Art of Holland, the Netherlands and Flanders
Frans Hals. Portrait of a man. Around 1635
Jan Van Eyck (1390–1441) The Virgin and Child enthroned in the temple. Triptych 1437. Oak board, oil. Central part - 27.5x21.5, side - 27.5x8
This small-sized work is a true masterpiece of Dutch art of the 15th century. In the central part of the triptych is the Virgin Mary and Child in the luxurious interior of a Gothic cathedral, seated on a magnificent carved throne between two rows of multi-colored columns made of jasper and marble.
The left door depicts the Archangel Michael (“leader of the heavenly army”), dressed in chain mail and armed with a shield, spear and sword. He introduces the donor, the customer of the triptych, to the Virgin and Child. The man's name is unknown; it is assumed that he is from the Genoese family of Giustiniani. On the right wing is Saint Catherine of Alexandria with traditional attributes, the “instruments” of her martyrdom: a sword in her hand and a torture wheel at her feet.
The text given on the triptych is of great importance. These are quotes from the Bible and other Latin maxims. The baby holds a message with the text, the so-called parcel: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” There are inscriptions on the original frames of all parts of the painting; on the bottom bar of the central panel it is written in Latin: “Johannes de Eyck completed and completed in the year of the Lord 1437. As I did.” These words became available for reading only in 1958, almost 520 years after the creation of the triptych! Until this time, it was believed that the work belonged to an earlier period of the master’s work.
The small size of the work allowed the owner to transport it. The artist’s technique is striking in its filigree: the smallest details are painted out, which can only be seen through a magnifying glass. At the same time, magnification does not reveal a single uncertain stroke or the slightest error in the drawing.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) Diana's Return from the Hunt Around 1615. Oil on canvas. 136x184
In 1608, Rubens, returning from Italy to Antwerp, brought with him an interest in the heritage of ancient art and literature, which did not fade away in him throughout his life and became the cornerstone of his creativity and thinking about art. He used subjects from Greek and Roman mythology for many of his paintings, especially commissioned ones.
The goddess Diana was extremely attractive to Rubens, since the myth about her combined with antiquity another of his favorite themes - hunting. The painter's interest was fueled by his royal and aristocratic patrons: hunting was the exclusive privilege of these circles. The artist created a number of large-format hunting paintings, many of which are based on an ancient plot.
Unlike other paintings in which the master conveys the pathos of struggle, in this painting his attention is focused on the beauty of the ancient goddess-hunter. Diana, the defender of female purity, stands with her companions in front of a group of satyrs, who, by the way, represent another pole of interests for Rubens - everything related to bacchanalia. The Spear of Diana sharply demarcates these two groups, two worlds. How different is the appearance of their participants: among the satyrs are goat-footed creatures wild in their passion, surrounded by Diana, who herself radiates the charm of feminine nature, her divinely beautiful companions. The satyrs display an abundance of fruit, hinting at what great wine they will make in the future. In turn, Diana has birds and a hare (symbols of sensual pleasures), which she killed while hunting. In a symbolic sense they express her denial of the pleasures offered.
Dutch artists of the 17th century, sometimes with a narrow specialization, often attracted their colleagues when it was necessary to depict in a painting something in which they were not strong enough. Thus, the fruits and animals on the presented canvas were painted by Frans Snyders, who was famous for similar still lifes and images of animals.
Peter Paul Rubens Bathsheba at the Fountain 1635. Oil on oak board. 175x126
Rubens created large number paintings on biblical subjects. To understand the work presented here, it is necessary to know the biblical story, and the artist’s ingenuity in conveying its details is amazing. King David once “walked on the roof of the king’s house and saw a woman bathing from the roof; and that woman was very beautiful.” This was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. In the upper left corner of the canvas, the figure of King David is barely visible on the roof of the palace, and Rubens showed Bathsheba behind the toilet on the platform leading to the pool. David seduced her, and Uriah sent her to certain death.
A gorgeous young woman attracts attention; Rubens was a great master of depicting the female body, and he created his own canon of beauty. Meanwhile, one cannot help but admire the ingenuity with which the artist conveys the subtle emotional moments of this scene: the surprised look of Bathsheba, who did not expect to receive a letter from the hands of the black boy sent to her (it is clear that the letter can only be a love letter), the reaction of the dog, which bared its teeth at the messenger and suspected something was wrong (a dog sitting at a woman’s feet in the system of symbols of Renaissance and Baroque portraiture personified marital fidelity). And how delightfully the female figures, flowing water, clothes and architectural landscape are depicted!
Peter Paul Rubens Boar Hunting 1615–1620. Wood, oil. 137x168
In Rubens's works on the theme of hunting, two phases of creativity can be distinguished. The paintings of the first period, which lasted until 1620, to which the presented “Boar Hunt” belongs, are characterized by a centripetal and diagonal compositional scheme, in which unbridled forces act on both sides. Later works develop a composition characteristic of a frieze, that is, the action in them is shown in a horizontal perspective, parallel to the plane of the picture. In the first case, the culmination of the hunt is emphasized, when the animal is overtaken and defeated, in the second - the process of catching. And if the works of the first period demonstrate the victory of hunters over a fierce predator, then the paintings of the second show the pursuit of a defenseless animal.
The Dresden painting, in terms of its content, is much more than just a genre hunting scene. It clearly “shines through” the ancient myth of the Caledonian hunt, the one in which Meleager kills the Calydonian boar with a spear (this myth is set forth by Philostratus the Younger in Chapter 15 of his “Pictures”). All participants in the story are depicted here: the boar stands under a tree in a dense ring of hunters and angrily barking dogs. Atalanta has just shot her arrow; Meleager's spear pierces the beast. Lying near the boar dead man. This theme is used by many Flemish artists for paintings depicting hunting against the backdrop of a forest landscape. In Rubens, the fury of the fight, physical and spiritual tension are brought to the utmost intensity.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) River landscape with woodcutters 1608. Oil on board. 47x46
In the old days, it was customary to inherit the work of parents, especially creative professions. There are famous dynasties of artists, sculptors, and composers. The Bruegel dynasty is one of the largest in the history of painting. Usually in such families the main figure rises above everyone: for example, in the Bach family - Johann Sebastian, and in the Bruegel family - Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (the Elder, since subsequently another Jan appeared in the family - respectively, the Younger) received the nickname “Velvet” due to the special color of his painting. Oddly enough, the Dresden Gallery houses five paintings by the master, but there are no works by either the head of the dynasty or its other representatives. This is explained to some extent by the fact that, although Jan was inferior in talent to his father, his official status was higher - he was the court artist of Archduke Albert. Consequently, the master’s works were kept in the royal apartments, from where it was easier for them to get into other august collections.
Jan Brueghel the Elder painted in different genres - landscapes, still lifes (mainly flowers and animals), small-figure paintings on biblical, mythological and allegorical themes. The picture presented is one of his samples landscape painting. The work clearly demonstrates the genetic connection between Jan Brueghel's painting and his father's art. A comparison inevitably arises with Pieter Bruegel’s painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” (circa 1558, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels), painted 50 years before this work. They are constructed in a similar way: the wavy line of the border between sea and land divides the compositions into two parts. In both cases, a high point is chosen from which to paint a landscape filled with genre scenes, