artists is their love for nature, the desire to reproduce it in all its simplicity and truth, without the slightest embellishment, without subsuming it under any conditions of a preconceived ideal. The second distinctive property of Goll. painters are composed of a subtle sense of color and an understanding of what a strong, enchanting impression can be made, in addition to the content of the picture, only by the faithful and powerful transmission of colorful relationships determined in nature by the action of light rays, proximity or range of distances.

Among the best representatives of Dutch painting, this sense of color and light and shade is developed to such an extent that light, with its countless and varied nuances, plays in the picture, one might say, the role of the main character and imparts high interest to the most insignificant plot, the most inelegant forms and images. Then it should be noted that most Goll. artists do not go on long searches for material for their creativity, but are content with what they find around them, in their native nature and in the life of their people. Typical features of distinguished compatriots, the faces of ordinary Dutchmen and Dutchwomen, the noisy fun of common holidays, peasant feasts, scenes of rural life or the intimate life of townspeople, native dunes, polders and vast plains crossed by canals, herds grazing in rich meadows, huts, nestled at the edge of beech or oak groves, villages on the banks of rivers, lakes and groves, cities with their clean houses, drawbridges and high spiers of churches and town halls, harbors cluttered with ships, the sky filled with silvery or golden vapors - all this, under the brush of the Dutch masters imbued with love for the fatherland and national pride, turns into paintings full of air, light and attractiveness.

Even in those cases when some of these masters resort to the Bible, ancient history and mythology for themes, even then, without worrying about maintaining archaeological fidelity, they transfer the action to the environment of the Dutch, surrounding it with a Dutch setting. True, next to the crowded crowd of such patriotic artists there is a phalanx of other painters looking for inspiration outside the borders of their fatherland, in the classical country of art, Italy; however, in their works there are also features that expose their nationality.

Finally, as a feature of the Dutch painters, one can point to their renunciation of artistic traditions. It would be in vain to look for among them a strict continuity of well-known aesthetic principles and technical rules, not only in the sense of academic style, but also in the sense of the students’ assimilation of the character of their teachers: with the exception, perhaps, of Rembrandt’s students alone, who more or less closely followed in the footsteps of their genius mentor, almost all painters in Holland, as soon as they passed their student years, and sometimes even during these years, began to work in their own way, in accordance with where their individual inclination led them and what direct observation of nature taught them.

Therefore, Dutch artists cannot be divided into schools, just as we do with the artists of Italy or Spain; it is difficult even to form strictly defined groups from them, and the very expression “Dutch school of painting”, which has come into general use, must be taken only in a conditional sense, as denoting a collection of tribal masters, but not an actual school. Meanwhile, in all the main cities of Holland there were organized societies of artists, which, it would seem, should have influenced the communication of their activities by one general direction. However, such societies, bearing the name of the guilds of St. Luke, if he contributed to this, did so to a very moderate extent. These were not academies, the custodians of well-known artistic traditions, but free corporations, similar to other craft and industrial guilds, not much different from them in terms of structure and aimed at mutual support of their members, protection of their rights, care for their old age, care for the fate of their widows and orphans.

Every local painter who met the requirements of the moral qualifications was admitted to the guild upon preliminary confirmation of his abilities and knowledge or on the basis of the fame he had already acquired; visiting artists were admitted to the guild as temporary members for the duration of their stay in a given city. Those belonging to the guild met to discuss, under the chairmanship of the deans, their common affairs or for the mutual exchange of thoughts; but in these meetings there was nothing that resembled the preaching of a certain artistic direction and that would tend to restrict the originality of any of the members.

The indicated features of Dutch painting are noticeable even in its early days - at a time when it developed inseparably from the Flemish school. Her vocation, like that of the latter, was then mainly to decorate churches with religious paintings, palaces, town halls and noble houses with portraits of government officials and aristocrats. Unfortunately, the works of primitive Dutch painters have reached us only in very limited quantities, since most of them perished in that troubled time when the Reformation devastated Catholic churches, abolished monasteries and abbeys, and incited “icon breakers” (beeldstormers) to destroy the painted and sculpted sacred images, and the popular uprising destroyed portraits of the hated tyrants everywhere. We know many of the artists who preceded the revolution only by name; We can judge others only by one or two samples of their work. Thus, regarding the oldest of the Dutch painters, Albert van Ouwater, there is no positive data, except for the information that he was a contemporary of the van Eycks and worked in Harlem; There are no reliable paintings of him. His student Gertjen van Sint-Jan is known only from two panels of a triptych (“St. Sepulchre” and “Legend of the Bones of St. John”), which he wrote for the Harlem Cathedral, stored in the Vienna Gallery. The fog that shrouds us in the initial era of the G. school begins to dissipate with the appearance on the scene of Dirk Bouts, nicknamed Stuerboat († 1475), originally from Haarlem, but who worked in Leuven and is therefore considered by many to be part of the Flemish school (his best works are two paintings “ The Wrongful Trial of Emperor Otto,” are in the Brussels Museum), as well as Cornelis Engelbrechtsen (1468-1553), whose main merit is that he was the teacher of the famous Luke of Leiden (1494-1533). This latter, a versatile, hardworking and highly talented artist, knew how, like no one before him, to accurately reproduce everything that caught his eye, and therefore can be considered the real father of the Dutch genre, although he had to paint mainly religious paintings and portraits. In the works of his contemporary Jan Mostaert (circa 1470-1556), the desire for naturalism is combined with a touch of Gothic tradition, the warmth of religious feeling with a concern for external elegance.

In addition to these outstanding masters, the following deserve to be mentioned for the initial era of Dutch art: Hieronymus van Aken, nicknamed Hieronymus de Bosch (c. 1462-1516), who laid the foundation for satirical everyday painting with his complex, intricate and sometimes extremely strange compositions; Jan Mundain († 1520), famous in Harlem for his depictions of devilry and buffoonery; Peter Aertsen († 1516), nicknamed “Long Peter” (Lange Pier) for his tall stature, David Ioris (1501-56), a skilled glass painter, carried away by Anabaptist ravings and imagining himself as the prophet David and the son of God, Jacob Swarts (1469 ? - 1535?), Jacob Cornelissen (1480? - later 1533) and his son Dirk Jacobs (two paintings of the latter, depicting rifle societies, are in the Hermitage).

About half of the 16th table. among Dutch painters there is a desire to get rid of the shortcomings of domestic art - its Gothic angularity and dryness - by studying Italian artists of the Renaissance and combining their manner with the best traditions of their own school. This desire is already visible in the works of the aforementioned Mostert; but the main disseminator of the new movement should be considered Jan Schorel (1495-1562), who lived for a long time in Italy and later founded a school in Utrecht, from which came a number of artists infected with the desire to become Dutch Raphaels and Michelangelos. In his footsteps, Maarten van Van, nicknamed Gemskerk (1498-1574), Henryk Goltzius (1558-1616), Peter Montford, nicknamed. Blokhorst (1532-83), Cornelis v. Haarlem (1562-1638) and others belonging to the next period of the Italian school, such as, for example, Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651), Gerard Gonthorst (1592-1662), went beyond the Alps to become imbued with the perfections of the luminaries of Italian painting, but fell , for the most part, under the influence of representatives of the decline of this painting that was beginning at that time, they returned to their homeland as mannerists, imagining that the whole essence of art lies in the exaggeration of muscles, in the pretentiousness of angles and the panache of conventional colors.

However, the fascination with Italians, which often extended to the extreme in the transitional era of Dutch painting, brought a kind of benefit, since it brought into this painting better, more learned drawing and the ability to manage composition more freely and boldly. Together with the Old Netherlandish tradition and boundless love for nature, Italianism became one of the elements from which the original, highly developed art of the flourishing era was formed. The onset of this era, as we have already said, should be dated to the beginning of the 17th century, when Holland, having won independence, began to live a new life. The dramatic transformation of an oppressed and poor country just yesterday into a politically important, comfortable and wealthy union of states was accompanied by an equally dramatic revolution in its art.

From all sides, almost at once, they appear in countless numbers. wonderful artists, called to activity by the rise of the national spirit and the need for their work that has developed in society. To the original artistic centers, Haarlem and Leiden, new ones are being added - Delft, Utrecht, Dortrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, etc. Everywhere the old tasks of painting are being developed in a new way under the influence of changing demands and views, and its new branches, the beginnings of which were barely noticeable in the previous period.

The Reformation drove religious paintings out of churches; there was no need to decorate palaces and noble chambers with images of ancient gods and heroes, and therefore historical painting, satisfying the tastes of the rich bourgeoisie, discarded idealism and turned to an accurate reproduction of reality: it began to interpret long-past events as the events of the day that took place in Holland, and in especially took up portraiture, perpetuating in it the features of people of that time, either in single figures or in extensive, multi-figure compositions depicting rifle societies (schutterstuke), which played such a prominent role in the struggle for the liberation of the country - the managers of its charitable institutions (regentenstuke) , shop foremen and members of various corporations.

If we decided to talk about all the talented portrait painters of the flourishing era of Dutch art, then just listing their names with an indication of their best works would take many lines; therefore, we limit ourselves to mentioning only those artists who are especially outstanding from general series. These are: Michiel Mierevelt (1567-1641), his student Paulus Morelse (1571-1638), Thomas de Keyser (1596-1667) Jan van Ravesteyn (1572? - 1657), predecessors of the three greatest portrait painters of Holland - the sorcerer of chiaroscuro Rembrandt van Rijn ( 1606-69), an incomparable draftsman who had an amazing art of modeling figures in light, but somewhat cold in character and color, Bartholomew van der Gelst (1611 or 1612-70) and striking with the fugue of his brush Frans Gols the Elder (1581-1666). Of these, the name of Rembrandt shines especially brightly in history, at first held in high esteem by his contemporaries, then forgotten by them, little appreciated by posterity, and only in the current century elevated, in all fairness, to the level of world genius.

In his characteristic artistic personality, everything is concentrated, as if in focus. best qualities Dutch painting and its influence was reflected in all its genres - in portraits, historical paintings, everyday scenes and landscapes. The most famous among Rembrandt's students and followers were: Ferdinand Bol (1616-80), Govert Flinck (1615-60), Gerbrand van den Eckhout (1621-74), Nicholas Mas (1632-93), Art de Gelder (1645-1727 ), Jacob Backer (1608 or 1609-51), Jan Victors (1621-74), Carel Fabricius (c. 1620-54), Salomon and Philips Koning (1609-56, 1619-88), Pieter de Grebber, Willem de Porter († later 1645), Gerard Dou (1613-75) and Samuel van Googstraten (1626-78). In addition to these artists, to complete the list of the best portrait painters and historical painters of the period under review, one should name Jan Lievens (1607-30), Rembrandt’s fellow student of P. Lastman, Abraham van Tempel (1622-72) and Pieter Nazon (1612-91), working, apparently, under the influence of V. d. Gelsta, the imitator of Hals Johannes Verspronck (1597-1662), Jan and Jacob de Braev († 1664, † 1697), Cornelis van Zeulen (1594-1664) and Nicholas de Gelta-Stokade (1614-69). Household painting, the first experiments of which appeared in the old Dutch school, found itself in the 17th century. especially fertile soil in Protestant, free, bourgeois, self-satisfied Holland.

Small pictures, artlessly representing the customs and life of different classes of local society, seemed to enough people more entertaining than large works of serious painting, and, along with landscapes, more convenient for decorating cozy private homes. A whole horde of artists satisfies the demand for such pictures, without thinking long about the choice of themes for them, but conscientiously reproducing everything that is encountered in reality, showing at the same time love for their family, then good-natured humor, accurately characterizing the depicted positions and faces and refined in the mastery of technology. While some are occupied with common people's life, scenes of peasant happiness and sorrow, drinking bouts in taverns and taverns, gatherings in front of roadside inns, rural holidays, games and skating on the ice of frozen rivers and canals, etc., others take the content for their works from a more elegant circle - they paint graceful ladies in their intimate surroundings, the courtship of dandy gentlemen, housewives giving orders to their maids, salon exercises in music and singing, the revelry of golden youth in pleasure houses, etc. In the long series of artists of the first category, they excel Adrian and Izak v. Ostade (1610-85, 1621-49), Adrian Brouwer (1605 or 1606-38), Jan Stan (about 1626-79), Cornelis Bega (1620-64), Richart Brackenburg (1650-1702), P. v. Lahr, nicknamed Bambocchio in Italy (1590-1658), Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), Egbert van der Poel (1621-64), Cornelis Drohslot (1586-1666), Egbert v. Gemskerk (1610-80), Henrik Roques, nicknamed Sorg (1621-82), Claes Molenaar (formerly 1630-76), Jan Minse-Molenar (about 1610-68), Cornelis Saftleven (1606-81) and some. etc. Of the equally significant number of painters who reproduced the life of the middle and upper, generally sufficient, class, Gerard Terborch (1617-81), Gerard Dou (1613-75), Gabriel Metsu (1630-67), Peter de Gogh ( 1630-66), Caspar Netscher (1639-84), France c. Miris the Elder (1635-81), Eglon van der Naer (1643-1703), Gottfried Schalcken (1643-1706), Jan van der Meer of Delft (1632-73), Johannes Vercollier (1650-93), Quiring Brekelenkamp (†1668 ). Jacob Ochtervelt († 1670), Dirk Hals (1589-1656), Anthony and Palamedes Palamedes (1601-73, 1607-38), etc. The category of genre painters includes artists who painted scenes of military life, idleness of soldiers in guardhouses, camp sites , cavalry skirmishes and entire battles, dressage horses, as well as falconry and hound hunting scenes akin to battle scenes. The main representative of this branch of painting is the famous and extraordinarily prolific Philips Wouwerman (1619-68). In addition to him, her brother of this master, Peter (1623-82), Jan Asselein (1610-52), whom we will soon meet among the landscape painters, the aforementioned Palamedes, Jacob Leduc (1600 - later 1660), Henrik Verschuring (1627- 90), Dirk Stop (1610-80), Dirk Mas (1656-1717), etc. For many of these artists, landscape plays as important a role as human figures; but in parallel with them, a mass of painters are working, setting it as their main or exclusive task.

In general, the Dutch have an inalienable right to be proud that their fatherland is the birthplace not only of the newest genre, but also of landscape in the sense that it is understood today. In fact, in other countries, e.g. in Italy and France, art had little interest in inanimate nature, did not find in it either a unique life or special beauty: the painter introduced landscape into his paintings only as a side element, as a decoration, among which episodes of human drama or comedy are played out, and therefore subjected it to conditions scene, inventing picturesque lines and spots that are beneficial to it, but without copying nature, without being imbued with the impression it inspires.

In the same way, he “composed” nature in those rare cases when he tried to paint a purely landscape painting. The Dutch were the first to understand that even in inanimate nature everything breathes life, everything is attractive, everything is capable of evoking thought and exciting the movement of the heart. And this was quite natural, because the Dutch, so to speak, created the nature around them with their own hands, treasured and admired it, like a father cherishes and admires his own brainchild. In addition, this nature, despite the modesty of its forms and colors, provided such colorists as the Dutch with abundant material for developing lighting motifs and aerial perspective thanks to climatic conditions the country - its steam-saturated air, softening the outlines of objects, producing a gradation of tones on different planes and covering the distance with a haze of silvery or golden fog, as well as the changeability of the appearance of areas determined by the time of year, hour of day and weather conditions.

Among the landscape painters of the flowering period, the Dutch. schools that were interpreters of their domestic nature are especially respected: Jan V. Goyen (1595-1656), who, together with Esaias van de Velde (c. 1590-1630) and Pieter Moleyn the Elder. (1595-1661), considered the founder of the Goll. landscape; then this master's student, Salomon. Ruisdael († 1623), Simon de Vlieger (1601-59), Jan Wijnants (c. 1600 - later 1679), lover of the effects of better lighting Art. d. Nair (1603-77), poetic Jacob v. Ruisdael (1628 or 1629-82), Meinert Gobbema (1638-1709) and Cornelis Dekker († 1678).

Among the Dutch there were also many landscape painters who embarked on travels and reproduced motifs of foreign nature, which, however, did not prevent them from maintaining a national character in their painting. Albert V. Everdingen (1621-75) depicted views of Norway; Jan Both (1610-52), Dirk v. Bergen († later 1690) and Jan Lingelbach (1623-74) - Italy; Ian V. d. Mayor the Younger (1656-1705), Hermann Saftleven (1610-85) and Jan Griffir (1656-1720) - Reina; Jan Hackart (1629-99?) - Germany and Switzerland; Cornelis Pulenenburg (1586-1667) and a group of his followers painted landscapes inspired by Italian nature, with ruins of ancient buildings, bathing nymphs and scenes of an imaginary Arcadia. In a special category we can single out masters who in their paintings combined landscapes with images of animals, giving preference to either the first or the second, or treating both parts with equal attention. The most famous among such painters of rural idyll is Paulus Potter (1625-54); Besides him, Adrian should be included here. d. Velde (1635 or 1636-72), Albert Cuyp (1620-91), Abraham Gondius († 1692) and numerous artists who turned for themes preferably or exclusively to Italy, such as: Willem Romain († later 1693), Adam Peinaker (1622-73), Jan-Baptiste Vanix (1621-60), Jan Asselein, Claes Berchem (1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), Thomas Wieck (1616?-77) Frederic de Moucheron (1633 or 1634 -86), etc. Closely related to landscape painting is the painting of architectural views, which Dutch artists began to engage in as an independent branch of art only in the half of the 17th century.

Some of those who have since worked in this area have been sophisticated in depicting city streets and squares with their buildings; these are, among others, less significant, Johannes Bärestraten (1622-66), Job and Gerrit Werk-Heide (1630-93, 1638-98), Jan v. d. Heyden (1647-1712) and Jacob v. village Yulft (1627-88). Others, among whom the most prominent are Pieter Sanredan († 1666), Dirk v. Delen (1605-71), Emmanuel de Witte (1616 or 1617-92), wrote internal views churches and palaces. The sea was of such importance in the life of Holland that her art could not treat it except with the greatest attention. Many of its artists who dealt with landscape, genre and even portraits, breaking away from their usual subjects for a while, became marine painters, and if we decided to list all the painters of the Dutch school who depicted a calm or stormy sea, ships rocking on it, cluttered harbor ships, naval battles, etc., then we would get a very long list that would include the names of Ya. Goyen, S. de Vlieger, S. and J. Ruisdal, A. Cuyp and others already mentioned in the previous lines. Limiting ourselves to pointing out those for whom painting of marine species was a specialty, we must name Willem v. de Velde the Elder (1611 or 1612-93), his famous son V. v. de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), Ludolf Backhuisen (1631-1708), Jan V. de Cappelle († 1679) and Julius Parcellis († later 1634).

Finally, the realistic direction of the Dutch school was the reason that a type of painting was formed and developed in it, which in other schools until then had not been cultivated as a special, independent branch, namely painting of flowers, fruits, vegetables, living creatures, kitchen utensils, tableware etc. - in a word, what is now commonly called “dead nature” (nature morte, Stilleben). In this area between the The most famous artists of the flourishing era were Jan-Davids de Gem (1606-83), his son Cornelis (1631-95), Abraham Mignon (1640-79), Melchior de Gondecoeter (1636-95), Maria Osterwijk (1630-93) , Willem V. Aalst (1626-83), Willem Geda (1594 - later 1678), Willem Kalf (1621 or 1622-93) and Jan Waenix (1640-1719).

The brilliant period of Dutch painting did not last long - only one century. Since the beginning of the 18th century. its decline is coming, not because the coasts of the Zuiderzee cease to produce innate talents, but because In society, national self-awareness is weakening more and more, the national spirit is evaporating, and the French tastes and views of the pompous era of Louis XIV are taking hold. In art, this cultural turn is expressed by the oblivion on the part of artists of those basic principles on which the originality of painters of previous generations depended, and an appeal to aesthetic principles brought from a neighboring country.

Instead of a direct relationship to nature, love of what is native and sincerity, the dominance of preconceived theories, convention, and imitation of Poussin, Lebrun, Cl. Lorrain and other luminaries of the French school. The main propagator of this regrettable trend was the Flemish Gerard de Leresse (1641-1711), who settled in Amsterdam, a very capable artist and educated in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and works of his own pen, among which one, The Painter's Great Book ('t groot schilderboec), served as a code for young artists for fifty years. The famous Hadrian also contributed to the decline of the school. de Werff (1659-1722), whose sleek painting with cold figures, as if carved from ivory, with a dull, powerless color, once seemed the height of perfection. Among the followers of this artist Henryk v. enjoyed fame as historical painters. Limborg (1680-1758) and Philip V.-Dyck (1669-1729), nicknamed "Little V.-Dyck".

Of the other painters of the era in question, endowed with undoubted talent, but infected with the spirit of the times, it should be noted Willem and France v. Miris the Younger (1662-1747, 1689-1763), Nicholas Vercollier (1673-1746), Constantine Netscher (1668-1722), Isaac de Moucheron (1670-1744) and Carel de Maur (1656-1738). Some shine was given to the dying school by Cornelis Troost (1697-1750), primarily a cartoonist, nicknamed Dutch. Gogarth, portrait painter Jan Quincgard (1688-1772), decorative and historical painter Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) and painters of dead nature Jan V. Geysum (1682-1749) and Rachel Reisch (1664-1750).

Foreign influence weighed heavily on Dutch painting until the twenties XIX century, having managed to more or less reflect in it the modifications that art took in France, starting with the wigmaking of the times of the Sun King and ending with the pseudo-classicism of David. When the style of the latter became obsolete and everywhere in Western Europe, instead of the fascination with the ancient Greeks and Romans, a romantic desire was aroused, mastering both poetry and the figurative arts, the Dutch, like other

m peoples, turned their gaze to their antiquity, and therefore to the glorious past of their painting.

The desire to give it again the brilliance with which it shone in the 17th century began to inspire the newest artists and returned them to the principles of the ancient national masters - to a strict observation of nature and an ingenuous, sincere attitude towards the tasks at hand. At the same time, they did not try to completely get rid of foreign influence, but, going to study in Paris or Dusseldorf and other artistic centers in Germany, they took home from there only an acquaintance with the successes modern technology.

Thanks to all this, the revived Dutch school again received an original, attractive physiognomy and is moving today along the path leading to further progress. She can easily contrast many of her newest figures with the best painters of the 19th century in other countries. Historical painting in the strict sense of the word is cultivated in it, as in the old days, very moderately and has no outstanding representatives; But in terms of the historical genre, Holland can be proud of several significant recent masters, such as: Jacob Ekgout (1793-1861), Ari Lamme (b. 1812), Peter V. Schendel (1806-70), David Bles (b. 1821), Hermann ten-Cate (1822-1891) and the highly talented Lawrence Alma-Tadema (b. 1836), who deserted to England. The everyday genre, which was also included in the circle of activity of these artists (with the exception of Alma-Tadema), can be pointed to a number of excellent painters, headed by Joseph Israels (b. 1824) and Christoffel Bisschop (b. 1828); besides them, Michiel Verseg (1756-1843), Elhanon Vervaer (b. 1826), Teresa Schwarze (b. 1852) and Valli Mus (b. 1857) are worthy of being named.

The newest Dutch painting is especially rich in landscape painters who have worked and are working in a variety of ways, sometimes with careful completion, sometimes with the broad technique of the Impressionists, but faithful and poetic interpreters of their native nature. These include Andreas Schelfgout (1787-1870), Barent Koekkoek (1803-62), Johannes Wilders (1811-90), Willem Roelofs (b. 1822), Hendrich v. de Sande-Bockhuisen (b. 1826), Anton Mauwe (1838-88), Jacob Maris (b. 1837), Lodewijk Apol (b. 1850) and many others. etc. Direct heirs of Ya. D. Heyden and E. de Witte, painters of promising views appeared, Jan Verheiden (1778-1846), Bartholomews v. Gowe (1790-1888), Salomon Vervaer (1813-76), Cornelis Springer (1817-91), Johannes Bosbohm (1817-91), Johannes Weissenbruch (1822-1880), etc. Among the newest marine painters of Holland, the palm belongs to Jog. Schotel (1787-1838), Ari Plaisir (b. 1809), Hermann Koekkoek (1815-82) and Henrik Mesdag (b. 1831). Finally, Wouters Verschoor (1812-74) and Johann Gas (b. 1832) showed great skill in animal painting.

Wed. Van Eyden u. van der Willigen, “Geschiedenis der vaderlandische schilderkunst, sedert de helft des 18-de eeuw” (4 volumes, 1866) A. Woltman u. K. Woermann, "Geschichte der Malerei" (2nd and 3rd volumes, 1882-1883); Waagen, “Handbuch der deutschen und niderländischen Malerschulen” (1862); Bode, “Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei” (1883); Havard, "La peinture hollandaise" (1880); E. Fromentin, “Les maîtres d’autrefois. Belgique, Hollande" (1876); A. Bredius, “Die Meisterwerke des Rijksmuseum zu Amsterdam” (1890); P. P. Semenov, “Sketches on the history of Dutch painting based on its samples located in St. Petersburg.” (special supplement to the journal “Vestn. Fine Arts”, 1885-90).

Meanwhile, this is a special area of ​​European culture worthy of more detailed study, which reflects the original life of the people of Holland at that time.

History of appearance

Prominent representatives artistic arts began to appear in the country in the seventeenth century. French cultural experts gave them a common name - “little Dutch”, which is not related to the scale of talent and denotes an attachment to certain themes from everyday life, opposite to the “big” style with large canvases on historical or mythological subjects. The history of the emergence of Dutch painting was described in detail in the nineteenth century, and the authors of works about it also used this term. The “Little Dutch” were distinguished by secular realism, turned to the surrounding world and people, and used painting rich in tones.

Main stages of development

The history of Dutch painting can be divided into several periods. The first lasted approximately from 1620 to 1630, when realism was established in national art. Dutch painting experienced its second period in 1640-1660. This is the time when the local art school really flourished. Finally, the third period, the time when Dutch painting began to decline - from 1670 to the beginning of the eighteenth century.

It is worth noting that cultural centers changed during this time. In the first period, leading artists worked in Haarlem, and the main representative was Khalsa. Then the center shifted to Amsterdam, where the most significant works performed by Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Scenes of everyday life

When listing the most important genres of Dutch painting, it is imperative to start with the everyday - the most vivid and original in history. It was the Flemings who revealed to the world scenes from the everyday life of ordinary people, peasants and townspeople or burghers. The pioneers were Ostade and his followers Audenrogge, Bega and Dusart. In Ostade's early paintings, people play cards, quarrel and even fight in a tavern. Each painting is distinguished by a dynamic, somewhat brutal character. Dutch painting of those times also talks about peaceful scenes: in some works, peasants talk over a pipe and a glass of beer, spend time at a fair or with their families. Rembrandt's influence led to the widespread use of soft, golden-colored chiaroscuro. Urban scenes inspired artists such as Hals, Leicester, Molenaar and Codde. In the mid-seventeenth century, masters depicted doctors, scientists in the process of work, their own workshops, chores around the house, or Each plot should have been entertaining, sometimes grotesquely didactic. Some masters were inclined to poeticize everyday life, for example, Terborch depicted scenes of playing music or flirting. Metsyu used bright colors, turning everyday life into a holiday, and de Hooch was inspired by the simplicity of family life, bathed in diffused daylight. Later representatives of the genre, which include such Dutch masters of painting as Van der Werff and Van der Neer, in their quest for elegant depiction, often created somewhat pretentious subjects.

Nature and landscapes

In addition, Dutch painting is widely represented in the landscape genre. It first emerged in the works of such Haarlem masters as van Goyen, de Moleyn and van Ruisdael. It was they who began to depict rural areas in a certain silvery light. The material unity of nature came to the fore in his works. The seascapes are worth mentioning separately. The 17th century Marinists included Porsellis, de Vlieger and van de Capelle. They did not so much strive to convey certain sea scenes as they tried to depict the water itself, the play of light on it and in the sky.

By the second half of the seventeenth century, more emotional works with philosophical ideas emerged in the genre. Jan van Ruisdael revealed the beauty of the Dutch landscape to the maximum, depicting it in all its drama, dynamics and monumentality. Hobbem, who preferred sunny landscapes, continued his traditions. Koninck painted panoramas, and van der Neer created night landscapes and rendered moonlight, sunrise and sunset. A number of artists are also characterized by the depiction of animals in landscapes, for example, grazing cows and horses, as well as hunting and scenes with cavalrymen. Later, artists began to become interested in foreign nature - Both, van Laar, Wenix, Berchem and Hackert depicted Italy bathing in the rays of the southern sun. The founder of the genre was Sanredam, whose best followers can be called the Berkheide brothers and Jan van der Heijden.

Image of interiors

A separate genre that distinguished Dutch painting in its heyday can be called scenes with church, palace and home rooms. Interiors appeared in paintings of the second half of the seventeenth century by the masters of Delft - Haukgeest, van der Vliet and de Witte, who became the main representative of the movement. Using Vermeer's techniques, artists depicted scenes bathed in sunlight, full of emotion and volume.

Picturesque dishes and dishes

Finally, another characteristic genre of Dutch painting is still life, especially the depiction of breakfasts. It was first taken up by Haarlem residents Claes and Heda, who painted laid tables with luxurious dishes. The picturesque chaos and special conveyance of a cozy interior are filled with silver-gray light, characteristic of silver and pewter. Utrecht artists painted lush floral still lifes, and in The Hague, artists were especially good at depicting fish and sea reptiles. In Leiden, a philosophical direction of the genre arose, in which skulls and hourglasses coexist with symbols of sensual pleasure or earthly glory, designed to remind of the transience of time. Democratic kitchen still lifes became a hallmark of the Rotterdam art school.

About half of the 16th table. among Dutch painters there is a desire to get rid of the shortcomings of domestic art - its Gothic angularity and dryness - by studying Italian artists of the Renaissance and combining their manner with the best traditions of their own school. This desire is already visible in the works of the aforementioned Mostert; but the main disseminator of the new movement should be considered Jan Schorel (1495-1562), who lived for a long time in Italy and later founded a school in Utrecht, from which came a number of artists infected with the desire to become Dutch Raphaels and Michelangelos. In his footsteps, Maarten van Van, nicknamed Gemskerk (1498-1574), Henryk Goltzius (1558-1616), Peter Montford, nicknamed. Blokhorst (1532-83), Cornelis v. Haarlem (1562-1638) and others belonging to the next period of the Italian school, such as, for example, Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651), Gerard Gonthorst (1592-1662), went beyond the Alps to become imbued with the perfections of the luminaries of Italian painting, but fell , for the most part, under the influence of representatives of the decline of this painting that was beginning at that time, they returned to their homeland as mannerists, imagining that the whole essence of art lies in the exaggeration of muscles, in the pretentiousness of angles and the panache of conventional colors. However, the Italians' passion for painting, which often extended to extremes in the transitional era of Georgia, brought a kind of benefit, since it brought into this painting better, more learned drawing and the ability to manage composition more freely and boldly. Together with the Old Netherlandish tradition and boundless love for nature, Italianism became one of the elements from which the original, highly developed art of the flourishing era was formed. The onset of this era, as we have already said, should be dated to the beginning of the 17th century, when Holland, having won independence, began to live a new life. The dramatic transformation of an oppressed and poor country just yesterday into a politically important, comfortable and wealthy union of states was accompanied by an equally dramatic revolution in its art. From all sides, almost simultaneously, wonderful artists are emerging in countless numbers, called to activity by the rise of the national spirit and the need for their work that has developed in society. To the original artistic centers, Haarlem and Leiden, new ones are added - Delft, Utrecht, Dortrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, etc. Everywhere the old tasks of painting are being developed in a new way under the influence of changing demands and views, and its new branches, the beginnings of which were barely noticeable in the previous period. The Reformation drove religious paintings out of churches; there was no need to decorate palaces and noble chambers with images of ancient gods and heroes, and therefore historical painting, satisfying the tastes of the rich bourgeoisie, discarded idealism and turned to an accurate reproduction of reality: it began to interpret long-past events as the events of the day that took place in Holland, and in especially took up portraiture, perpetuating in it the features of people of that time, either in single figures or in extensive, multi-figure compositions depicting rifle societies (schutterstuke), which played such a prominent role in the struggle for the liberation of the country - the managers of its charitable institutions (regentenstuke) , shop foremen and members of various corporations. If we decided to talk about all the talented portrait painters of the flourishing era of Gaul. art, then just listing their names with an indication of their best works would take many lines; Therefore, we limit ourselves to mentioning only those artists who are especially outstanding from the general ranks. These are: Michiel Mierevelt (1567-1641), his student Paulus Morelse (1571-1638), Thomas de Keyser (1596-1667) Jan van Ravesteyn (1572? - 1657), predecessors of the three greatest portrait painters of Holland - the sorcerer of chiaroscuro Rembrandt van Rijn ( 1606-69), an incomparable draftsman who had an amazing art of modeling figures in light, but somewhat cold in character and color, Bartholomew van der Gelst (1611 or 1612-70) and striking with the fugue of his brush Frans Gols the Elder (1581-1666). Of these, the name of Rembrandt shines especially brightly in history, at first held in high esteem by his contemporaries, then forgotten by them, little appreciated by posterity, and only in the current century elevated, in all fairness, to the level of world genius. In his characteristic artistic personality, all the best qualities of G. painting are concentrated, as if in focus, and his influence was reflected in all its types - in portraits, historical paintings, everyday scenes and landscapes. The most famous among Rembrandt's students and followers were: Ferdinand Bol (1616-80), Govert Flinck (1615-60), Gerbrand van den Eckhout (1621-74), Nicholas Mas (1632-93), Art de Gelder (1645-1727 ), Jacob Backer (1608 or 1609-51), Jan Victors (1621-74), Carel Fabricius (c. 1620-54), Salomon and Philips Koning (1609-56, 1619-88), Pieter de Grebber, Willem de Porter († later 1645), Gerard Dou (1613-75) and Samuel van Googstraten (1626-78). In addition to these artists, to complete the list of the best portrait painters and historical painters of the period under review, one should name Jan Lievens (1607-30), Rembrandt’s friend in his studies with P. Lastman, Abraham van Tempel (1622-72) and Peter Nason (1612-91), who apparently worked under the influence of V. d. Gelsta, the imitator of Hals Johannes Verspronck (1597-1662), Jan and Jacob de Braev († 1664, † 1697), Cornelis van Zeulen (1594-1664) and Nicholas de Gelta-Stokade (1614-69). Household painting, the first experiments of which appeared in the old Dutch school, found itself in the 17th century. especially fertile soil in Protestant, free, bourgeois, self-satisfied Holland. Small pictures, artlessly representing the customs and life of different classes of local society, seemed to enough people more entertaining than large works of serious painting, and, along with landscapes, more convenient for decorating cozy private homes. A whole horde of artists satisfies the demand for such pictures, without thinking long about the choice of themes for them, but conscientiously reproducing everything that is encountered in reality, showing at the same time love for their family, then good-natured humor, accurately characterizing the depicted positions and faces and refined in the mastery of technology. While some are occupied with common people's life, scenes of peasant happiness and sorrow, drinking bouts in taverns and taverns, gatherings in front of roadside inns, rural holidays, games and skating on the ice of frozen rivers and canals, etc., others take the content for their works from a more elegant circle - they paint graceful ladies in their intimate surroundings, the courtship of dandy gentlemen, housewives giving orders to their maids, salon exercises in music and singing, the revelry of golden youth in pleasure houses, etc. In the long series of artists of the first category, they excel Adrian and Izak v. Ostade (1610-85, 1621-49), Adrian Brouwer (1605 or 1606-38), Jan Stan (about 1626-79), Cornelis Bega (1620-64), Richart Brackenburg (1650-1702), P. v. Lahr, nicknamed Bambocchio in Italy (1590-1658), Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), Egbert van der Poel (1621-64), Cornelis Drohslot (1586-1666), Egbert v. Gemskerk (1610-80), Henrik Roques, nicknamed Sorg (1621-82), Claes Molenaar (formerly 1630-76), Jan Minse-Molenar (about 1610-68), Cornelis Saftleven (1606-81) and some. etc. Of the equally significant number of painters who reproduced the life of the middle and upper, generally sufficient, class, Gerard Terborch (1617-81), Gerard Dou (1613-75), Gabriel Metsu (1630-67), Peter de Gogh ( 1630-66), Caspar Netscher (1639-84), France c. Miris the Elder (1635-81), Eglon van der Naer (1643-1703), Gottfried Schalcken (1643-1706), Jan van der Meer of Delft (1632-73), Johannes Vercollier (1650-93), Quiring Brekelenkamp (†1668 ). Jacob Ochtervelt († 1670), Dirk Hals (1589-1656), Anthony and Palamedes Palamedes (1601-73, 1607-38), etc. The category of genre painters includes artists who painted scenes of military life, idleness of soldiers in guardhouses, camp sites , cavalry skirmishes and entire battles, dressage horses, as well as falconry and hound hunting scenes akin to battle scenes. The main representative of this branch of painting is the famous and extraordinarily prolific Philips Wouwerman (1619-68). In addition to him, her brother of this master, Peter (1623-82), Jan Asselein (1610-52), whom we will soon meet among the landscape painters, the aforementioned Palamedes, Jacob Leduc (1600 - later 1660), Henrik Verschuring (1627- 90), Dirk Stop (1610-80), Dirk Mas (1656-1717), etc. For many of these artists, landscape plays as important a role as human figures; but in parallel with them, a mass of painters are working, setting it as their main or exclusive task. In general, the Dutch have an inalienable right to be proud that their fatherland is the birthplace not only of the newest genre, but also of landscape in the sense that it is understood today. In fact, in other countries, e.g. in Italy and France, art had little interest in inanimate nature, did not find in it either a unique life or special beauty: the painter introduced landscape into his paintings only as a side element, as a decoration, among which episodes of human drama or comedy are played out, and therefore subordinated it conditions of the scene, inventing picturesque lines and spots that are beneficial to it, but without copying nature, without being imbued with the impression it inspires. In the same way he “composed” nature in those rare cases when he tried to paint a purely landscape painting. The Dutch were the first to understand that even in inanimate nature everything breathes life, everything is attractive, everything is capable of evoking thought and exciting the movement of the heart. And this was quite natural, because the Dutch, so to speak, created the nature around them with their own hands, treasured and admired it, like a father cherishes and admires his own brainchild. In addition, this nature, despite the modesty of its forms and colors, provided colorists such as the Dutch with abundant material for developing lighting motifs and aerial perspective due to the climatic conditions of the country - its steam-saturated air, softening the outlines of objects, producing a gradation of tones at different plans and covering the distance with a haze of silvery or golden fog, as well as the changeability of the appearance of areas determined by the time of year, hour of day and weather conditions. Among the landscape painters of the flowering period, the Dutch. schools that were interpreters of their domestic nature are especially respected: Jan V. Goyen (1595-1656), who, together with Esaias van de Velde (c. 1590-1630) and Pieter Moleyn the Elder. (1595-1661), considered the founder of the Goll. landscape; then this master's student, Salomon. Ruisdael († 1623), Simon de Vlieger (1601-59), Jan Wijnants (c. 1600 - later 1679), lover of the effects of better lighting Art. d. Nair (1603-77), poetic Jacob v. Ruisdael (1628 or 1629-82), Meinert Gobbema (1638-1709) and Cornelis Dekker († 1678). Among the Dutch there were also many landscape painters who embarked on travels and reproduced motifs of foreign nature, which, however, did not prevent them from maintaining a national character in their painting. Albert V. Everdingen (1621-75) depicted views of Norway; Jan Both (1610-52), Dirk v. Bergen († later 1690) and Jan Lingelbach (1623-74) - Italy; Ian V. d. Mayor the Younger (1656-1705), Hermann Saftleven (1610-85) and Jan Griffir (1656-1720) - Reina; Jan Hackart (1629-99?) - Germany and Switzerland; Cornelis Pulenenburg (1586-1667) and a group of his followers painted landscapes inspired by Italian nature, with ruins of ancient buildings, bathing nymphs and scenes of an imaginary Arcadia. In a special category we can single out masters who in their paintings combined landscapes with images of animals, giving preference to either the first or the second, or treating both parts with equal attention. The most famous among such painters of rural idyll is Paulus Potter (1625-54); Besides him, Adrian should be included here. d. Velde (1635 or 1636-72), Albert Cuyp (1620-91), Abraham Gondius († 1692) and numerous artists who turned for themes preferably or exclusively to Italy, such as: Willem Romain († later 1693), Adam Peinaker (1622-73), Jan-Baptiste Vanix (1621-60), Jan Asselein, Claes Berchem (1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), Thomas Wieck (1616?-77) Frederic de Moucheron (1633 or 1634 -86), etc. Closely related to landscape painting is the painting of architectural views, which Dutch artists began to engage in as an independent branch of art only in the half of the 17th century. Some of those who have since worked in this area have been sophisticated in depicting city streets and squares with their buildings; these are, among others, less significant, Johannes Bärestraten (1622-66), Job and Gerrit Werk-Heide (1630-93, 1638-98), Jan v. d. Heyden (1647-1712) and Jacob v. village Yulft (1627-88). Others, among whom the most prominent are Pieter Sanredan († 1666), Dirk v. Delen (1605-71), Emmanuel de Witte (1616 or 1617-92), painted interior views of churches and palaces. The sea was of such importance in the life of Holland that her art could not treat it except with the greatest attention. Many of its artists who dealt with landscapes, genres and even portraits, breaking away from their usual subjects for a while, became marine painters, and if we decided to list all the Dutch painters. schools depicting a calm or raging sea, ships rocking on it, harbors cluttered with ships, naval battles, etc., then we would get a very long list that would include the names of Ya. Goyen, S. de Vlieger, S. and J. Ruisdal, A. Cuyp and others already mentioned in the previous lines. Limiting ourselves to pointing out those for whom painting of marine species was a specialty, we must name Willem v. de Velde the Elder (1611 or 1612-93), his famous son V. v. de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), Ludolf Backhuisen (1631-1708), Jan V. de Cappelle († 1679) and Julius Parcellis († later 1634). Finally, the realistic direction of the Dutch school was the reason that a type of painting was formed and developed in it, which in other schools until then had not been cultivated as a special, independent branch, namely painting of flowers, fruits, vegetables, living creatures, kitchen utensils, tableware etc. - in a word, what is now commonly called “dead nature” (nature morte, Stilleben). In this area between the The most famous artists of the flourishing era were Jan-Davids de Gem (1606-83), his son Cornelis (1631-95), Abraham Mignon (1640-79), Melchior de Gondecoeter (1636-95), Maria Osterwijk (1630-93) , Willem V. Aalst (1626-83), Willem Geda (1594 - later 1678), Willem Kalf (1621 or 1622-93) and Jan Waenix (1640-1719).

The brilliant period of Dutch painting did not last long - only one century. Since the beginning of the 18th century. its decline is coming, not because the coasts of the Zuiderzee cease to produce innate talents, but because In society, national self-awareness is weakening more and more, the national spirit is evaporating, and the French tastes and views of the pompous era of Louis XIV are taking hold. In art, this cultural turn is expressed by the oblivion on the part of artists of those basic principles on which the originality of painters of previous generations depended, and an appeal to aesthetic principles brought from a neighboring country. Instead of a direct relationship to nature, love of what is native and sincerity, the dominance of preconceived theories, convention, and imitation of Poussin, Lebrun, Cl. Lorrain and other luminaries of the French school. The main propagator of this regrettable trend was the Flemish Gerard de Leresse (1641-1711), who settled in Amsterdam, a very capable artist and educated in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and works of his own pen, among which one - "The Great Book of the Painter" ("t groot schilderboec") - served as a code for young artists for fifty years. The decline of the school was also contributed to by the famous Adrian V. de Werff (1659-1722), whose sleek painting with cold, as if cut out ivory figures, with a dull, powerless coloring, once seemed the height of perfection. Among the followers of this artist, Henrik V. Limborg (1680-1758) and Philip V.-Dyck (1669-1729), nicknamed “Little V.,” were famous as historical painters. -Dyck". Of the other painters of the era in question, endowed with undoubted talent, but infected with the spirit of the time, it should be noted Willem and France v. Miris the Younger (1662-1747, 1689-1763), Nicholas Vercollier (1673-1746), Constantine Netscher (1668-1722), Isaac de Moucheron (1670-1744) and Carel de Maur (1656-1738). Some shine was given to the dying school by Cornelis Troost (1697-1750), primarily a cartoonist, nicknamed Dutch. Gogarth, portrait painter Jan Quincgard (1688-1772), decorative and historical painter Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) and painters of dead nature Jan V. Geysum (1682-1749) and Rachel Reisch (1664-1750).

Foreign influence weighed on Dutch painting until the twenties of the 19th century, having managed to more or less reflect in it the changes that art took in France, starting with the wigmaking of the times of the Sun King and ending with the pseudo-classicism of David. When the style of the latter became obsolete and everywhere in Western Europe, instead of the fascination with the ancient Greeks and Romans, a romantic desire was aroused, mastering both poetry and the figurative arts, the Dutch, like other peoples, turned their gaze to their antiquity, and therefore to their glorious past painting. The desire to give it again the brilliance with which it shone in the 17th century began to inspire the newest artists and returned them to the principles of the ancient national masters - to a strict observation of nature and an ingenuous, sincere attitude towards the tasks at hand. At the same time, they did not try to completely eliminate themselves from foreign influence, but when they went to study in Paris or Dusseldorf and other artistic centers in Germany, they took home only an acquaintance with the successes of modern technology. Thanks to all this, the revived Dutch school again received an original, attractive physiognomy and is moving today along the path leading to further progress. She can easily contrast many of her newest figures with the best painters of the 19th century in other countries. Historical painting in the strict sense of the word is cultivated in it, as in the old days, very moderately and has no outstanding representatives; But in terms of the historical genre, Holland can be proud of several significant recent masters, such as: Jacob Ekgout (1793-1861), Ari Lamme (b. 1812), Peter V. Schendel (1806-70), David Bles (b. 1821), Hermann ten-Cate (1822-1891) and the highly talented Lawrence Alma-Tadema (b. 1836), who deserted to England. In terms of the everyday genre, which was also included in the circle of activity of these artists (with the exception of Alma-Tadema), one can point to a number of excellent painters, headed by Joseph Israels (b. 1824) and Christoffel Bisschop (b. 1828); besides them, Michiel Verseg (1756-1843), Elhanon Vervaer (b. 1826), Teresa Schwarze (b. 1852) and Valli Mus (b. 1857) are worthy of being named. The newest goal is especially rich. painting by landscape painters who worked and work in a variety of ways, sometimes with careful completion, sometimes with the broad technique of the impressionists, but faithful and poetic interpreters of their native nature. These include Andreas Schelfgout (1787-1870), Barent Koekkoek (1803-62), Johannes Wilders (1811-90), Willem Roelofs (b. 1822), Hendrich v. de Sande-Bockhuisen (b. 1826), Anton Mauwe (1838-88), Jacob Maris (b. 1837), Lodewijk Apol (b. 1850) and many others. etc. Direct heirs of Ya. D. Heyden and E. de Witte, painters of promising views appeared, Jan Verheiden (1778-1846), Bartholomews v. Gowe (1790-1888), Salomon Vervaer (1813-76), Cornelis Springer (1817-91), Johannes Bosbohm (1817-91), Johannes Weissenbruch (1822-1880), etc. Among the newest marine painters of Holland, the palm belongs to Jog. Schotel (1787-1838), Ari Plaisir (b. 1809), Hermann Koekkoek (1815-82) and Henrik Mesdag (b. 1831). Finally, Wouters Verschoor (1812-74) and Johann Gas (b. 1832) showed great skill in animal painting.

Wed. Van Eyden u. van der Willigen, "Geschiedenis der vaderlandische schilderkunst, sedert de helft des 18-de eeuw" (4 volumes, 1866) A. Woltman u. K. Woermann, "Geschichte der Malerei" (2nd and 3rd volumes, 1882-1883); Waagen, "Handbuch der deutschen und niderländischen Malerschulen" (1862); Bode, "Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei" (1883); Havard, "La peinture hollandaise" (1880); E. Fromentin, "Les maîtres d"autrefois. Belgique, Hollande" (1876); A. Bredius, "Die Meisterwerke des Rijksmuseum zu Amsterdam" (1890); P. P. Semenov, "Studies on the history of Dutch painting based on its samples located in St. Petersburg." (special appendix to magazine "Vestn. Fine Arts", 1885-90).

The first years of the 17th century are considered to be the birth of the Dutch school. This school belongs to the great schools of painting and is an independent and independent school with unique and inimitable characteristics and identity.

This has a largely historical explanation - a new movement in art and a new state on the map of Europe arose simultaneously.

Until the 17th century, Holland did not stand out for its abundance of national artists. Perhaps that is why in the future in this country one can count such a large number of artists, and specifically Dutch artists. While this country was one state with Flanders, it was mainly in Flanders that original artistic movements were intensively created and developed. Outstanding painters Van Eyck, Memling, Rogier van der Weyden, the likes of whom were not found in Holland, worked in Flanders. Only isolated bursts of genius in painting can be noted at the beginning of the 16th century; this is the artist and engraver Luke of Leiden, who is a follower of the Bruges school. But Luke of Leiden did not create any school. The same can be said about the painter Dirk Bouts from Haarlem, whose creations hardly stand out against the background of the style and manner of the origins of the Flemish school, about the artists Mostaert, Skorel and Heemskerke, who, despite all their significance, are not individual talents that characterize them with their originality country.

Then Italian influence spread to everyone who created with the brush - from Antwerp to Haarlem. This was one of the reasons that borders were blurred, schools were mixed, and artists lost their national identity. Not even a single student of Jan Skorel survived. The last, the most famous, the greatest portrait painter, who, together with Rembrandt, is the pride of Holland, an artist gifted with powerful talent, excellently educated, varied in style, courageous and flexible by nature, a cosmopolitan who has lost all traces of his origin and even his name - Antonis Moreau , (he was the official painter of the Spanish king) died after 1588.

The surviving painters almost ceased to be Dutch in the spirit of their work; they lacked the organization and ability to renew the national school. These were representatives of Dutch mannerism: the engraver Hendrik Goltzius, Cornelis of Haarlem, who imitated Michelangelo, Abraham Bloemaert, a follower of Correggio, Michiel Mierevelt, a good portrait artist, skillful, precise, laconic, a little cold, modern for his time, but not national. It is interesting that he alone did not succumb to Italian influence, which subjugated most of the manifestations in the painting of Holland at that time.

By the end of the 16th century, when portrait painters had already created a school, other artists began to appear and form. In the second half of the 16th century, a large number of painters were born who became a phenomenon in painting; this was almost the awakening of the Dutch national school. The wide variety of talents leads to many different directions and paths for the development of painting. Artists test themselves in all genres, in different color schemes: some work in a light manner, others in a dark one (the influence of the Italian artist Caravaggio was felt here). Painters are committed to light colors, and colorists to dark colors. The search for a pictorial manner begins, and rules for depicting chiaroscuro are developed. The palette becomes more relaxed and free, as do the lines and plasticity of the image. Rembrandt's direct predecessors appear - his teachers Jan Pace and Peter Lastman. Genre methods are also becoming more free - historicity is not as obligatory as before. A special, deeply national and almost historical genre is being created - group portraits intended for public places - city halls, corporations, workshops and communities. With this event, the most perfect in form, the 16th century ends and the 17th century begins.

This is only the beginning, the embryo of the school; the school itself does not exist yet. There are many talented artists. Among them there are skilled craftsmen, several great painters. Morelse, Jan Ravestein, Lastman, Frans Hals, Pulenburg, van Schoten, van de Venne, Thomas de Keyser, Honthorst, Cape the Elder, and finally Esayas van de Velde and van Goyen - all of them were born at the end of the 16th century. This list also includes artists whose names have been preserved by history, those who represented only individual attempts to achieve mastery, and those who became teachers and predecessors of future masters.

This was a critical moment in the development of Dutch painting. With an unstable political balance, everything depended only on chance. In Flanders, where a similar awakening was observed, on the contrary, there was already a sense of confidence and stability that was not yet there in Holland. In Flanders there were already artists who had formed or were close to this. Political and socio-historical conditions in this country were more favorable. There was a more flexible and tolerant government, traditions and society. The need for luxury gave rise to a persistent need for art. In general, there were serious reasons for Flanders to become a great center of art for the second time. For this, only two things were missing: several years of peace and a master who would be the creator of the school.

In 1609, when the fate of Holland was being decided - Philip III agreed on a truce between Spain and the Netherlands - Rubens appeared.

Everything depended on political or military chance. Defeated and subjugated, Holland would have to completely lose its independence. Then, of course, there could not be two independent schools - in Holland and in Flanders. In a country dependent on Italian-Flemish influence, such a school and talented original artists could not develop.

In order for the Dutch people to be born, and for Dutch art to see the light with them, a revolution, deep and victorious, was needed. It was especially important that the revolution be based on justice, reason, necessity, that the people deserve what they wanted to achieve, that they be decisive, convinced that they are right, hardworking, patient, restrained, heroic, and wise. All these historical features were subsequently reflected during the formation of the Dutch school of painting.

The situation turned out to be such that the war did not ruin the Dutch, but enriched them; the struggle for independence did not deplete their strength, but strengthened and inspired them. In the victory over the invaders, the people showed the same courage as in the fight against the elements, over the sea, over the flooding of lands, over the climate. What was supposed to destroy the people served them well. Treaties signed with Spain gave Holland freedom and strengthened its position. All this led to the creation of their own art, which glorified, spiritualized and expressed the inner essence of the Dutch people.

After the treaty of 1609 and the official recognition of the United Provinces, there was an immediate lull. It was as if a beneficial, warm breeze touched human souls, revived the soil, found and awakened sprouts that were ready to bloom. It is amazing how unexpectedly and in what a short period of time - no more than thirty years - in a small space, on ungrateful desert soil, in harsh living conditions, a wonderful galaxy of painters, and great painters at that, appeared.

They appeared immediately and everywhere: in Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Leiden, Delft, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Haarlem, even abroad - as if from seeds that fell outside the field. The earliest are Jan van Goyen and Wijnants, born at the turn of the century. And further, in the interval from the beginning of the century to the end of its first third - Cuyp, Terborch, Brouwer, Rembrandt, Adrian van Ostade, Ferdinand Bohl, Gerard Dau, Metsu, Venix, Wauerman, Berchem, Potter, Jan Steen, Jacob Ruisdael.

But the creative juices didn’t stop there. Next were born Pieter de Hooch, Hobbema. The last of the greats - van der Heyden and Adrian van de Velde - were born in 1636 and 1637. At this time, Rembrandt was thirty years old. Approximately these years can be considered the time of the first flowering of the Dutch school.

Considering the historical events of that time, one can imagine what the aspirations, character and fate of the new school of painting should be. What could these artists write in a country like Holland?

The revolution, which gave the Dutch people freedom and wealth, at the same time deprived them of what constitutes the vital basis of great schools everywhere. She changed beliefs, changed habits, abolished images of both ancient and gospel scenes, and stopped the creation of large works - church and decorative paintings. In fact, every artist had an alternative - to be original or not to be at all.

It was necessary to create art for a nation of burghers that would appeal to them, depict them, and be relevant to them. They were practical, not prone to daydreaming, business people, with broken traditions and anti-Italian sentiments. We can say that the Dutch people had a simple and bold task - to create their own portrait.

Dutch painting was and could only be an expression of the external appearance, a true, accurate, similar portrait of Holland. It was a portrait of people and terrain, burgher customs, squares, streets, fields, sea and sky. The main elements of the Dutch school were portraits, landscapes, and everyday scenes. Such was this painting from the beginning of its existence until its decline.

It may seem that nothing could be simpler than the discovery of this ordinary art. In fact, it is impossible to imagine anything equal to it in breadth and novelty.

Immediately everything changed in the manner of understanding, seeing and conveying: point of view, artistic ideal, choice of nature, style and method. Italian and Flemish painting at its best is still understandable to us, because they are still enjoyed, but these are already dead languages, and no one will use them anymore.

At one time there was a habit of thinking loftily and generally; there was an art that consisted in the skillful selection of objects. In their decoration, correction. It loved to show nature as it does not exist in reality. Everything depicted was more or less consistent with the person’s personality, depended on it and was its likeness. As a result, an art arose in which man is at the center, and all other images of the universe were either embodied in human forms, or were vaguely displayed as a secondary environment of man. Creativity developed according to certain patterns. Each object had to borrow its plastic form from the same ideal. The man had to be depicted more often naked than clothed, well-built and handsome, so that he could play the role assigned to him with appropriate grandeur.

Now the task of painting has become simpler. It was necessary to give each thing or phenomenon its true meaning, to place a person in its proper place, and, if necessary, to do without him altogether.

It's time to think less, look closely at what's closest, observe better and write differently. Now this is the painting of the crowd, the citizen, the working man. It was necessary to become modest for everything modest, small for the small, inconspicuous for the inconspicuous, to accept everything without rejecting or despising anything, to penetrate into the hidden life of things, lovingly merging with their existence, it was necessary to become attentive, inquisitive and patient. Genius now consists of not having any prejudices. There is no need to embellish, or ennoble, or expose anything: all this is a lie and useless work.

Dutch painters, creating in some corner of the northern country with water, forests, sea horizons, were able to reflect the entire universe in miniature. A small country, carefully explored according to the tastes and instincts of the observer, turns into an inexhaustible treasury, as abundant as life itself, as rich in sensations as the human heart is rich in them. The Dutch school has been growing and working like this for a whole century.

Dutch painters found subjects and colors to satisfy any human inclinations and affections, for rough and delicate natures, ardent and melancholic, dreamy and cheerful. Cloudy days give way to cheerful sunny days, the sea is sometimes calm and sparkling with silver, sometimes stormy and gloomy. There are many pastures with farms and many ships crowded along the coast. And you can almost always feel the movement of air over the expanses and strong winds from the North Sea, which pile up clouds, bend trees, turn the wings of mills and drive light and shadows. To this must be added cities, home and street life, festivities at fairs, depictions of various morals, the need of the poor, the horrors of winter, idleness in taverns with their tobacco smoke and mugs of beer. On the other hand - a wealthy lifestyle, conscientious work, cavalcades, afternoon rest, hunting. In addition - public life, civil ceremonies, banquets. The result was new art, but with subjects as old as time.

Thus arose a harmonious unity of the spirit of the school and the most astonishing diversity ever to arise within a single movement of art.

In general, the Dutch school is called genre school. If we decompose it into its component elements, then we can distinguish in it landscape painters, masters of group portraits, marine painters, animal painters, artists who painted group portraits or still lifes. If you look in more detail, you can distinguish many genre varieties - from lovers of picturesqueness to ideologists, from copyists of nature to its interpreters, from conservative homebodies to travelers, from those who love and feel humor to artists who avoid comedy. Let us recall the paintings of Ostade's humor and the seriousness of Ruisdael, the equanimity of Potter and the mockery of Jan Steen, the wit of Van de Velde and the gloomy dreaminess of the great Rembrandt.

With the exception of Rembrandt, who must be considered an exceptional phenomenon, both for his country and for all times, then all other Dutch artists are characterized by a certain style and method. The laws for this style are sincerity, accessibility, naturalness, and expressiveness. If you take away from Dutch art what can be called honesty, then you will cease to understand its vital basis and will not be able to determine either its moral character or its style. In these artists, who for the most part have earned the reputation of short-sighted copyists, you feel a sublime and kind soul, loyalty to truth, and love of realism. All this gives their works a value that the things depicted on them themselves do not seem to have.

The beginning for this sincere style and the first result of this honest approach is a perfect drawing. Among Dutch painters, Potter is a manifestation of genius in precise, verified measurements and the ability to trace the movement of each line.

In Holland, the sky often takes up half, and sometimes the entire picture. Therefore, it is necessary for the sky in the picture to move, attract, and carry us along with it. So that the difference between day, evening and night can be felt, so that heat and cold can be felt, so that the viewer is both chilly and enjoys it, and feels the need to concentrate. Although it is probably difficult to call such a drawing the noblest of all, try to find artists in the world who would paint the sky, like Ruisdael and van der Neer, and would say so much and so brilliantly with their work. Everywhere the Dutch have the same design - restrained, laconic, precise, natural and naive, skillful and not artificial.

The Dutch palette is quite worthy of their drawing, hence the perfect unity of their painting method. Any Dutch painting is easy to recognize by its appearance. It is small in size and distinguished by its powerful, strict colors. This requires great accuracy, a steady hand, and deep concentration from the artist in order to achieve a concentrated effect on the viewer. The artist must go deep into himself in order to nurture his idea, the viewer must go deep into himself in order to comprehend the artist’s plan. It is the Dutch paintings that give the clearest idea of ​​this hidden and eternal process: to feel, think and express. There is no more rich picture in the world, since it is the Dutch who include so much content in such a small space. That is why everything here takes on a precise, compressed and condensed form.

Every Dutch painting is concave, it consists of curves described around a single point, which is the embodiment of the concept of the picture and shadows located around the main spot of light. A solid base, a running top and rounded corners tending towards the center - all this is outlined, colored and illuminated in a circle. As a result, the painting acquires depth, and the objects depicted on it move away from the viewer’s eye. The viewer is, as it were, led from the foreground to the last, from the frame to the horizon. We seem to inhabit the picture, move, look deep, raise our heads to measure the depth of the sky. The rigor of aerial perspective, the perfect correspondence of color and shades with the place in space that the object occupies.

For a more complete understanding of Dutch painting, one should consider in detail the elements of this movement, the features of the methods, the nature of the palette, and understand why it is so poor, almost monochromatic and so rich in results. But all these questions, like many others, have always been the subject of speculation by many art historians, but have never been sufficiently studied and clarified. The description of the main features of Dutch art allows us to distinguish this school from others and trace its origins. An expressive image illustrating this school is a painting by Adriaen van Ostade from the Amsterdam Museum "Artist's Atelier". This subject was one of the favorites of Dutch painters. We see an attentive man, slightly hunched over, with a prepared palette, thin, clean brushes and transparent oil. He writes in the twilight. His face is concentrated, his hand is careful. Only, perhaps, these painters were more daring and knew how to laugh more carefree and enjoy life than can be concluded from the surviving images. Otherwise, how would their genius manifest itself in an atmosphere of professional traditions?

The foundation for the Dutch school was laid by van Goyen and Wijnants at the beginning of the 17th century, establishing some laws of painting. These laws were passed down from teachers to students, and for a whole century Dutch painters lived by them without deviating to the side.

Dutch mannerism painting

=Dutch painting. Large collection=

Dutch painting is the first branch of the so-called. The "Dutch school", like the second - the Flemish one, arose as a separate era in the fine arts after a brutal revolution, ending with the victory of the Dutch people over the Spaniards who oppressed them. From this moment on, Dutch painting immediately took on an original, completely national character and quickly reached a bright and abundant flowering. Painting, in the works of a huge number of more or less talented artists who appeared almost simultaneously, immediately took on a direction here that was very versatile and at the same time completely different from the direction of art in other countries! The main feature that characterizes these artists is their love for nature, the desire to reproduce it in all its simplicity and truth, without the slightest embellishment, without subsuming it under any conditions of a preconceived ideal. Its second distinctive property is a subtle sense of color and an understanding of what a strong, enchanting impression can be made, in addition to the content of the picture, only by the faithful and powerful transmission of colorful relationships determined in nature by the action of light rays, proximity or range of distances. Dutch painting is a painting where the sense of color and light and shade is developed to such an extent that light, with its countless and varied nuances, plays in the picture, one might say, the role of the main character and gives great interest to the most insignificant plot, the most inelegant forms and images... .I present to you my personal collection of paintings by Dutch artists! A little history: Most Dutch artists do not go on long searches for material for their creativity, but are content with what they find around them, in their native nature and in the life of their people - the noisy fun of common holidays, peasant feasts, scenes of village life or the intimate life of city dwellers , native dunes, polders and vast plains crossed by canals, herds grazing in lush meadows, villages on the banks of rivers, lakes and grachts, cities with their clean houses, drawbridges and high spiers of churches and town halls, harbors cluttered with ships, filled with silvery or the golden vapors of the sky - all this, under the brush of the gall. masters imbued with love for the fatherland and national pride, turns into paintings full of air, light and attractiveness. Even in those cases when some of these masters turn to the Bible, ancient history and mythology for themes, even then, without worrying about maintaining archaeological fidelity, they transfer the action to the environment of the Dutch, surrounding it with a Dutch setting. True, next to the crowded crowd of such patriotic artists there is a phalanx of other painters looking for inspiration outside the borders of their fatherland, in the classical country of art, Italy; however, in their works there are also features that expose their nationality. Finally, as a feature of the Dutch painters, one can point to their renunciation of artistic traditions. It would be in vain to look for among them a strict continuity of well-known aesthetic principles and technical rules, not only in the sense of academic style, but also in the sense of the students’ assimilation of the character of their teachers: with the exception, perhaps, of Rembrandt’s students alone, who more or less closely followed in the footsteps of their genius mentor, almost all painters in Holland, as soon as they passed their student years, and sometimes even during these years, began to work in their own way, in accordance with where their individual inclination led them and what direct observation of nature taught them. Therefore, Dutch artists cannot be divided into schools, just as we do with the artists of Italy or Spain. Meanwhile, in all the main cities of Holland there were organized societies of artists! However, such societies, bearing the name of the guilds of St. Luke, were not academies, the custodians of famous artistic legends, but free corporations, similar to other craft and industrial guilds, not much different from them in terms of structure and with the goal of mutual support of their members, protection of their rights, care for their old age, care for fate their widows and orphans. Every local painter who met the requirements of the moral qualifications was admitted to the guild upon preliminary confirmation of his abilities and knowledge or on the basis of the fame he had already acquired; visiting artists were admitted to the guild as temporary members for the duration of their stay in a given city. The early works of Dutch painters have reached us only in very limited quantities, since most of them perished in that troubled time when the Reformation devastated Catholic churches, abolished monasteries and abbeys, incited “icon breakers” (beeldstormers) to destroy painted and sculpted sacred images, and the popular uprising destroyed everywhere the portraits of the hated tyrants. We know many of the artists who preceded the revolution only by name; We can judge others only by one or two samples of their work. The fog that shrouds us from the initial era of the Dutch school begins to dissipate with the appearance on the scene of Dirk Bouts, nicknamed Stuirbout († 1475), as well as Jan Mostaert (about 1470-1556), whose desire for naturalism is combined with a touch of Gothic legend, the warmth of religious feeling with care for external elegance. In addition to these outstanding masters, from the early era of Dutch art worthy of mention are: Pieter Aertsen († 1516), nicknamed “Long Peter” (Lange Pier) for his tall stature, David Joris (1501-56), a skilled glass painter who became interested in Anabaptism nonsense and imagining himself as the prophet David and the son of God and Dirk Jacobs (two paintings by the latter depicting rifle societies are in the Hermitage). Around the middle of the 16th century. among Dutch painters there is a desire to get rid of the shortcomings of domestic art - its Gothic angularity and dryness - by studying Italian artists of the Renaissance and combining their manner with the best traditions of their own school. The main disseminator of the new movement should be considered Jan van Scorel (1495-1562), who lived for a long time in Italy and later founded a school in Utrecht, from which came a number of artists infected with the desire to become Dutch Raphaels and Michelangelos. Following in his footsteps were Maarten van Van, nicknamed Heemskerk (1498-1574), Henrik Goltzius (1558-1616), Cornelis van Haarlem (1562-1638) and others belonging to the next period of the school, such as, for example, Abraham Bloemaert (1564 -1651) and Gerard Honthorst (1592-1662), who went beyond the Alps to imbue with the perfections of the luminaries of Italian painting, but fell, for the most part, under the influence of representatives of the decline of this very painting that was beginning at that time. However, the passion for the Italians, which often extended to the extreme in the transitional era, brought a kind of benefit, since it brought into this painting a better, more learned drawing and the ability to manage composition more freely and boldly. Together with the Old Netherlandish tradition and boundless love for nature, Italianism became one of the elements from which the original, highly developed art of the flourishing era was formed. The onset of this era, as we have already said, should be dated to the beginning of the 17th century, when Holland, having won independence, began to live a new life. The dramatic transformation of an oppressed and poor country just yesterday into a politically important, comfortable and wealthy union of states was accompanied by an equally dramatic revolution in its art. From all sides, almost simultaneously, wonderful artists are emerging in countless numbers! To the original artistic centers, Harlem and Leiden, new ones are added - Delft, Utrecht, Dordrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, etc. Everywhere the old tasks of painting are being developed in a new way - its new branches, the beginnings of which were barely noticeable in the previous period, are flourishing. The Reformation drove religious paintings out of churches; there was no need to decorate palaces and noble chambers with images of ancient gods and heroes, and therefore historical painting, satisfying the tastes of the rich bourgeoisie, abandoned idealism and turned to an accurate reproduction of reality. If you wanted to talk about all the talented portrait painters of this flourishing era, then just listing their names with an indication of their best works would take many lines; Therefore, we limit ourselves to mentioning only a few. Such, for example, is Michael Mervelt (1567-1641), the predecessor of the three greatest portrait painters of Holland - the sorcerer of chiaroscuro Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69), an incomparable draftsman who had the amazing art of modeling figures in light, but Bartholomew van der was somewhat cold in character and color Helst (1611 or 1612-70) and the striking fugue of his brush by Frans Hals the Elder (1581-1666). Of these, the name of Rembrandt shines especially brightly in history, at first held in high esteem by his contemporaries, then forgotten by them, little appreciated by posterity, and only in the current century elevated, in all fairness, to the level of world genius. In his characteristic artistic personality, all the best qualities of Dutch painting are concentrated, as if in focus, and his influence was reflected in all its types - in portraits, historical paintings, everyday scenes and landscapes. The most famous among Rembrandt's students and followers were: Ferdinand Bol (1616-80), Govert Flinck (1615-60), Gerbrand van den Eckhout (1621-74), Nicholas Mas (1632-93), Art de Gelder (1645-1727 ), Jacob Backer (1608 or 1609-51), Jan Victors (1621-74), Carel Fabricius (c. 1620-54), Pieter de Grebber, Willem de Porter († later 1645), Gerard Dou (1613-75) and Samuel van Hoogstraten (1626-78). In addition to these artists, for greater completeness of the list, one should also name Jan Lievens (1607-30), Rembrandt’s friend in the study of P. Lastman, Abraham van Tempel (1622-72) and Pieter Neson (1612-91), who worked on Apparently, under the influence of V. d. Helst, an imitator of Hals Johannes Verspronck (1597-1662) and Jan de Bray († 1664, † 1697). Household painting, the first experiments of which appeared in the old Dutch school, found itself in the 17th century. especially fertile soil in Protestant, free, bourgeois, self-satisfied Holland. Small pictures, artlessly representing the customs and life of different classes of local society, seemed to enough people more entertaining than large works of serious painting, and, along with landscapes, more convenient for decorating cozy private homes. A whole horde of artists satisfies the demand for such paintings, conscientiously reproducing everything that is encountered in reality, showing at the same time love for their own, dear, good-natured humor, accurately characterizing the depicted positions and faces and being sophisticated in the mastery of technology. While some are occupied with common people's life, scenes of peasant happiness and sorrow, drinking bouts in taverns and taverns, gatherings in front of roadside inns, rural holidays, games and skating on the ice of frozen rivers and canals, etc., others take the content for their works from a more elegant circle - they paint graceful ladies in their intimate surroundings, the courtship of dandy gentlemen, housewives giving orders to their maids, salon exercises in music and singing, the revelry of golden youth in pleasure houses.... In a long series of artists of the first category dominated by Adrian and Isaac van Ostade (1 6 10-85, 1621-49), Adrian Brouwer (1605 or 1606-38), Jan Steen (about 1626-79), Cornelis Bailly (1620-64), Richart Brackenburg (1650- 1702), Peter van Laer, called Bambocchio in Italy (1590-1658), Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), Joss Drohsloot (1586-1666), Claes Molener (formerly 1630-76), Jan Meins Molenaar (about 1610-68 ), Cornelis Saftleven (1606-81). Of the equally significant number of painters, Gerard Terborch (1617-81), Gerard Dou (1613-75), Gabriel Metsu (1630-67), Pieter de Hooch (1630-66), Caspar Netscher (1639-84), are famous. Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635-81), Egon van der Neer (1643-1703), Jan Verkolge (1650-93), Quiring Brekelenkamp (†1668). Jacob Ochtervelt († 1670), Dirk Hals (1589-1656) and Anthony Palamedes (1601-73). The category of genre painters includes artists who painted scenes of military life, as well as scenes of falconry and hound hunting. The main representative of this branch of painting is the famous and extraordinarily prolific Philips Wouwerman (1619-68). In addition to him, her brother of this master, Peter (1623-82), the aforementioned Palamedes, Jacob Duke (1600 - later 1660) and Dirk Maas (1656-1717) were excellently developed. For many of these artists, landscape plays as important a role as human figures; but in parallel with them, a mass of painters are working, setting it as their main or exclusive task. In general, the Dutch have an inalienable right to be proud that their fatherland is the birthplace not only of the newest genre, but also of landscape in the sense that it is understood today. In fact, in other countries, for example in Italy and France, art had little interest in inanimate nature and did not find in it either a unique life or special beauty. The Dutch were the first to understand that even in inanimate nature everything breathes life, everything is attractive, everything is capable of evoking thought and exciting the movement of the heart. And this was quite natural, because the Dutch, so to speak, created the nature around them with their own hands, treasured and admired it, like a father cherishes and admires his own brainchild. Among the landscape painters of the flourishing period of the Dutch school, the following are especially respected: Jan van Goyen (1595-1656), who, together with Ezaias van de Velde (c. 1590-1630) and Pieter Moleyn Elder. (1595-1661), considered the founder of the Dutch landscape; then a student of this master, Salomon van Ruisdael († 1623), Simon de Vlieger (1601-59), Jan Wijnants (c. 1600 - later 1679), lover of better lighting effects Art van der Neer (1603-77), poetic Jacob van Ruisdael (1628 or 1629-82), Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709) and Cornelis Dekker († 1678). Among the Dutch there were also many landscape painters who embarked on travels and reproduced motifs of foreign nature, which, however, did not prevent them from maintaining a national character in their painting. Allaert van Everdingen (1621-75) depicted views of Norway; Jan Both (1610-52) - Italy; Hermann Saftleven (1610-85) - Reina; Cornelis Poulenburg (1586-1667) and a group of his followers painted landscapes inspired by Italian nature, with ruins of ancient buildings, bathing nymphs and scenes of an imaginary Arcadia. In a special category we can single out masters who in their paintings combined landscapes with images of animals, giving preference to either the first or the second, or treating both parts with equal attention. The most famous among such painters of rural idyll is Paulus Potter (1625-54); besides him, should be counted here Adrian van de Velde (1635 or 1636-72), Albert Cuyp (1620 - 91) and numerous artists who turned for themes preferably or exclusively to Italy, such as: Adam Peinaker (1622-73), Jan -Baptiste Venix (1621-60), Claes Berchem (1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), etc. Closely related to landscape painting is the painting of architectural views, which Dutch artists began to engage in as an independent branch of art only in the half of the 17th century. Some of those who have since worked in this area have been sophisticated in depicting city streets and squares with their buildings; these are Johannes Beerestraten (1622-66) and Jacob van der Ulf (1627-88). Others, most notably Pieter Sanredam († 1666) and Dirk van Delen (1605-71), painted interior views of churches and palaces. The sea was of such importance in the life of Holland that her art could not treat it except with the greatest attention. Many of its artists, who were engaged in landscape, genre and even portrait, breaking away from their usual subjects for a while, became marine painters, and if one wanted to list all the painters of the Dutch school who depicted a calm or raging sea, ships rocking on it, harbors cluttered with ships, sea battles, etc., then the result would be a very long list, which would include the names of Ya. Goyen, S. de Vlieger, S. and J. Ruisdael, A. Cuyp and others already mentioned in the previous lines. Limiting ourselves to pointing out those for whom painting of sea views was a specialty, we must name Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611 or 1612-93), his famous son Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), as well as Jan van de Cappelle ( † 1679). Finally, the realistic direction of the Dutch school was the reason that a type of painting was formed and developed in it, which in other schools until then had not been cultivated as a special, independent branch, namely painting of flowers, fruits, vegetables, living creatures, kitchen utensils, tableware etc. - in a word, what is now commonly called “dead nature” (nature morte, Stilleben). In this area, among the Dutch artists of the flourishing era, the most famous were Jan-Davids de Heem (1606-83), his son Cornelis (1631-95), Abraham Mignon (1640-79), Melchior de Hondekoeter (1636-95), Maria Oosterwijk (1630-93), Willem van Aelst (1626-83), Willem Heda (1594 - later 1678), Willem Kalf (1621 or 1622-93) and Jan Weenix (1640-1719). In general, as we see, probably the main distinguishing feature of the development of Dutch art over all these years was its significant predominance among all its types of painting. Paintings decorated the houses of not only representatives of the ruling elite of society, but also poor burghers, artisans, and peasants; they were sold at auctions and fairs; sometimes artists used them as a means of paying bills. The profession of an artist was not rare; there were a lot of painters, and they competed fiercely with each other. Few of them could support themselves by painting; many took on a variety of jobs: Sten was an innkeeper, Hobbema was an excise official, Jacob van Ruisdael was a doctor.))))) Since the beginning of the 18th century. in Dutch painting the French tastes and views of the pompous era of Louis XIV are established - imitation of Poussin, Lebrun, Cl. Lorrain and other luminaries of the French school. The main disseminator of this trend was the Flemish Gerard de Leresse (1641-1711), who settled in Amsterdam, a very capable artist and educated in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and works of his own pen, among which one - “The Great Book of the Painter” (“t groot schilderboec”) - for fifty years served as a code for young artists, as well as the famous Adrian van de Werff (1659-1722), whose painting with cold figures, as if carved from ivory, seemed then the height of perfection. Among the followers of this artist, Henrik van Limborg (1680-1758) and Philip van Dyck (1669-1729), nicknamed "Little van Dyck", were famous as historical painters. Among other painters of the era under consideration, endowed with undoubted talent, but infected with the spirit of the time, it should be noted Willem and Frans van Miers the Younger (1662-1747, 1689-1763), Nicholas Verkolge (1673-1746), Constantijn Netscher (1668-1722) and Karel de Moora (1656-1738). Some shine was given to this school by Cornelis Troost (1697-1750), mainly a caricaturist, nicknamed the Dutch Gogarth, portrait painter Jan Quincheed (1688-1772), decorative history painter Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) and painter of dead nature Jan van Huysum (1682) -1749). Foreign influence weighed on Dutch painting until the twenties of the 19th century, having managed to more or less reflect in it the changes that art took in France, starting with the wigmaking of the times of the Sun King and ending with the pseudo-classicism of David. When the style of the latter became obsolete and everywhere in Western Europe, instead of the fascination with the ancient Greeks and Romans, a romantic desire was aroused, mastering both poetry and the figurative arts, the Dutch, like other peoples, turned their gaze to their antiquity, and therefore to their glorious past painting. The desire to give it again the brilliance with which it shone in the 17th century began to inspire the newest artists and returned them to the principles of the ancient national masters - to a strict observation of nature and an ingenuous, sincere attitude towards the tasks at hand. At the same time, they did not try to completely eliminate themselves from foreign influence, but when they went to study in Paris or Dusseldorf and other artistic centers in Germany, they took home only an acquaintance with the successes of modern technology. Thanks to all this, the revived Dutch school again received originality and moved in our days along the path leading to further progress. She can easily contrast many of her newest figures with the best painters of the 19th century in other countries. Holland can well be proud of several significant recent masters: Jacob Ekgout (1793-1861), David Bles (b. 1821), Hermann ten Cate (1822-1891) and the highly talented Lawrence Alma-Tadema (b. 1836), who “deserted” to England. Joseph Israels (b. 1824) and Christoffel Bissschop (b. 1828), Anton Mauwe (1838-88) and Jacob Maris (b. 1837), Bartholomeus van Hove (1790-1888) and Johannes Bosboom (1817-N), Henrik Mesdag (b. 1831), Wouters Vershuur (1812-74) and many others.....

Meanwhile, this is a special area of ​​European culture worthy of more detailed study, which reflects the original life of the people of Holland at that time.

History of appearance

Prominent representatives of artistic art began to appear in the country in the seventeenth century. French cultural experts gave them a common name - “little Dutch”, which is not related to the scale of talent and denotes an attachment to certain themes from everyday life, opposite to the “big” style with large canvases on historical or mythological subjects. The history of the emergence of Dutch painting was described in detail in the nineteenth century, and the authors of works about it also used this term. The “Little Dutch” were distinguished by secular realism, turned to the surrounding world and people, and used painting rich in tones.

Main stages of development

The history of Dutch painting can be divided into several periods. The first lasted approximately from 1620 to 1630, when realism was established in national art. Dutch painting experienced its second period in 1640-1660. This is the time when the local art school really flourished. Finally, the third period, the time when Dutch painting began to decline - from 1670 to the beginning of the eighteenth century.

It is worth noting that cultural centers changed during this time. In the first period, leading artists worked in Haarlem, and the main representative was Khalsa. Then the center shifted to Amsterdam, where the most significant works were carried out by Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Scenes of everyday life

When listing the most important genres of Dutch painting, it is imperative to start with the everyday - the most vivid and original in history. It was the Flemings who revealed to the world scenes from the everyday life of ordinary people, peasants and townspeople or burghers. The pioneers were Ostade and his followers Audenrogge, Bega and Dusart. In Ostade's early paintings, people play cards, quarrel and even fight in a tavern. Each painting is distinguished by a dynamic, somewhat brutal character. Dutch painting of those times also talks about peaceful scenes: in some works, peasants talk over a pipe and a glass of beer, spend time at a fair or with their families. Rembrandt's influence led to the widespread use of soft, golden-colored chiaroscuro. Urban scenes inspired artists such as Hals, Leicester, Molenaar and Codde. In the mid-seventeenth century, masters depicted doctors, scientists in the process of work, their own workshops, chores around the house, or Each plot should have been entertaining, sometimes grotesquely didactic. Some masters were inclined to poeticize everyday life, for example, Terborch depicted scenes of playing music or flirting. Metsu used bright colors, turning everyday life into a celebration, while de Hooch was inspired by the simplicity of family life, bathed in diffused daylight. Later representatives of the genre, which include such Dutch masters of painting as Van der Werff and Van der Neer, in their quest for elegant depiction, often created somewhat pretentious subjects.

Nature and landscapes

In addition, Dutch painting is widely represented in the landscape genre. It first emerged in the works of such Haarlem masters as van Goyen, de Moleyn and van Ruisdael. It was they who began to depict rural areas in a certain silvery light. The material unity of nature came to the fore in his works. The seascapes are worth mentioning separately. The 17th century Marinists included Porsellis, de Vlieger and van de Capelle. They did not so much strive to convey certain sea scenes as they tried to depict the water itself, the play of light on it and in the sky.

By the second half of the seventeenth century, more emotional works with philosophical ideas emerged in the genre. Jan van Ruisdael revealed the beauty of the Dutch landscape to the maximum, depicting it in all its drama, dynamics and monumentality. Hobbem, who preferred sunny landscapes, continued his traditions. Koninck painted panoramas, and van der Neer created night landscapes and rendered moonlight, sunrise and sunset. A number of artists are also characterized by the depiction of animals in landscapes, for example, grazing cows and horses, as well as hunting and scenes with cavalrymen. Later, artists began to become interested in foreign nature - Both, van Laar, Wenix, Berchem and Hackert depicted Italy bathing in the rays of the southern sun. The founder of the genre was Sanredam, whose best followers can be called the Berkheide brothers and Jan van der Heijden.

Image of interiors

A separate genre that distinguished Dutch painting in its heyday can be called scenes with church, palace and home rooms. Interiors appeared in paintings of the second half of the seventeenth century by the masters of Delft - Haukgeest, van der Vliet and de Witte, who became the main representative of the movement. Using Vermeer's techniques, artists depicted scenes bathed in sunlight, full of emotion and volume.

Picturesque dishes and dishes

Finally, another characteristic genre of Dutch painting is still life, especially the depiction of breakfasts. It was first taken up by Haarlem residents Claes and Heda, who painted laid tables with luxurious dishes. The picturesque chaos and special conveyance of a cozy interior are filled with silver-gray light, characteristic of silver and pewter. Utrecht artists painted lush floral still lifes, and in The Hague, artists were especially good at depicting fish and sea reptiles. In Leiden, a philosophical direction of the genre arose, in which skulls and hourglasses coexist with symbols of sensual pleasure or earthly glory, designed to remind of the transience of time. Democratic kitchen still lifes became a hallmark of the Rotterdam art school.

Dutch painting originated in the early years of the 17th century. The Dutch school of painting was an independent, great, independent school with unique and inimitable characteristics and identity.
Until the 17th century, Holland did not stand out for its abundance of national artists. While this country was one state with Flanders, it was mainly in Flanders that original artistic movements were intensively created and developed.
Outstanding painters Van Eyck, Memling, Rogier van der Weyden, the likes of whom were not found in Holland, worked in Flanders. Only isolated bursts of genius in painting can be noted at the beginning of the 16th century; this is the artist and engraver Luke of Leiden, who is a follower of the Bruges school. But Luke of Leiden did not create any school. The same can be said about the painter Dirk Bouts from Haarlem, whose creations hardly stand out against the background of the style and manner of the origins of the Flemish school, about the artists Mostaert, Skorel and Heemskerke, who, despite all their significance, are not individual talents that characterize them with their originality country.
By the end of the 16th century, when portrait painters had already created a school, other artists began to appear and form. The wide variety of talents leads to many different directions and paths for the development of painting. Rembrandt's direct predecessors appear - his teachers Jan Pace and Peter Lastman. Genre methods are also becoming more free—historicity is not as obligatory as before. A special, deeply national and almost historical genre is being created - group portraits intended for public places - city halls, corporations, workshops and communities.
This is just the beginning, the school itself doesn’t exist yet. There are many talented artists, among them there are skilled craftsmen, several great painters: Morelse, Jan Ravestein, Lastman, Frans Hals, Pulenburg, van Schoten, van de Venne, Thomas de Keyser, Honthorst, Cape the Elder, finally, Esayas van de Velde and van Goyen - all of them were born at the end of the 16th century.
In development Dutch painting it was a critical moment. With an unstable political balance, everything depended only on chance. In Flanders, where a similar awakening was observed, on the contrary, there was already a sense of confidence and stability that was not yet there in Holland. In Flanders there were already artists who had formed or were close to this.
Political and socio-historical conditions in this country were more favorable. There were serious reasons for Flanders to become a great center of art for the second time. For this, two things were missing: several years of peace and a master who would be the creator of the school.
In 1609, the fate of Holland was decided, after the treaty of truce (between Spain and the Netherlands) and the official recognition of the United Provinces, there was immediately a lull. It is amazing how unexpectedly and in what a short period of time - no more than thirty years - in a small space, on ungrateful desert soil, in harsh living conditions, a wonderful galaxy of painters, and great painters at that, appeared.
They appeared immediately and everywhere: in Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Leiden, Delft, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Haarlem, even abroad - as if from seeds that fell outside the field. The earliest are Jan van Goyen and Wijnants, born around the turn of the century. And further, in the interval from the beginning of the century to the end of its first third - Cuyp, Terborch, Brouwer, Rembrandt, Adrian van Ostade, Ferdinand Bohl, Gerard Dau, Metsu, Venix, Wauerman, Berchem, Potter, Jan Steen, Jacob Ruisdael. Next is Pieter de Hooch, Hobbema. The last of the greats were van der Heyden and Adrian van de Velde in 1636 and 1637. Approximately these years can be considered the time of the first flowering of the Dutch school. It was necessary to create art for the nation.
Dutch painting, was and could only be an expression of external appearance, a true, accurate, similar portrait of Holland. The main elements of the Dutch school of painting were portraits, landscapes, and everyday scenes. The Dutch school has been growing and operating for a century.
Dutch painters found subjects and colors to satisfy any human inclinations and affections. The Dutch palette is quite worthy of their drawing, hence the perfect unity of their painting method. Any Dutch painting is easy to recognize by its appearance. It is small in size and distinguished by its powerful, strict colors. This requires great accuracy, a steady hand, and deep concentration from the artist.
Exactly Dutch painting gives the clearest idea of ​​this hidden and eternal process: to feel, think and express. There is no more rich picture in the world, since it is the Dutch who include so much content in such a small space. That is why everything here takes on a precise, compressed and condensed form.
For a more complete picture of Dutch painting, one should consider in detail the elements of this movement, the features of the methods, and the nature of the palette. The description of the main features of Dutch art allows us to distinguish this school from others and trace its origins.
In an expressive manner illustrating Dutch painting, is a painting by Adrian van Ostade from the Amsterdam Museum "Artist's Atelier". This subject was one of the favorites of Dutch painters. We see an attentive man, slightly hunched over, with a prepared palette, thin, clean brushes and transparent oil. He writes in the twilight. His face is concentrated, his hand is careful.
Only, perhaps, these painters were more courageous and knew how to laugh more carefree and enjoy life than can be concluded from the surviving images.
The foundation for the Dutch school of painting was laid by Jan van Goyen and Jan van Wijnants at the beginning of the 17th century, establishing some laws of painting.

Almost two hundred years later, in 1820, the Royal Art Gallery was located in this building - one of the best collections of Dutch painting of the 15th-17th centuries in the world.

XVII century is called the "golden age" of Dutch painting (not to be confused with the Flemish "golden age", which refers to the work of the artists of Flanders in the 15th century - the so-called "Flemish primitivists").

All genres of this era of Dutch fine art are fully and variedly represented in the gallery: magnificent examples of portraits, landscapes, still lifes, historical paintings Finally, the main discovery of the Dutch masters is genre scenes, or scenes of everyday life.

It seems that there is not a single significant artist from the Netherlands whose work would not be represented in the Hague Museum. Here are portraitists Anton van Dyck and Jacob van Kampen, and still life masters Willem van Elst and Balthasar van der Ast, famous landscape painters: Hendrik Averkamp with his famous “Winter Landscape”, Jan van Goyen and Salomon van Ruisdel, and, of course, brilliant masters genre scene Gerard ter Borch, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard Dou and others.

Among the many famous names, four of the most important for Dutch art stand out. These are Jan Steen, Frans Hals and two of the greatest Dutch geniuses, Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer.
In that era, the Dutch artist often devoted his art to any one favorite genre. Such are Sten and Hals. All their lives these artists each worked in their own field: Sten developed the genre scene, Hals achieved the highest mastery in portraiture.

Nowadays the work of these masters is considered classic in its genre. In the museum you can see "The Laughing Boy" by Frans Hals and "The Old Man Sings - The Young People Sing Along" by Jan Steen.
Neither Rembrandt nor Vermeer associated their work with any one genre. Both of them, although with different intensity, worked in a variety of fields, from portraiture to landscape, and everywhere they reached unattainable heights, decisively tearing Dutch painting out of the narrow genre framework.

Rembrandt is generously represented in the museums of his homeland. The diversity of his heritage is also reflected in the Hague exhibition. The museum displays three paintings by the artist: “Simeon Praising Christ”, “The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulpa” and one of the last self-portraits of the great master.
Vermeer, on the contrary, left extremely few paintings. The number of museums that own one or two paintings by this enigmatic painter can be counted on one hand.

Only six of his masterpieces remain in the artist’s homeland. Four of them - the largest collection of Vermeer in the world - are kept in the Riksmuseum in Amsterdam. The Hague is rightfully proud of the other two. This is the famous “View of Delft” - Vermeer’s hometown and, perhaps, his most famous painting, which became the “calling card” of the museum - “Girl with Pearl Sulfur”.
The collection of paintings from the Netherlands of the 17th century is the main wealth of the museum. However, the exhibition is not limited to it: the Hague gallery is proud of the creations of artists from another “golden age” - the Flemish one. It houses works by masters of the 15th century: “Lamentation of Christ” by Rogier van der Weyden and “Portrait of a Man” by Hans Memling.
The Moritzhaus collection is complemented by the Prince Willem V Picture Gallery. This is chronologically the first Art Museum Holland. Its exhibition, once collected by the prince himself and reflecting his taste, is dedicated to painting of the 18th century.

Moritzhaus is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Sundays and weekends - from 11 to 17 hours. Closed on Monday. Ticket price 12.50 NLG. Children from 7 to 18 years old - 6.50 NLG.

The Willem V Gallery is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed on Monday. Ticket price is 2.50 NLG. Children from 7 to 18 years old - 1.50 NLG. Entrance to the Willem V Gallery is free upon presentation of a Moritzhaus ticket.

The Golden Age of Dutch painting is one of the most outstanding eras in the history of all world painting. The Golden Age of Dutch painting is considered 17th century. It was at this time that the most talented artists and painters created their immortal works. Their paintings are still considered unsurpassed masterpieces, which are kept in famous museums around the world and are considered an invaluable heritage of humanity.

At first 17th century In Holland, a rather primitive art still flourished, which was justified by the mundane tastes and preferences of rich and powerful people. As a result of political, geopolitical and religious changes, Dutch art changed dramatically. If before that artists tried to pander to the Dutch burghers, depicting their life and way of life, devoid of any lofty and poetic language, and also worked for the church, which commissioned artists to work in a rather primitive genre with long-worn subjects, then the beginning of the 17th century was a real breakthrough. In Holland, the dominance of Protestants reigned, who practically stopped ordering paintings on religious themes from artists. Holland became independent from Spain and asserted itself on the historical podium. Artists moved from previously familiar themes to depicting everyday scenes, portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and so on. Here, in a new field, the artists of the golden age seemed to have opened a new breath and real geniuses of art began to appear in the world.

Dutch artists of the 17th century introduced realism in painting into fashion. Stunning in composition, in realism, in depth and unusualness, the paintings began to enjoy enormous success. The demand for paintings increased sharply. As a result, more and more new artists began to appear, who at an amazingly fast pace developed the fundamentals of painting, developed new techniques, styles and genres. Some of the most famous artists of the Golden Age were: Jan Vermeer, Cornelis Trost, Matthias Stom, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Esaias van de Velde, Frans Hals, Adrian Brouwer, Cornelis de Man, Anthony van Dyck and many others.

Paintings by Dutch painters

Cornelis de Man - Whale Oil Manufactory

Cornelis Trost - Fun in the Park

Ludolf Backhuizen - East India Campaign Dock in Amsterdam

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Alchemist's Catastrophe

Rembrandt - Andries de Graef

Holland. 17th century The country is experiencing unprecedented prosperity. The so-called "Golden Age". At the end of the 16th century, several provinces of the country achieved independence from Spain.

Now the Protestant Netherlands have gone their own way. And Catholic Flanders (present-day Belgium) under the wing of Spain is its own.

In independent Holland, almost no one needed religious painting. The Protestant Church did not approve of luxury decoration. But this circumstance “played into the hands” of secular painting.

Literally every resident of the new country awoke a love for this type of art. The Dutch wanted to see their own lives in the paintings. And the artists willingly met them halfway.

Never before has the surrounding reality been depicted so much. Ordinary people, ordinary rooms and the most ordinary breakfast of a city dweller.

Realism flourished. Until the 20th century, it will be a worthy competitor to academicism with its nymphs and Greek goddesses.

These artists are called "small" Dutch. Why? The paintings were small in size, because they were created for small houses. Thus, almost all paintings by Jan Vermeer are no more than half a meter in height.

But I like the other version better. In the Netherlands in the 17th century, a great master, the “big” Dutchman, lived and worked. And everyone else was “small” in comparison with him.

We are talking, of course, about Rembrandt. Let's start with him.

1. Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Rembrandt. Self-portrait at the age of 63. 1669 National Gallery London

Rembrandt experienced a wide range of emotions during his life. That's why there's so much fun and bravado in his early work. And there are so many complex feelings - in the later ones.

Here he is young and carefree in the painting “The Prodigal Son in the Tavern.” On his knees is his beloved wife Saskia. He is a popular artist. Orders are pouring in.

Rembrandt. The Prodigal Son in a Tavern. 1635 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden

But all this will disappear in about 10 years. Saskia will die of consumption. Popularity will disappear like smoke. A large house with a unique collection will be taken away for debts.

But the same Rembrandt will appear who will remain for centuries. The bare feelings of the heroes. Their deepest thoughts.

2. Frans Hals (1583-1666)

Frans Hals. Self-portrait. 1650 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Frans Hals is one of the greatest portrait painters of all time. Therefore, I would also classify him as a “big” Dutchman.

In Holland at that time it was customary to order group portraits. This is how many similar works appeared depicting people working together: marksmen of one guild, doctors of one town, managers of a nursing home.

In this genre, Hals stands out the most. After all, most of these portraits looked like a deck of cards. People sit at the table with the same facial expression and just watch. It was different for Hals.

Look at his group portrait “Arrows of the Guild of St. George."

Frans Hals. Arrows of the Guild of St. George. 1627 Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands

Here you will not find a single repetition in pose or facial expression. At the same time, there is no chaos here. There are many characters, but no one seems superfluous. Thanks to the amazingly correct arrangement of figures.

And even in a single portrait, Hals was superior to many artists. His patterns are natural. People from high society in his paintings are devoid of contrived grandeur, and models from the lower classes do not look humiliated.

And his characters are also very emotional: they smile, laugh, and gesticulate. Like, for example, this “Gypsy” with a sly look.

Frans Hals. Gypsy. 1625-1630

Hals, like Rembrandt, ended his life in poverty. For the same reason. His realism ran counter to the tastes of his customers. Who wanted their appearance to be embellished. Hals did not accept outright flattery, and thereby signed his own sentence - “Oblivion.”

3. Gerard Terborch (1617-1681)

Gerard Terborch. Self-portrait. 1668 Royal Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

Terborkh was a master of the everyday genre. Rich and not-so-rich burghers talk leisurely, ladies read letters, and a procuress watches the courtship. Two or three closely spaced figures.

It was this master who developed the canons of the everyday genre. Which would later be borrowed by Jan Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch and many other “small” Dutchmen.

Gerard Terborch. A glass of lemonade. 1660s. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

"A Glass of Lemonade" is one of Terborch's famous works. It shows another advantage of the artist. Incredibly realistic image of the dress fabric.

Terborch also has unusual works. Which speaks volumes about his desire to go beyond customer requirements.

His "The Grinder" shows the life of the poorest people in Holland. We are used to seeing cozy courtyards and clean rooms in the paintings of the “small” Dutch. But Terborch dared to show unsightly Holland.

Gerard Terborch. Grinder. 1653-1655 State Museums of Berlin

As you understand, such work was not in demand. And they are a rare occurrence even among Terborch.

4. Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)

Jan Vermeer. Artist's workshop. 1666-1667 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

It is not known for certain what Jan Vermeer looked like. It is only obvious that in the painting “The Artist’s Workshop” he depicted himself. The truth from the back.

Therefore, it is surprising that a new fact from the master’s life has recently become known. It is connected with his masterpiece “Delft Street”.

Jan Vermeer. Delft street. 1657 Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

It turned out that Vermeer spent his childhood on this street. The house pictured belonged to his aunt. She raised her five children there. Perhaps she is sitting on the doorstep sewing while her two children play on the sidewalk. Vermeer himself lived in the house opposite.

But more often he depicted the interior of these houses and their inhabitants. It would seem that the plots of the paintings are very simple. Here is a pretty lady, a wealthy city dweller, checking the operation of her scales.

Jan Vermeer. Woman with scales. 1662-1663 National Gallery of Art, Washington

Why did Vermeer stand out among thousands of other “small” Dutchmen?

He was an unsurpassed master of light. In the painting “Woman with Scales” the light softly envelops the heroine’s face, fabrics and walls. Giving the image an unknown spirituality.

And the compositions of Vermeer’s paintings are carefully verified. You won't find a single unnecessary detail. It is enough to remove one of them, the picture will “fall apart”, and the magic will go away.

All this was not easy for Vermeer. Such amazing quality required painstaking work. Only 2-3 paintings per year. As a result, the inability to feed the family. Vermeer also worked as an art dealer, selling works by other artists.

5. Pieter de Hooch (1629-1884)

Pieter de Hooch. Self-portrait. 1648-1649 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Hoch is often compared to Vermeer. They worked at the same time, there was even a period in the same city. And in one genre - everyday. In Hoch we also see one or two figures in cozy Dutch courtyards or rooms.

Open doors and windows make the space of his paintings layered and entertaining. And the figures fit into this space very harmoniously. As, for example, in his painting “Maid with a Girl in the Courtyard.”

Pieter de Hooch. A maid with a girl in the courtyard. 1658 London National Gallery

Until the 20th century, Hoch was highly valued. But few people noticed the small works of his competitor Vermeer.

But in the 20th century everything changed. Hoch's glory faded. However, it is difficult not to recognize his achievements in painting. Few people could so competently combine the environment and people.

Pieter de Hooch. Card players in a sunny room. 1658 Royal Art Collection, London

Please note that in a modest house on the canvas “Card Players” there is a painting hanging in an expensive frame.

This once again shows how popular painting was among ordinary Dutch people. Paintings decorated every home: the house of a rich burgher, a modest city dweller, and even a peasant.

6. Jan Steen (1626-1679)

Jan Steen. Self-portrait with a lute. 1670s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Jan Steen is perhaps the most cheerful “little” Dutchman. But loving moral teaching. He often depicted taverns or poor houses in which vice existed.

Its main characters are revelers and ladies of easy virtue. He wanted to entertain the viewer, but latently warn him against a vicious life.

Jan Steen. It's a mess. 1663 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Sten also has quieter works. Like, for example, “Morning Toilet.” But here too the artist surprises the viewer with too revealing details. There are traces of stocking elastic, and not an empty chamber pot. And somehow it’s not at all appropriate for the dog to be lying right on the pillow.

Jan Steen. Morning toilet. 1661-1665 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

But despite all the frivolity, Sten’s color schemes are very professional. In this he was superior to many “little Dutchmen”. Look how perfectly the red stocking goes with the blue jacket and bright beige rug.

7. Jacobs Van Ruisdael (1629-1882)

Portrait of Ruisdael. Lithograph from a 19th century book.

"Burgher" Baroque in Dutch paintingXVII V. – depiction of everyday life (P. de Hooch, Vermeer). "Luxurious" still lifes by Kalf. Group portrait and its features by Hals and Rembrandt. Interpretation of mythological and biblical scenes by Rembrandt.

Dutch art of the 17th century

In the 17th century Holland has become a model capitalist country. It conducted extensive colonial trade, had a powerful fleet, and shipbuilding was one of the leading industries. Protestantism (Calvinism as its most severe form), which completely supplanted the influence of the Catholic Church, led to the fact that the clergy in Holland did not have the same influence on art as in Flanders, and especially in Spain or Italy. In Holland, the church did not play the role of a customer of works of art: churches were not decorated with altar images, for Calvinism rejected any hint of luxury; Protestant churches were simple in architecture and not decorated in any way inside.

The main achievement of Dutch art of the 18th century. - in easel painting. Man and nature were the objects of observation and depiction by Dutch artists. Household painting is becoming one of the leading genres, the creators of which in history received the name “Little Dutchmen”. Paintings based on gospel and biblical subjects are also represented, but not to the same extent as in other countries. In Holland there were never connections with Italy and classical art did not play such a role as in Flanders.

The mastery of realistic trends, the development of a certain range of themes, the differentiation of genres as a single process were completed by the 20s of the 17th century. History of Dutch painting of the 17th century. perfectly demonstrates the evolution of the work of one of the largest portrait painters in Holland, Frans Hals (circa 1580-1666). In the 10-30s, Hals worked a lot in the genre of group portraits. From the canvases of these years, cheerful, energetic, enterprising people look out, confident in their abilities and in the future (“The Shooting Guild of St. Adrian”, 1627 and 1633;

"Rifle Guild of St. George", 1627).

Researchers sometimes call Hals's individual portraits genre portraits due to the special specificity of the image. Hulse's sketchy style, his bold writing, when the brushstroke sculpts both shape and volume and conveys color.

In the portraits of Hals of the late period (50-60s), the carefree prowess, energy, and intensity in the characters of the depicted persons disappear. But it was in the late period of creativity that Hals reached the pinnacle of mastery and created the most profound works. The coloring of his paintings becomes almost monochrome. Two years before his death, in 1664, Hals again returned to the group portrait. He paints two portraits of the regents and regents of a nursing home, in one of which he himself found refuge at the end of his life. In the portrait of the regents there is no spirit of camaraderie of previous compositions, the models are disunited, powerless, they have dull glances, devastation is written on their faces.

Hals's art was of great importance for its time; it influenced the development of not only portraits, but also everyday genres, landscapes, and still lifes.

The landscape genre of 17th century Holland is especially interesting. Holland is depicted by Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) and Salomon van Ruisdael (1600/1603-1670).

The flowering of landscape painting in the Dutch school dates back to mid-17th century V. The greatest master of realistic landscape was Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682). His works are usually full of deep drama, whether he depicts forest thickets (“Forest Swamp”),

landscapes with waterfalls (“Waterfall”) or a romantic landscape with a cemetery (“Jewish Cemetery”).

Ruisdael's nature appears in dynamics, in eternal renewal.

The animalistic genre is closely related to the Dutch landscape. Albert Cuyp's favorite motif is cows at a watering hole (“Sunset on the River”, “Cows on the Bank of a Stream”).

Still life achieves brilliant development. Dutch still life, unlike Flemish still life, is a painting of an intimate nature, modest in size and motifs. Pieter Claes (c. 1597-1661), Billem Heda (1594-1680/82) most often depicted so-called breakfasts: dishes with ham or pie on a relatively modestly served table. Kheda’s “breakfasts” are replaced by Kalf’s luxurious “desserts.” Simple utensils are replaced by marble tables, carpet tablecloths, silver goblets, vessels made of mother-of-pearl shells, and crystal glasses. Kalf achieves amazing virtuosity in conveying the texture of peaches, grapes, and crystal surfaces.

In the 20-30s of the 17th century. The Dutch created a special type of small small-figure painting. The 40-60s were the heyday of painting, glorifying the calm burgher life of Holland, measured everyday existence.

Adrian van Ostade (1610-1685) initially depicts the shadowy sides of the life of the peasantry (“The Fight”).

Since the 40s, satirical notes in his work have increasingly been replaced by humorous ones (“In a village tavern”, 1660).

Sometimes these small paintings are colored with a great lyrical feeling. Ostade’s “Painter in the Studio” (1663), in which the artist glorifies creative work, is rightfully considered a masterpiece of Ostade’s painting.

But the main theme of the “little Dutch” is still not peasant life, but burgher life. Usually these are images without any fascinating plot. The most entertaining narrator in films of this kind was Jan Stan (1626-1679) (“Revelers”, “Game of Backgammon”). Gerard Terborch (1617-1681) achieved even greater mastery in this.

The interior of the “little Dutch” becomes especially poetic. The real singer of this theme was Pieter de Hooch (1629-1689). His rooms with a half-open window, with shoes accidentally thrown or a broom left behind, are often depicted without a human figure.

A new stage of genre painting begins in the 50s and is associated with the so-called Delft school, with the names of such artists as Carel Fabricius, Emmanuel de Witte and Jan Wermeer, known in art history as Wermeer of Delft (1632-1675). Vermeer's paintings seem to be in no way original. These are the same images of frozen burgher life: reading a letter, a gentleman and a lady talking, maids doing simple housework, views of Amsterdam or Delft. These paintings are simple in action: “Girl Reading a Letter”,

"The gentleman and the lady at the spinet"

“The Officer and the Laughing Girl”, etc. - are full of spiritual clarity, silence and peace.

The main advantages of Vermeer as an artist are in the transmission of light and air. The dissolution of objects in a light-air environment, the ability to create this illusion, primarily determined the recognition and glory of Vermeer precisely in the 19th century.

Vermeer did something that no one did in the 17th century: he painted landscapes from life (“Street”, “View of Delft”).

They can be called the first examples of plein air painting.

The pinnacle of Dutch realism, the result of the pictorial achievements of Dutch culture in the 17th century, is the work of Rembrandt. Harmens van Rijn Rembrandt (1606-1669) was born in Leiden. In 1632, Rembrandt left for Amsterdam, the center of artistic culture in Holland, which naturally attracted the young artist. The 30s were the time of his greatest glory, the path to which was opened for the painter by a large commissioned painting of 1632 - a group portrait, also known as “The Anatomy of Doctor Tulp”, or “Anatomy Lesson”.

In 1634, Rembrandt married a girl from a wealthy family, Saskia van Uylenborch. The happiest period of his life begins. He becomes a famous and fashionable artist.

This entire period is shrouded in romance. Rembrandt’s worldview of these years is conveyed most clearly by the famous “Self-Portrait with Saskia on her Knees” (circa 1636). The whole canvas is permeated with frank joy of life and jubilation.

The Baroque language is closest to the expression of high spirits. And Rembrandt during this period was largely influenced by the Italian Baroque.

The characters in the 1635 painting “The Sacrifice of Abraham” appear before us from complex angles. The composition is highly dynamic, built according to all the rules of the Baroque.

In the same 30s, Rembrandt first began to seriously engage in graphics, primarily etching. Rembrandt's etchings are mainly biblical and evangelical subjects, but in his drawings, as a true Dutch artist, he often turns to the genre. At the turn of the early period of the artist’s work and his creative maturity, one of his most famous paintings appears before us, known as “The Night Watch” (1642) - a group portrait of the rifle company of Captain Banning Cock.

He expanded the scope of the genre, presenting rather a historical picture: upon an alarm signal, Banning Cock's detachment sets out on a campaign. Some are calm and confident, others are excited in anticipation of what is to come, but all bear the expression of general energy, patriotic enthusiasm, and the triumph of the civic spirit.

The group portrait under Rembrandt's brush grew into a heroic image of the era and society.

The painting had already become so dark that it was considered to be a depiction of a night scene, hence its incorrect name. The shadow cast from the captain's figure onto the lieutenant's light clothes proves that it is not night, but day.

With the death of Saskia in the same 1642, Rembrandt’s natural break with the patrician circles alien to him occurred.

The 40s and 50s are a time of creative maturity. During this period, he often turns to previous works in order to remake them in a new way. This was the case, for example, with “Danae,” which he painted back in 1636. By turning to the painting in the 40s, the artist intensified his emotional state.

He rewrote the central part with the heroine and the maid. Giving Danae a new gesture of a raised hand, he conveyed to her great excitement, an expression of joy, hope, appeal.

In the 40-50s, Rembrandt's mastery grew steadily. He chooses for interpretation the most lyrical, poetic aspects of human existence, that humanity that is eternal, all-human: maternal love, compassion. The Holy Scripture provides him with the most material, and from it - scenes of the life of the Holy Family. Rembrandt depicts simple life, ordinary people, as in the painting “The Holy Family”.

The last 16 years are the most tragic years of Rembrandt's life; he is ruined and has no orders. But these years were full of amazing creative activity, as a result of which picturesque images were created, exceptional in their monumental character and spirituality, deeply philosophical works. Even the small-sized works of Rembrandt from these years create the impression of extraordinary grandeur and true monumentality. The color acquires sonority and intensity. His colors seem to radiate light. The portraits of the late Rembrandt are very different from the portraits of the 30s and even 40s. These are extremely simple (half-length or generational) images of people close to the artist in their inner structure. Rembrandt achieved the greatest subtlety of characterization in his self-portraits, of which about a hundred have reached us. The final piece in the history of group portraits was Rembrandt’s depiction of the elders of the cloth workshop - the so-called “Sindics” (1662), where, with meager means, Rembrandt created living and at the same time different human types, but most importantly, he was able to convey a sense of spiritual union, mutual understanding and interconnections between people.

During his mature years (mainly in the 50s), Rembrandt created his best etchings. As an etcher, he has no equal in world art. In all of them, the images have a deep philosophical meaning; they tell about the mysteries of existence, about the tragedy of human life.

He does a lot of drawing. Rembrandt left behind 2000 drawings. These include sketches from life, sketches for paintings and preparations for etchings.

In the last quarter of the 17th century. The decline of the Dutch school of painting begins, the loss of its national identity, and from the beginning of the 18th century the end of the great era of Dutch realism begins.

Introduction

1. Little Dutch

Dutch school of painting

Genre painting

4. Symbolism. Still life

Rembrandt van Rijn

Vermeer of Delft Jan

Conclusion

Introduction

The purpose of the control work is:

· In the development of creative potential;

· Formation of interest in art;

· Consolidation and replenishment of knowledge.

Dutch art was born in the 17th century. This art is considered independent and independent; it has certain forms and characteristics.

Until the 17th century, Holland did not have its own significant artists in art, because belonged to the state of Flanders. However, few artists are celebrated during this time period. This is the artist and engraver Luca Leydensky (1494-1533), painter Dirk Bouts (1415-1475), artist Skorele (1495-1562).

Gradually mixed different schools and the masters lost the distinctive features of their schools, and the remaining artists of Holland ceased to have spirit national creativity. Many different and new styles are emerging. Artists try to paint in all genres, looking for an individual style. Genre methods were erased: historicity is not as necessary as before. A new genre is being created - group porters.

At the beginning of the 17th century, when the fate of Holland was being decided, Philip III agreed on a truce between Spain and the Netherlands. What was needed was a revolution, a political or military situation. The struggle for independence united the people. The war strengthened the national spirit. The signed treaties with Spain gave Holland freedom. This prompted the creation of their own and special art, expressing the essence of the Dutch.

The peculiarity of Dutch artists was to create a real image down to the smallest detail - a manifestation of feelings and thoughts. This is the basis of the Dutch school. It becomes realistic art, and by the middle of the 17th century it reaches peaks in all areas.

For Holland, it is typical to divide not only into genres, but also into numerous subtypes. Some masters paint scenes from the life of burghers and officers - Pieter de Hooch (1495-1562), Gerard Terborch (1617-1681), Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667), others - from peasant life - Adrian van Ostade (1610-1685), third - scenes from the life of scientists and doctors - Gerrit Dou (1613-1675); landscape painters - Jan Porcellis (1584-1632), Simon de Vlieger (1601-1653), depictors of forest corners - Meindert Hobbema (1638-1609), interior masters - Pieter Janssens (1623-1682). From time to time, a certain genre becomes traditional in art schools. For example, Harlem still life painters of the so-called “breakfasts” - Pieter Claes (1598-1661), Willem Heda (1594-1680).

Artists show mores and customs, ethical and moral standards of human behavior. Family events are often depicted. Landscape painters and still life painters convey light in the open air and masterfully depict the texture of objects in closed spaces. Household painting is at the top thanks to Jan Steen (1626-1679), Gerhard Terborch (1617-1681), Pieter de Hooch (1629-1624).

1. Little Dutch

Small Dutch - group artists XVII century, in which painters of landscape and everyday genre paintings of small size are “united” (hence the name). Such paintings were intended for the modest interior of residential buildings. They were purchased by townspeople and peasants. Such paintings are characterized by a feeling of comfort in the picture, subtlety of details, closeness between the person and the interior.

P. de Hooch, J. van Goyen (1596-1656), J. and S. van Ruisdael (1628-1682) and (1602 - 1670), E. de Witte (1617-1692), P. Claes, W. Heda, W. Kalf (1619-1693), G. Terborch, G. Metsu, A. van Ostade, J. Steen (1626-1679), A. Kuyp (1620-1691), etc. Each specialized, as a rule, in one particular genre. "Little Dutch" continued the tradition Dutch masters the Renaissance, who argued that art should not only bring pleasure, but also remind us of values.

The creativity of artists can be divided into 3 groups:

1630s - the establishment of realism in national painting (the leading artistic center was Haarlem, important factor was the influence of F. Hals);

1640-1660s - the flourishing of the art school (the center of art moves to Amsterdam, attracting artists from other cities, the influence of Rembrandt becomes relevant 2. Dutch school of painting

For three quarters of a century, the rise of art continued in the north of the Netherlands, in the republic of the United Provinces, called Holland. In 1609, this republic received state status. A bourgeois state emerged here.

The Italian artist Caravaggio (1571-1610) had a significant role in Renaissance painting. He painted his paintings very realistically, and the objects and figures had a high chiaroscuro technique.

There were many artists, and they lived in small cities: Haarlem, Delft, Leiden. Each of these cities developed its own school with its own genre themes, but Amsterdam played the most important role in the development of Dutch art.

3. Genre painting

In Holland, along with the popularity of the landscape genre, new ones appear: marina - seascape, city landscape - veduta, images of animals - animal painting. Significant influence the landscape was influenced by the works of Pieter Bruegel (1525-1529). The Dutch painted their own unique beauty of the nature of their native land. In the 17th century, the Dutch school of painting became one of the leading in Europe. People's surroundings have become a source of inspiration for artists. In the art of this time, the formation of a system of genres, which began in the Renaissance, was completed. In portraits, everyday paintings, landscapes and still lifes, artists conveyed their impressions of nature and everyday life. The genre of everyday painting began to have a new concept - genre painting. The everyday genre has developed in two varieties - peasant and burgher (urban) genre. Genre paintings depicted the life of a private person: revels of revelers, economic activities, playing music. Artists paid attention to the appearance, poses, and costumes. Objects became part of the coziness: a mahogany table, a wardrobe, an armchair upholstered in leather, a dark glass decanter and glass, fruit. This genre reflected the behavior and communication of people belonging to different classes.

The works of Garard Dow were very popular at that time. He paints modest scenes from the life of the petty bourgeoisie. Often depicts elderly women sitting at a spinning wheel or reading. Dow's obvious tendency is to depict the surfaces of objects in his small pictures - fabric patterns, wrinkles on old faces, fish scales, etc. (appendix; fig.

But genre painting has undergone evolution. During the period of its formation anew, stories were distributed on the themes of recreation, entertainment, and scenes from the life of officers. Such pictures were called “breakfasts”, “banquets”, “societies”, “concerts”. This painting was distinguished by its variegation of color and joyful tones. The original genre was “breakfasts”. This is a type of still life in which the character of their owners was conveyed through the depiction of dishes and various dishes.

The everyday genre is the most distinctive and original phenomenon of the Dutch school, which opened up the everyday life of a private person to world art.

Jan Steen also wrote on the genre theme of art. He noted with a sense of humor the details of everyday life and relationships between people. In the painting “Revelers,” the artist himself looks at the viewer cheerfully and slyly, sitting next to his wife, who fell asleep after have a fun feast. And in the film, through the facial expressions and gestures of the characters, Jan Steen skillfully reveals the plot of an imaginary illness.

By the beginning of the 30s, the formation of the Dutch genre painting was completed. Genre painting was divided into social sign: plots on themes from the life of the bourgeoisie, and scenes from the life of peasants and the urban poor.

One of the famous artists who painted in the “peasant genre” was Adrian van Ostad. In the early period of creativity, the depiction of peasants was comical. So, in the picture, the fighters, illuminated by harsh light, seem not to be living people, but puppets. The juxtaposition of cold and warm colors, sharp contrasts of light create masks with angry emotions on their faces.

Later, the artist paints pictures with calmer subjects, depicting a person during his usual activities, most often in moments of rest. For example, the interior painting “Village Musicians”. Ostade conveys the concentration of the “musicians,” depicting children watching them through the window with subtle humor. Adrian’s brother Isaac van Ostade, who died early, also worked in the “peasant genre.” He depicted life in rural Holland. The painting “Winter View” presents a typical landscape with a gray sky hanging over the ground, a frozen river, on the banks of which there is a village.

In the 50-60s of the 17th century, the themes of genre paintings narrowed and their structure changed. They become calmer, more lyrical, more thoughtful. This stage is represented by the work of such artists as: Pieter de Hooch, Gerard Terborch, Gabriel Metsu, Peter Janssens. Their works are characterized by an idealized image of the life of the Dutch bourgeoisie. Thus, in the interior painting “Room in a Dutch House” by Pieter Janssens, a cozy room filled with sunlight is depicted with sunbeams playing on the floor and walls. The choice of composition emphasizes the unity of man and his environment.

Dutch genre painters tried to reflect the inner world of man in their works. In regularly occurring situations, they were able to show a world of experiences. Thus, Gerard Terborch in the film “A Glass of Lemonade” depicted a subtle language of gestures, hand touches, eye contact, which reveals a whole range of feelings and relationships between the characters.

Subtlety and truthfulness in recreating reality are combined by Dutch masters with inconspicuous and everyday beauty. This trait manifested itself more clearly in the still life. The Dutch called it "stilleven". In this understanding, the masters saw in inanimate objects a hidden life associated with the life of a person, with his way of life, habits, and tastes. Dutch painters created the impression of natural “mess” in the arrangement of things: they showed a cut pie, a peeled lemon with the peel hanging in a spiral, an unfinished glass of wine, a burning candle, an open book - it always seems that someone touched these objects, only that they were used , the invisible presence of a person is felt.

The leading masters of Dutch still life in the first half of the 17th century were Pieter Claes 1and Willem Hed. A favorite theme of their still lifes is the so-called “breakfasts”. In “Breakfast with Lobster” by V. Kheda (appendix; Fig. 16) objects of the most varied shapes and materials - a coffee pot, a glass, a lemon, a silver plate. Objects are arranged in such a way as to show the attractiveness and peculiarity of each. Using a variety of techniques, Heda perfectly conveys the material and the specificity of their texture; Thus, the glare of light plays differently on the surface of glass and metal. All elements of the composition are united by light and color. In “Still Life with a Candle” by P. Klass, not only the accuracy of the reproduction of the material qualities of objects is remarkable - the composition and lighting give them great emotional expressiveness. The still lifes of Klass and Kheda are similar to each other - they are a mood of intimacy and comfort, tranquility in the life of a burgher's house, where there is prosperity. Still life can be considered as one of the important themes of Dutch art - the theme of the life of a private person. She got her main decision in a genre film.

Symbolism. Still life

All objects in a Dutch still life are symbolic. Collections published during the 18th century crumbled petals near the vase are signs of frailty;

o a withered flower is a hint of the disappearance of feelings;

o irises are a sign of the Virgin Mary;

o red flowers are a symbol of Christ’s atoning sacrifice;

o The white lily is not only a beautiful flower, but also a symbol of the purity of the Virgin Mary;

o carnation - a symbol of the shed blood of Christ;

o white tulip - false love.

o pomegranate - a symbol of resurrection, a symbol of chastity;

o apples, peaches, oranges were reminiscent of the Fall;

o the wine in a glass or jug ​​represented the sacrificial blood of Christ;

o olive - a symbol of peace;

o rotten fruits are a symbol of aging;

o ears of wheat and ivy are a symbol of rebirth and the cycle of life.

o glass is a symbol of fragility;

o porcelain - cleanliness;

o the bottle is a symbol of sin and drunkenness;

o broken dishes are a symbol of death;

o an inverted or empty glass means emptiness;

o knife - a symbol of betrayal;

o silver vessels are the personification of wealth.

o hourglass - a reminder of the transience of life;

o skull - a reminder of the inevitability of death;

o ears of wheat - symbols of rebirth and the cycle of life;

o bread is a symbol of the body of the Lord;

o weapons and armor are a symbol of power and might, a designation of what cannot be taken with you to the grave;

o keys - symbolize power;

o a smoking pipe is a symbol of fleeting and elusive earthly pleasures;

o carnival mask - is a sign of a person’s absence; irresponsible pleasure;

o mirrors, glass balls are symbols of vanity, a sign of reflection, unreality.

The foundations of the Dutch realistic landscape were formed at the beginning of the 17th century. Artists depicted their favorite nature with dunes and canals, houses and villages. They tried to depict the nationality of the landscape, the atmosphere of the air and the characteristics of the season. Masters increasingly subordinated all components of the picture to a single tone. They had a keen sense of color and skillfully conveyed transitions from light to shadow, from tone to tone.

The largest representative of Dutch realistic landscape was Jan van Goyen (1596-1656). He worked in Leiden and The Hague. The artist loved to depict valleys and the water surface of rivers on small-sized canvases. Goyen left a lot of space for the sky with clouds. This is the painting “View of the Waal River near Nijmegen”, designed in a subtle brown-gray range of colors.

Later, the characteristic essence of the landscapes changes. She becomes a little broader, more emotional. The specificity remains the same - restrained, but the tones acquire depth.

All the new features of the landscape style were embodied in his paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael (1629-1682). By depicting trees and bushes as voluminous, it created the feeling that they were moving to the foreground and becoming more powerful. With an excellent sense of perspective, Ruisdael skillfully conveyed the wide plains and surroundings of Holland. The choice of tone and lighting evokes focus. Ruisdael also loved ruins as decorative details that speak of destruction and the frailty of earthly existence. "Jewish Cemetery" represents a neglected area. Ruisdael was not successful in his time. The realism of his paintings did not correspond to the tastes of society. The artist, now deservedly enjoying worldwide fame, died a poor man in a Harlem almshouse.

Portrait painting. Frans Hals

One of the great Dutch artists was Frans Hals (circa 1580-1666). He was born in the 17th century in Antwerp. As a very young artist he came to Haarlem, where he grew up and was formed in the style of the school of Karel Van Mander. Haarlem was proud of its artist, and they brought eminent guests to his studio - Rubens and Van Dyck.

Hals was almost exclusively a portrait painter, but his art meant a lot not only to portrait painting Holland, but also for the formation of other genres. In Hals’s work, three types of portrait compositions can be distinguished: a group portrait, a commissioned individual portrait, and a special type of portrait images, similar in nature to genre painting.

In 1616, Hals painted “The Banquet of the Officers of the Company of St. George’s Rifle Regiment,” in which he completely broke with the traditional pattern of a group porter. By creating a very lively work, uniting characters into groups and giving them various poses, he seemed to merge portraiture with genre painting. The work was a success, and the artist was inundated with orders.

His characters stand naturally and freely in the portrait, their posture and gestures seem unstable, and the expression on their faces is about to change. The most remarkable feature of Hals’s creative manner is the ability to convey character through individual facial expressions and gestures, as if caught on the fly - “Cheerful drinking companion”, “Mulatto”, “Smiling officer”. The artist loved emotional states full of dynamics. But in this instant that Hals captured, the most essential, the core of the image of the “Gypsy”, “Malle Babe” is always captured.

However, in the images of Hals from the very end of the 30s and 40s, thoughtfulness and sadness appear, alien to his characters, the portrait of Willem Heythuisen, and sometimes slips through slight irony in the artist's attitude towards them. The jubilant acceptance of life and man is gradually disappearing from Khalsa art.

Turning points have come in Khalsa painting. In the portraits of Hals, painted in the 50s and 60s, in-depth mastery of characterization is combined with a new inner meaning. One of the most powerful works of the late Khalsa - male portrait from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1650-1652). The composition of the portrait is a generational image of the figure, its setting in a clear front, the gaze directed directly at the viewer, the significance of the personality is felt. The man’s posture reveals cold authority and arrogant contempt for everyone. Self-esteem is combined in him with immense ambition. At the same time, a tinge of disappointment is unexpectedly caught in the gaze, as if in this person there lurks regret about the past - about his youth and the youth of his generation, whose ideals are forgotten and life incentives have faded.

Hals's portraits of the 50s and 60s reveal a lot about the Dutch reality of those years. The artist lived a long life, and he had the opportunity to witness the degeneration of Dutch society and the disappearance of its democratic spirit. It is no coincidence that Khalsa art is now going out of fashion. Hals's late works sensitively reflect the spirit of the time, so alien to the master, but in them one can also hear his own disappointment in the surrounding reality. In some works of these years, an echo of the personal feelings of the old artist, who was losing his former glory and had already seen the end of his life's journey, is captured.

Two years before his death, in 1664, Hals painted portraits of the regents and regents (trustees) of the Haarlem nursing home.

In "Portrait of the Regents" everyone is united by a feeling of disappointment and doom. Not in the regents vitality, as in the early group portraits of Hals. Everyone is lonely, everyone exists on their own. Black tones with reddish-pink spots create a tragic atmosphere.

“Portrait of the Regents” is decided in a different emotional key. In the almost motionless poses of the callous old women, who do not know compassion, one can feel the master’s authority and at the same time, deep depression lives in all of them, a feeling of powerlessness and despair in the face of impending death.

Until the end of his days, Hals retained the infallibility of his skill, and the art of the eighty-year-old painter gained insight and strength.

6. Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt (1606-1669) - largest representative golden age of Dutch painting. Born in Leiden in 1606. To receive an art education, the artist moved to Amsterdam and entered the workshop of Pieter Lastman, and then returned to Leiden, where in 1625 he began an independent creative life. In 1631, Rembrandt finally moved to Amsterdam, and the rest of the master’s life was connected with this city.

Rembrandt's work is imbued with a philosophical understanding of life and inner world person. This is the pinnacle of development of Dutch art of the 17th century. Artistic heritage Rembrandt is distinguished by a variety of genres. He painted portraits, still lifes, landscapes, genre scenes, paintings on historical, biblical, and mythological themes. But greatest depth The artist's works reach the last years of his life. The Uffizi has three works by the great master. This is a self-portrait in youth, a self-portrait in old age, a portrait of an old man (rabbi) In many later works the artist immerses the entire surface of the canvas in darkness, focusing the viewer’s attention on the face.

This is how Rembrandt portrayed himself at the age of 23.

The period of moving to Amsterdam was marked in Rembrandt’s creative biography by the creation of many male and female sketches. In them he explores the uniqueness of each model, her facial expressions. These small works later became a real school of Rembrandt as a portrait painter. It was portrait painting that at that time allowed the artist to attract orders from wealthy Amsterdam burghers and thereby achieve commercial success.

In 1653, experiencing financial difficulties, the artist transferred almost all of his property to his son Titus, after which he declared bankruptcy in 1656. After selling his house and property, the artist moved to the outskirts of Amsterdam, to the Jewish quarter, where he spent the rest of his life. The closest person to him in those years was, apparently, Titus, because his images are the most numerous. The death of Titus in 1668 was one of the last blows of fate for the artist; he himself died a year later. "Matthew and the Angel" (1661). Perhaps Titus was the model for the angel.

The last two decades of Rembrandt's life became the pinnacle of his skill as a portrait painter. The models are the artist's comrades (Nicholas Breuning, 1652; Gerard de Leresse, 1665; Jeremias de Dekker, 1666), soldiers, old men and women - all those who, like the author, went through years of sorrowful trials. Their faces and hands are illuminated by inner spiritual light. The artist’s internal evolution is conveyed by a series of self-portraits, revealing to the viewer the world of his innermost experiences. The series of self-portraits is accompanied by images of wise apostles. In the face of the apostle one can discern the features of the artist himself.

7. Vermeer of Delft Jan

Dutch art painting still life

Vermeer Jan of Delft (1632-1675) - Dutch painter, the largest master of Dutch genre and landscape painting. Vermeer worked in Delft. As an artist, he developed under the influence of Karel Fabritius, who tragically died in the explosion of a gunpowder warehouse.

Early paintings Vermeer have the sublimity of images ( Christ with Martha and Mary ). Vermeer's work was strongly influenced by the work of the master of genre painting Pieter de Hooch. The style of this painter was further developed in the paintings of Vermeer.

From the second half of the 50s, Vermeer painted small paintings with one or more figures in the silvery light of a house interior ( Girl with a letter Maid with a jug of milk ). In the late 50s, Vermeer created two masterpieces of landscape painting: a soulful painting street with shining, fresh, clean, colors and paintings View of the city of Delft . In the 60s, Vermeer's work became more refined, and his painting became colder. ( Girl with a pearl earring).

In the late 60s, the artist often depicted richly furnished rooms where ladies and gentlemen played music and had gallant conversations.

In the last years of Vermeer's life, his financial situation deteriorated greatly. The demand for paintings fell sharply, the painter was forced to take out loans to feed eleven children and other family members. This probably hastened the approach of death. It is not known what happened - an acute illness, or depression due to finances, but Vermeer was buried in 1675 in the family crypt in Delft.

Vermeer's individual art after his death was not appreciated by his contemporaries. Interest in him was revived only in the 19th century, thanks to the work of art critic and art historian Etienne Théophile Thoré, who “discovered” Vermeer for the general public.

Conclusion

Appeal to reality helped expand the artistic possibilities of Dutch art and enriched its genre theme. If, until the 17th century, biblical and mythological themes were of great importance in European fine art, and other genres were poorly developed, then in Dutch art the relationship between genres changes dramatically. There is a rise in such genres as: everyday life, portrait, landscape, still life. The biblical and mythological subjects themselves in Dutch art are largely losing their previous forms of embodiment and are now interpreted as household paintings.

For all its achievements, Dutch art also carried some specific features of limitation - a narrow range of subjects and motifs. Another disadvantage: only some masters sought to find their deep basis in phenomena.

But in many compositional paintings and portraits, the images are of the deepest nature, and the landscapes show the true and real nature. It has become distinctive feature Dutch art. Thus, painters made great breakthroughs in art by mastering the difficult and complex skill of painting images of a person's inner world and experiences.

The test gave me the opportunity to test my creative abilities, replenish my theoretical knowledge, and learn more about Dutch artists and their works.

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Dutch painting, in fine arts

Dutch painting, its emergence and initial period merge to such an extent with the first stages of the development of Flemish painting that the latest art historians consider both for the entire time until the end of the 16th century. inseparably, under one general name of the “Dutch school”.

Both of them, constituting the offspring of the Rhine branch, are dumb. painting, the main representatives of which are Wilhelm of Cologne and Stefan Lochner, consider the van Eyck brothers to be their founders; both have been moving in the same direction for a long time, are animated by the same ideals, pursue the same tasks, develop the same technique, so that the artists of Holland are no different from their Flemish and Brabant brethren.

This continues throughout the rule of the country, first by the Burgundian and then by the Austrian house, until a brutal revolution breaks out, ending in the complete triumph of the Dutch people over the Spaniards who oppressed them. From this era, each of the two branches of Dutch art begins to move separately, although sometimes they happen to come into very close contact with each other.

Dutch painting immediately takes on an original, completely national character and quickly reaches a bright and abundant flowering. The reasons for this phenomenon, the like of which can hardly be found throughout the entire history of art, lie in topographical, religious, political and social circumstances.

In this “low country” (hol land), consisting of swamps, islands and peninsulas, constantly washed away by the sea and threatened by its raids, the population, as soon as it threw off the foreign yoke, had to create everything anew, starting with the physical conditions of the soil and ending with moral and intellectual conditions, because everything was destroyed by the previous struggle for independence. Thanks to their enterprise, practical sense and persistent work, the Dutch managed to transform swamps into fruitful fields and luxurious pastures, conquer vast expanses of land from the sea, acquire material well-being and external political significance. The achievement of these results was greatly facilitated by the federal-republican form of government established in the country and the wisely implemented principle of freedom of thought and religious beliefs.

As if by a miracle, everywhere, in all areas of human labor, ardent activity suddenly began to boil in a new, original, purely popular spirit, among other things in the field of art. Of the branches of the latter, on the soil of Holland, one was lucky mainly in one - painting, which here, in the works of many more or less talented artists who appeared almost simultaneously, took on a very versatile direction and at the same time completely different from the direction of art in other countries. The main feature that characterizes these artists is their love for nature, the desire to reproduce it in all its simplicity and truth, without the slightest embellishment, without subsuming it under any conditions of a preconceived ideal. The second distinctive property of Goll. painters are composed of a subtle sense of color and an understanding of what a strong, enchanting impression can be made, in addition to the content of the picture, only by the faithful and powerful transmission of colorful relationships determined in nature by the action of light rays, proximity or range of distances.

Among the best representatives of Dutch painting, this sense of color and light and shade is developed to such an extent that light, with its countless and varied nuances, plays in the picture, one might say, the role of the main character and imparts high interest to the most insignificant plot, the most inelegant forms and images. Then it should be noted that most Goll. artists do not go on long searches for material for their creativity, but are content with what they find around them, in their native nature and in the life of their people. Typical features of distinguished compatriots, the faces of ordinary Dutchmen and Dutchwomen, the noisy fun of common holidays, peasant feasts, scenes of rural life or the intimate life of townspeople, native dunes, polders and vast plains crossed by canals, herds grazing in rich meadows, huts, nestled at the edge of beech or oak groves, villages on the banks of rivers, lakes and groves, cities with their clean houses, drawbridges and high spiers of churches and town halls, harbors cluttered with ships, the sky filled with silvery or golden vapors - all this, under the brush of the Dutch masters imbued with love for the fatherland and national pride, turns into paintings full of air, light and attractiveness.

Even in those cases when some of these masters resort to the Bible, ancient history and mythology for themes, even then, without worrying about maintaining archaeological fidelity, they transfer the action to the environment of the Dutch, surrounding it with a Dutch setting. True, next to the crowded crowd of such patriotic artists there is a phalanx of other painters looking for inspiration outside the borders of their fatherland, in the classical country of art, Italy; however, in their works there are also features that expose their nationality.

Finally, as a feature of the Dutch painters, one can point to their renunciation of artistic traditions. It would be in vain to look for among them a strict continuity of well-known aesthetic principles and technical rules, not only in the sense of academic style, but also in the sense of the students’ assimilation of the character of their teachers: with the exception, perhaps, of Rembrandt’s students alone, who more or less closely followed in the footsteps of their genius mentor, almost all painters in Holland, as soon as they passed their student years, and sometimes even during these years, began to work in their own way, in accordance with where their individual inclination led them and what direct observation of nature taught them.

Therefore, Dutch artists cannot be divided into schools, just as we do with the artists of Italy or Spain; it is difficult even to form strictly defined groups from them, and the very expression “Dutch school of painting”, which has come into general use, must be taken only in a conditional sense, as denoting a collection of tribal masters, but not an actual school. Meanwhile, in all the main cities of Holland there were organized societies of artists, which, it would seem, should have influenced the communication of their activities in one general direction. However, such societies, bearing the name of the guilds of St. Luke, if he contributed to this, did so to a very moderate extent. These were not academies, the custodians of well-known artistic traditions, but free corporations, similar to other craft and industrial guilds, not much different from them in terms of structure and aimed at mutual support of their members, protection of their rights, care for their old age, care for the fate of their widows and orphans.

Every local painter who met the requirements of the moral qualifications was admitted to the guild upon preliminary confirmation of his abilities and knowledge or on the basis of the fame he had already acquired; visiting artists were admitted to the guild as temporary members for the duration of their stay in a given city. Those belonging to the guild met to discuss, under the chairmanship of the deans, their common affairs or for the mutual exchange of thoughts; but in these meetings there was nothing that resembled the preaching of a certain artistic direction and that would tend to restrict the originality of any of the members.

The indicated features of Dutch painting are noticeable even in its early days - at a time when it developed inseparably from the Flemish school. Her vocation, like that of the latter, was then mainly to decorate churches with religious paintings, palaces, town halls and noble houses with portraits of government officials and aristocrats. Unfortunately, the works of primitive Dutch painters have reached us only in very limited quantities, since most of them perished in that troubled time when the Reformation devastated Catholic churches, abolished monasteries and abbeys, and incited “icon breakers” (beeldstormers) to destroy the painted and sculpted sacred images, and the popular uprising destroyed portraits of the hated tyrants everywhere. We know many of the artists who preceded the revolution only by name; We can judge others only by one or two samples of their work. Thus, regarding the oldest of the Dutch painters, Albert van Ouwater, there is no positive data, except for the information that he was a contemporary of the van Eycks and worked in Harlem; There are no reliable paintings of him. His student Gertjen van Sint-Jan is known only from two panels of a triptych (“St. Sepulchre” and “Legend of the Bones of St. John”), which he wrote for the Harlem Cathedral, stored in the Vienna Gallery. The fog that shrouds us in the initial era of the G. school begins to dissipate with the appearance on the scene of Dirk Bouts, nicknamed Stuerboat († 1475), originally from Haarlem, but who worked in Leuven and is therefore considered by many to be part of the Flemish school (his best works are two paintings “ The Wrongful Trial of Emperor Otto,” are in the Brussels Museum), as well as Cornelis Engelbrechtsen (1468-1553), whose main merit is that he was the teacher of the famous Luke of Leiden (1494-1533). This latter, a versatile, hardworking and highly talented artist, knew how, like no one before him, to accurately reproduce everything that caught his eye, and therefore can be considered the real father of the Dutch genre, although he had to paint mainly religious paintings and portraits. In the works of his contemporary Jan Mostaert (circa 1470-1556), the desire for naturalism is combined with a touch of Gothic tradition, the warmth of religious feeling with a concern for external elegance.

In addition to these outstanding masters, the following deserve to be mentioned for the initial era of Dutch art: Hieronymus van Aken, nicknamed Hieronymus de Bosch (c. 1462-1516), who laid the foundation for satirical everyday painting with his complex, intricate and sometimes extremely strange compositions; Jan Mundain († 1520), famous in Harlem for his depictions of devilry and buffoonery; Peter Aertsen († 1516), nicknamed “Long Peter” (Lange Pier) for his tall stature, David Ioris (1501-56), a skilled glass painter, carried away by Anabaptist ravings and imagining himself as the prophet David and the son of God, Jacob Swarts (1469 ? - 1535?), Jacob Cornelissen (1480? - later 1533) and his son Dirk Jacobs (two paintings of the latter, depicting rifle societies, are in the Hermitage).

About half of the 16th table. among Dutch painters there is a desire to get rid of the shortcomings of domestic art - its Gothic angularity and dryness - by studying Italian artists of the Renaissance and combining their manner with the best traditions of their own school. This desire is already visible in the works of the aforementioned Mostert; but the main disseminator of the new movement should be considered Jan Schorel (1495-1562), who lived for a long time in Italy and later founded a school in Utrecht, from which came a number of artists infected with the desire to become Dutch Raphaels and Michelangelos. In his footsteps, Maarten van Van, nicknamed Gemskerk (1498-1574), Henryk Goltzius (1558-1616), Peter Montford, nicknamed. Blokhorst (1532-83), Cornelis v. Haarlem (1562-1638) and others belonging to the next period of the Italian school, such as, for example, Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651), Gerard Gonthorst (1592-1662), went beyond the Alps to become imbued with the perfections of the luminaries of Italian painting, but fell , for the most part, under the influence of representatives of the decline of this painting that was beginning at that time, they returned to their homeland as mannerists, imagining that the whole essence of art lies in the exaggeration of muscles, in the pretentiousness of angles and the panache of conventional colors.

However, the fascination with Italians, which often extended to the extreme in the transitional era of Dutch painting, brought a kind of benefit, since it brought into this painting better, more learned drawing and the ability to manage composition more freely and boldly. Together with the Old Netherlandish tradition and boundless love for nature, Italianism became one of the elements from which the original, highly developed art of the flourishing era was formed. The onset of this era, as we have already said, should be dated to the beginning of the 17th century, when Holland, having won independence, began to live a new life. The dramatic transformation of an oppressed and poor country just yesterday into a politically important, comfortable and wealthy union of states was accompanied by an equally dramatic revolution in its art.

From all sides, almost simultaneously, wonderful artists are emerging in countless numbers, called to activity by the rise of the national spirit and the need for their work that has developed in society. To the original artistic centers, Haarlem and Leiden, new ones are being added - Delft, Utrecht, Dortrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, etc. Everywhere the old tasks of painting are being developed in a new way under the influence of changing demands and views, and its new branches, the beginnings of which were barely noticeable in the previous period.

The Reformation drove religious paintings out of churches; there was no need to decorate palaces and noble chambers with images of ancient gods and heroes, and therefore historical painting, satisfying the tastes of the rich bourgeoisie, discarded idealism and turned to an accurate reproduction of reality: it began to interpret long-past events as the events of the day that took place in Holland, and in especially took up portraiture, perpetuating in it the features of people of that time, either in single figures or in extensive, multi-figure compositions depicting rifle societies (schutterstuke), which played such a prominent role in the struggle for the liberation of the country - the managers of its charitable institutions (regentenstuke) , shop foremen and members of various corporations.

If we decided to talk about all the talented portrait painters of the flourishing era of Dutch art, then just listing their names with an indication of their best works would take many lines; Therefore, we limit ourselves to mentioning only those artists who are especially outstanding from the general ranks. These are: Michiel Mierevelt (1567-1641), his student Paulus Morelse (1571-1638), Thomas de Keyser (1596-1667) Jan van Ravesteyn (1572? - 1657), predecessors of the three greatest portrait painters of Holland - the sorcerer of chiaroscuro Rembrandt van Rijn ( 1606-69), an incomparable draftsman who had an amazing art of modeling figures in light, but somewhat cold in character and color, Bartholomew van der Gelst (1611 or 1612-70) and striking with the fugue of his brush Frans Gols the Elder (1581-1666). Of these, the name of Rembrandt shines especially brightly in history, at first held in high esteem by his contemporaries, then forgotten by them, little appreciated by posterity, and only in the current century elevated, in all fairness, to the level of world genius.

In his characteristic artistic personality, all the best qualities of Dutch painting are concentrated, as if in focus, and his influence was reflected in all its types - in portraits, historical paintings, everyday scenes and landscapes. The most famous among Rembrandt's students and followers were: Ferdinand Bol (1616-80), Govert Flinck (1615-60), Gerbrand van den Eckhout (1621-74), Nicholas Mas (1632-93), Art de Gelder (1645-1727 ), Jacob Backer (1608 or 1609-51), Jan Victors (1621-74), Carel Fabricius (c. 1620-54), Salomon and Philips Koning (1609-56, 1619-88), Pieter de Grebber, Willem de Porter († later 1645), Gerard Dou (1613-75) and Samuel van Googstraten (1626-78). In addition to these artists, to complete the list of the best portrait painters and historical painters of the period under review, one should name Jan Lievens (1607-30), Rembrandt’s fellow student of P. Lastman, Abraham van Tempel (1622-72) and Pieter Nazon (1612-91), working, apparently, under the influence of V. d. Gelsta, the imitator of Hals Johannes Verspronck (1597-1662), Jan and Jacob de Braev († 1664, † 1697), Cornelis van Zeulen (1594-1664) and Nicholas de Gelta-Stokade (1614-69). Household painting, the first experiments of which appeared in the old Dutch school, found itself in the 17th century. especially fertile soil in Protestant, free, bourgeois, self-satisfied Holland.

Small pictures, artlessly representing the customs and life of different classes of local society, seemed to enough people more entertaining than large works of serious painting, and, along with landscapes, more convenient for decorating cozy private homes. A whole horde of artists satisfies the demand for such pictures, without thinking long about the choice of themes for them, but conscientiously reproducing everything that is encountered in reality, showing at the same time love for their family, then good-natured humor, accurately characterizing the depicted positions and faces and refined in the mastery of technology. While some are occupied with common people's life, scenes of peasant happiness and sorrow, drinking bouts in taverns and taverns, gatherings in front of roadside inns, rural holidays, games and skating on the ice of frozen rivers and canals, etc., others take the content for their works from a more elegant circle - they paint graceful ladies in their intimate surroundings, the courtship of dandy gentlemen, housewives giving orders to their maids, salon exercises in music and singing, the revelry of golden youth in pleasure houses, etc. In the long series of artists of the first category, they excel Adrian and Izak v. Ostade (1610-85, 1621-49), Adrian Brouwer (1605 or 1606-38), Jan Stan (about 1626-79), Cornelis Bega (1620-64), Richart Brackenburg (1650-1702), P. v. Lahr, nicknamed Bambocchio in Italy (1590-1658), Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), Egbert van der Poel (1621-64), Cornelis Drohslot (1586-1666), Egbert v. Gemskerk (1610-80), Henrik Roques, nicknamed Sorg (1621-82), Claes Molenaar (formerly 1630-76), Jan Minse-Molenar (about 1610-68), Cornelis Saftleven (1606-81) and some. etc. Of the equally significant number of painters who reproduced the life of the middle and upper, generally sufficient, class, Gerard Terborch (1617-81), Gerard Dou (1613-75), Gabriel Metsu (1630-67), Peter de Gogh ( 1630-66), Caspar Netscher (1639-84), France c. Miris the Elder (1635-81), Eglon van der Naer (1643-1703), Gottfried Schalcken (1643-1706), Jan van der Meer of Delft (1632-73), Johannes Vercollier (1650-93), Quiring Brekelenkamp (†1668 ). Jacob Ochtervelt († 1670), Dirk Hals (1589-1656), Anthony and Palamedes Palamedes (1601-73, 1607-38), etc. The category of genre painters includes artists who painted scenes of military life, idleness of soldiers in guardhouses, camp sites , cavalry skirmishes and entire battles, dressage horses, as well as falconry and hound hunting scenes akin to battle scenes. The main representative of this branch of painting is the famous and extraordinarily prolific Philips Wouwerman (1619-68). In addition to him, her brother of this master, Peter (1623-82), Jan Asselein (1610-52), whom we will soon meet among the landscape painters, the aforementioned Palamedes, Jacob Leduc (1600 - later 1660), Henrik Verschuring (1627- 90), Dirk Stop (1610-80), Dirk Mas (1656-1717), etc. For many of these artists, landscape plays as important a role as human figures; but in parallel with them, a mass of painters are working, setting it as their main or exclusive task.

In general, the Dutch have an inalienable right to be proud that their fatherland is the birthplace not only of the newest genre, but also of landscape in the sense that it is understood today. In fact, in other countries, e.g. in Italy and France, art had little interest in inanimate nature, did not find in it either a unique life or special beauty: the painter introduced landscape into his paintings only as a side element, as a decoration, among which episodes of human drama or comedy are played out, and therefore subjected it to conditions scene, inventing picturesque lines and spots that are beneficial to it, but without copying nature, without being imbued with the impression it inspires.

In the same way, he “composed” nature in those rare cases when he tried to paint a purely landscape painting. The Dutch were the first to understand that even in inanimate nature everything breathes life, everything is attractive, everything is capable of evoking thought and exciting the movement of the heart. And this was quite natural, because the Dutch, so to speak, created the nature around them with their own hands, treasured and admired it, like a father cherishes and admires his own brainchild. In addition, this nature, despite the modesty of its forms and colors, provided colorists such as the Dutch with abundant material for developing lighting motifs and aerial perspective due to the climatic conditions of the country - its steam-saturated air, softening the outlines of objects, producing a gradation of tones at different plans and covering the distance with a haze of silvery or golden fog, as well as the changeability of the appearance of areas determined by the time of year, hour of day and weather conditions.

Among the landscape painters of the flowering period, the Dutch. schools that were interpreters of their domestic nature are especially respected: Jan V. Goyen (1595-1656), who, together with Esaias van de Velde (c. 1590-1630) and Pieter Moleyn the Elder. (1595-1661), considered the founder of the Goll. landscape; then this master's student, Salomon. Ruisdael († 1623), Simon de Vlieger (1601-59), Jan Wijnants (c. 1600 - later 1679), lover of the effects of better lighting Art. d. Nair (1603-77), poetic Jacob v. Ruisdael (1628 or 1629-82), Meinert Gobbema (1638-1709) and Cornelis Dekker († 1678).

Among the Dutch there were also many landscape painters who embarked on travels and reproduced motifs of foreign nature, which, however, did not prevent them from maintaining a national character in their painting. Albert V. Everdingen (1621-75) depicted views of Norway; Jan Both (1610-52), Dirk v. Bergen († later 1690) and Jan Lingelbach (1623-74) - Italy; Ian V. d. Mayor the Younger (1656-1705), Hermann Saftleven (1610-85) and Jan Griffir (1656-1720) - Reina; Jan Hackart (1629-99?) - Germany and Switzerland; Cornelis Pulenenburg (1586-1667) and a group of his followers painted landscapes inspired by Italian nature, with ruins of ancient buildings, bathing nymphs and scenes of an imaginary Arcadia. In a special category we can single out masters who in their paintings combined landscapes with images of animals, giving preference to either the first or the second, or treating both parts with equal attention. The most famous among such painters of rural idyll is Paulus Potter (1625-54); Besides him, Adrian should be included here. d. Velde (1635 or 1636-72), Albert Cuyp (1620-91), Abraham Gondius († 1692) and numerous artists who turned for themes preferably or exclusively to Italy, such as: Willem Romain († later 1693), Adam Peinaker (1622-73), Jan-Baptiste Vanix (1621-60), Jan Asselein, Claes Berchem (1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), Thomas Wieck (1616?-77) Frederic de Moucheron (1633 or 1634 -86), etc. Closely related to landscape painting is the painting of architectural views, which Dutch artists began to engage in as an independent branch of art only in the half of the 17th century.

Some of those who have since worked in this area have been sophisticated in depicting city streets and squares with their buildings; these are, among others, less significant, Johannes Bärestraten (1622-66), Job and Gerrit Werk-Heide (1630-93, 1638-98), Jan v. d. Heyden (1647-1712) and Jacob v. village Yulft (1627-88). Others, among whom the most prominent are Pieter Sanredan († 1666), Dirk v. Delen (1605-71), Emmanuel de Witte (1616 or 1617-92), painted interior views of churches and palaces. The sea was of such importance in the life of Holland that her art could not treat it except with the greatest attention. Many of its artists who dealt with landscape, genre and even portraits, breaking away from their usual subjects for a while, became marine painters, and if we decided to list all the painters of the Dutch school who depicted a calm or stormy sea, ships rocking on it, cluttered harbor ships, naval battles, etc., then we would get a very long list that would include the names of Ya. Goyen, S. de Vlieger, S. and J. Ruisdal, A. Cuyp and others already mentioned in the previous lines. Limiting ourselves to pointing out those for whom painting of marine species was a specialty, we must name Willem v. de Velde the Elder (1611 or 1612-93), his famous son V. v. de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), Ludolf Backhuisen (1631-1708), Jan V. de Cappelle († 1679) and Julius Parcellis († later 1634).

Finally, the realistic direction of the Dutch school was the reason that a type of painting was formed and developed in it, which in other schools until then had not been cultivated as a special, independent branch, namely painting of flowers, fruits, vegetables, living creatures, kitchen utensils, tableware etc. - in a word, what is now commonly called “dead nature” (nature morte, Stilleben). In this area between the The most famous artists of the flourishing era were Jan-Davids de Gem (1606-83), his son Cornelis (1631-95), Abraham Mignon (1640-79), Melchior de Gondecoeter (1636-95), Maria Osterwijk (1630-93) , Willem V. Aalst (1626-83), Willem Geda (1594 - later 1678), Willem Kalf (1621 or 1622-93) and Jan Waenix (1640-1719).

The brilliant period of Dutch painting did not last long - only one century. Since the beginning of the 18th century. its decline is coming, not because the coasts of the Zuiderzee cease to produce innate talents, but because In society, national self-awareness is weakening more and more, the national spirit is evaporating, and the French tastes and views of the pompous era of Louis XIV are taking hold. In art, this cultural turn is expressed by the oblivion on the part of artists of those basic principles on which the originality of painters of previous generations depended, and an appeal to aesthetic principles brought from a neighboring country.

Instead of a direct relationship to nature, love of what is native and sincerity, the dominance of preconceived theories, convention, and imitation of Poussin, Lebrun, Cl. Lorrain and other luminaries of the French school. The main propagator of this regrettable trend was the Flemish Gerard de Leresse (1641-1711), who settled in Amsterdam, a very capable artist and educated in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and works of his own pen, among which one, The Painter's Great Book ('t groot schilderboec), served as a code for young artists for fifty years. The famous Hadrian also contributed to the decline of the school. de Werff (1659-1722), whose sleek painting with cold figures, as if carved from ivory, with a dull, powerless color, once seemed the height of perfection. Among the followers of this artist Henryk v. enjoyed fame as historical painters. Limborg (1680-1758) and Philip V.-Dyck (1669-1729), nicknamed "Little V.-Dyck".

Of the other painters of the era in question, endowed with undoubted talent, but infected with the spirit of the times, it should be noted Willem and France v. Miris the Younger (1662-1747, 1689-1763), Nicholas Vercollier (1673-1746), Constantine Netscher (1668-1722), Isaac de Moucheron (1670-1744) and Carel de Maur (1656-1738). Some shine was given to the dying school by Cornelis Troost (1697-1750), primarily a cartoonist, nicknamed Dutch. Gogarth, portrait painter Jan Quincgard (1688-1772), decorative and historical painter Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) and painters of dead nature Jan V. Geysum (1682-1749) and Rachel Reisch (1664-1750).

Foreign influence weighed on Dutch painting until the twenties of the 19th century, having managed to more or less reflect in it the changes that art took in France, starting with the wigmaking of the times of the Sun King and ending with the pseudo-classicism of David. When the style of the latter became obsolete and everywhere in Western Europe, instead of the fascination with the ancient Greeks and Romans, a romantic desire was aroused, mastering both poetry and the figurative arts, the Dutch, like other

m peoples, turned their gaze to their antiquity, and therefore to the glorious past of their painting.

The desire to give it again the brilliance with which it shone in the 17th century began to inspire the newest artists and returned them to the principles of the ancient national masters - to a strict observation of nature and an ingenuous, sincere attitude towards the tasks at hand. At the same time, they did not try to completely eliminate themselves from foreign influence, but when they went to study in Paris or Dusseldorf and other artistic centers in Germany, they took home only an acquaintance with the successes of modern technology.

Thanks to all this, the revived Dutch school again received an original, attractive physiognomy and is moving today along the path leading to further progress. She can easily contrast many of her newest figures with the best painters of the 19th century in other countries. Historical painting in the strict sense of the word is cultivated in it, as in the old days, very moderately and has no outstanding representatives; But in terms of the historical genre, Holland can be proud of several significant recent masters, such as: Jacob Ekgout (1793-1861), Ari Lamme (b. 1812), Peter V. Schendel (1806-70), David Bles (b. 1821), Hermann ten-Cate (1822-1891) and the highly talented Lawrence Alma-Tadema (b. 1836), who deserted to England. The everyday genre, which was also included in the circle of activity of these artists (with the exception of Alma-Tadema), can be pointed to a number of excellent painters, headed by Joseph Israels (b. 1824) and Christoffel Bisschop (b. 1828); besides them, Michiel Verseg (1756-1843), Elhanon Vervaer (b. 1826), Teresa Schwarze (b. 1852) and Valli Mus (b. 1857) are worthy of being named.

The newest Dutch painting is especially rich in landscape painters who have worked and are working in a variety of ways, sometimes with careful completion, sometimes with the broad technique of the Impressionists, but faithful and poetic interpreters of their native nature. These include Andreas Schelfgout (1787-1870), Barent Koekkoek (1803-62), Johannes Wilders (1811-90), Willem Roelofs (b. 1822), Hendrich v. de Sande-Bockhuisen (b. 1826), Anton Mauwe (1838-88), Jacob Maris (b. 1837), Lodewijk Apol (b. 1850) and many others. etc. Direct heirs of Ya. D. Heyden and E. de Witte, painters of promising views appeared, Jan Verheiden (1778-1846), Bartholomews v. Gowe (1790-1888), Salomon Vervaer (1813-76), Cornelis Springer (1817-91), Johannes Bosbohm (1817-91), Johannes Weissenbruch (1822-1880), etc. Among the newest marine painters of Holland, the palm belongs to Jog. Schotel (1787-1838), Ari Plaisir (b. 1809), Hermann Koekkoek (1815-82) and Henrik Mesdag (b. 1831). Finally, Wouters Verschoor (1812-74) and Johann Gas (b. 1832) showed great skill in animal painting.

Wed. Van Eyden u. van der Willigen, “Geschiedenis der vaderlandische schilderkunst, sedert de helft des 18-de eeuw” (4 volumes, 1866) A. Woltman u. K. Woermann, "Geschichte der Malerei" (2nd and 3rd volumes, 1882-1883); Waagen, “Handbuch der deutschen und niderländischen Malerschulen” (1862); Bode, “Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei” (1883); Havard, "La peinture hollandaise" (1880); E. Fromentin, “Les maîtres d’autrefois. Belgique, Hollande" (1876); A. Bredius, “Die Meisterwerke des Rijksmuseum zu Amsterdam” (1890); P. P. Semenov, “Sketches on the history of Dutch painting based on its samples located in St. Petersburg.” (special supplement to the journal “Vestn. Fine Arts”, 1885-90).

Within the framework of the Year of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Russian Federation
at the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin (Gallery of art of European and American countries of the 19th-20th centuries)
until January 26, 2014 there was an exhibition of works from the ING Group corporate collection
The magic of Dutch realism.

ING Group is one of the largest international financial companies of Dutch origin. The ING art collection today includes over 15 thousand works of various national schools and movements. At the exhibition of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, ING Group is showing the most significant part of its collection - paintings related to artistic direction magical realism.
In the 1920s in Europe, under the slogan “return to order,” a revival of the classical trend in art began. In European art, the passion for abstractionism of the previous decade is weakening and realistic tendencies are being revived. This was partly due to the painful experience of the First World War: the language of abstract art was quite limited, and artists were forced to look for a new style to express the brutality of the past carnage. This led to the birth new form realism, which abandoned the depiction of everyday life, as was the case in the art of the 19th century, and focused on other techniques. Similar art movements began to emerge throughout Europe: "new materiality" in Germany, "metaphysical art" in Italy, "surrealism" in France and, in the 1930s, "magical realism" in the Netherlands.

The term "magical realism" was first introduced in Germany and was later used in Holland by some writers. Its distinctive feature is that objects from the real world are depicted with photographic precision (realism), however, since they are placed in an unreal context - a figment of the artist’s imagination - the effect of detachment (magic), destruction of the standard perception of the surrounding world is born. To achieve this effect, the magical realists turned to the refined techniques of 17th century painting. At the same time, behind the facade of an emphatically realistic painting style lies a penetrating and deeply personal look, and the scrupulous precision with which the paintings are made gives rise to a feeling of alienation.

Artists are beginning to show interest in the painting tradition itself. One of the first followers of this trend is the Dutchman Karel Willink, the only artist who has the honor of being included not only in the ING collection, but also in the greater history of art of the 20th century. Since he viewed modern styles as transitory, Willink decides to end his experiments and move on to traditional realistic painting.

Karel Willink. Girl in a Renaissance dress. 1946

The gaze of anyone entering the exhibition is immediately drawn to “Girl in a Renaissance Costume” by Karel Willink. Rubens's girl in a heavy brocade dress with a toy sheep on a leash, depicted against the backdrop of a regular park that stretches in Patinirov's perspective right up to the horizon, seems like the heroine of some kind of nightmare. Either the icy electric light, like from Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia,” gives such an effect, or the contrast between the model’s not at all childish and not at all innocent face and the idyllic setting in the spirit of the old masters, where this face is inserted, as if in a painting, is triggered. a fake from a provincial photo studio. “Girl” was written in 1945 - during the occupation, Karel Willink, despite being recognized as a completely Aryan artist, refused to sell his paintings to the Germans and made a living from portraits. However, this picture, with all its custom-made character, is seen as a reflection on Old Europe, which has died and which must now be populated by young, unfamiliar tribes.

The rest of the artists shown at the exhibition are much less famous and seem to want to enter into an argument with Willink, proving to him with their manic realism that the values ​​of the old world have a right to life. But at the same time, the ING collection does not at all look like a manifestation of conservatism.

The term "magical realism", veiled in the title of the exhibition, was coined by a German art historian and critic Franz Roch in 1925 for artists of the “new materiality”, but quickly migrated to the field of literature and practically lost any clear meaning in the field of visual art. What we see in the exhibition is a wide range of “isms”. From hyperrealism - like in "The Box" Frans Clement, from which construction tools will fall out at any moment, to the point of banal academicism - as in still life productions Peter Sebens And Bernard Ferkayka. There are fans of Andrew Wyeth here too... Johan Abeling with "House", which could easily become "Christina's House". And conceptualists like the author of 7 thousand self-portraits Philip Ackerman, student of the great Jan Dibbets. And fans of postmodern games like Barenda Blankert, quoting old Italians mixed with Georges Seurat. And that very “new materiality”, which includes Karel Willink’s peers - Wim Schumacher with silver portraits and landscapes and Dick Kath with collage still lifes returning to the cubist objective world illusionistic persuasiveness. However, Dick Ket, in “Still Life for St. Nicholas Day”, encrypting his name, since the marionette doll that ended up on the festive table is called “ket” in West Frisian, plays surrealist games. Like Karel Willink, his northern mannerism is close to Max Ernst and Salvador Dali, and his Cartesianism is close to Rene Magritte.

Probably, the ING collection has a patriotic program: after all, realism is considered a great achievement of the Dutch golden age. Many artists here appeal to the golden age, and under “Still life with fruit against the backdrop of a landscape” by a brilliant stylist Raoul Hinkes I would like to correct the date by writing "1635" instead of "1935". But one cannot say that the motives that prompted the collection of this corporate collection are limited to the desire to support the national artistic brand. The exhibition occupies only three halls, and the paintings are simply distributed among them in accordance with the genre principle: portrait, landscape, still life. However, for all the photographic realism of the works, you don’t feel the difference between the genres: designed mainly in dull silvery-gray tones, illuminated mainly by smooth matte light, distinguished by the unnatural clarity of lines, all of them at first evoke the idea of ​​a typical Dutch landscape, and then begin to seem like a still life. A masterly and dispassionate cast of reality from which life has disappeared. Not in a holistic way real world, but with a set of index signs referring to real world like a crime scene, like a crack on one and a bow on the other armrest of the “Chair” Barenda Blankert. Which was partly described by the poet Joseph Brodsky in a poem inspired by the painting of Carl Willink: “This is what is called “mastery”:

The ability not to be afraid of the procedure

Non-existence - as forms of its own

Absence, having copied it from life.

Following Willink, such representatives of magical realism as Peike Koch, Raoul Hinkuis, Dick Kaeth, and Wim Schumacher are becoming more popular.

Peike Koch. Harvest. 1953

“Magical realism depicts phenomena that are possible and yet implausible; surrealism, for its part, demonstrates situations that are impossible, do not exist or cannot exist,” said Peike Koch, explaining the difference between magical realism and surrealism, two art movements that are often confused with each other. Surrealism is primarily a world of fantasy and dreams, while magical realism is everyday life in a new context.

A common feature of all magical realists is the atmosphere created by their paintings. The feeling of unease that these paintings evoke is partly due to their extreme realism, which reduces the distance between the viewer and the work. At the same time, there is no strict narrative or complete narrative here. The artist only offers a set of possible readings, but never gives a complete answer. The viewer is given the right to draw his own conclusions.

The aesthetics of magical realism, this combination of reality and magic, of course, needed certain stylistic techniques. The works of magical realists are distinguished by a certain coldness and the artist’s seemingly detached glance at the subject of the image, sliding over the surface, which was especially evident in portraiture and still lifes (Dick Kath, Wim Schumacher).

Wim Schumacher. Portrait of Adin Mees. 1933;

Wim Schumacher "Melita in White" 1928

Wim Schumacher "Prats de Mollo" 1929

Dick Ket. Saint Nicholas, still life. 1931

Dick Ket (1902-1940).Still Life with Violin and Newspaper clippings with Self-Portraits of W.Schumacher and R.Hynckes.Ca.1936

Raoul Hynckes (1893-1973).Still Life with Fruit and Landscape/Still Life with Fruit against a Landscape.1935.

Ger Langeweg (1891-1970).Pears in a Landscape.Ca.1937/Ger Langeweg.Pears in a landscape.

For modern representatives of magical realism in Holland, it is characteristic and not accidental that they have a connection with such phenomena in the art of the 20th century as pop art, neo-expressionism and photorealism. Techniques of demonstrative construction of the imaginative world, the desire to play up the utilitarianism and stereotyping of the surrounding space, escape into the world of the imaginary, the use of hidden allusions, free play with images and meanings make the work of modern “magical” artists similar to surrealism. At the same time, the extreme degree of figurative art and attention to detail is undoubtedly an appeal to the realistic tradition of the old Dutch masters.

The purpose of the exhibition “The Magic of Dutch Realism” is to show one of the brightest phenomena in the art of the Netherlands of the 20th century - as a dialogue between painters of several generations, between magical realists of the first half of the 20th century, including Wim Schumacher, Karel Willink, Peike Koch, and their modern followers: Philipp Akkerman, Frans Stuurman, Koos van Koulen and others, a dialogue that makes you remember the traditional culture of the Netherlands. The exhibition features about forty works by Dutch artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, demonstrating technical mastery, a combination of tradition and innovation.

Jan van Tongeren (1897-1991).Still Life with white Jug.1967/ Jan van Tongeren.Still life with a white jug

Franc Clement (b.1941).Box.1985/ Franc Clement.Box.

Frans Stuurman "Delfshaven" 1979

Frans Stuurman (g.1952) The Gulf.1994 / Frans Stuurman.Seagull

Jan Worst "Adventurer" 1993

Kick Sailer "In front of the mirror" 1993

Kick Seiler "Night" 1992

Pete Sebens "Hilda's Table" 1995

Henk Helmantel (born 1945). Still life with pomegranate fruits. 1998. Wood, oil

Barend Blankert (g.1941).The Exercise.1991 / Barend Blankert. Exercise

Barend Blankert "Two boys in nature" 1988-1990

Philip Ackerman. Self-portrait. 2001

Philip Akkerman (b.1957) 4 Self-Portraits No. 132, No. 51, No. 80, No. 20 / Philip Akerman.4 self-portraits

The light in magical realist paintings often looks artificial, overly harsh and intermittent. Artists used this technique in order to fully realize the methods of using perspective developed by the Cubists.

Also, in the paintings of magical realists one can hardly find any nuances or soft color schemes: the foreground and background are often depicted with the same degree of detail. Among modern followers of magical realism, this technique is used by Koos van Koulen.

Koos van Koulen. Olga. 2007

Koos van Keulen "Itier and Pisanello" 2003

Matthijs Roling(b.1943).Garden.2005 / Matthijs Roling.Garden

Bernard Verkaaik(b.1946). Pot, Onions and black Cloth.2004/ Bernard Ferkaaik. Pot, bulbs and black cloth

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Kenne Gregoire (b. 1951). Coffee break. 2003. Canvas on wood, acrylic

Harry van der Woude "Self-portrait with an orange bowl" 2007

In the 1960s, new realism appeared in France, and pop art appeared in the USA and Great Britain - the demand for magical realism as a movement dropped sharply. At this time, neo-expressionism began to emerge in Europe. Belgian and Dutch artists, among others, take an active part in this process Alphonse Freimuth And Roger Roveel. They begin to create paintings in a “natural style,” returning from time to time to the traditions of their predecessors, who discovered the direction of “magical realism.” Now the masters are more typical of such themes as love, harmony, death, feelings, while the new neurotic realism often turns to issues taboo in society. Artists of all these movements strongly believe in the need to express both their personal positions, thoughts, and universal human values, which unites these periods in art.

The exhibition as a whole clearly not only shows the continuity of contemporary Dutch artists from their immediate predecessors, but also a constant dialogue with traditional culture and connection with the golden age of Dutch painting. Finding these intersections and mutual references becomes a fascinating quest for the viewer. However, magic also works with passive contemplation. Still, magical realism is an oxymoron, and paradoxes and contradictions always attract.

P.S. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the exhibition; I collected material about it on the Internet:
Links:
http://pda.mn.ru/culture/20131114/362619469.html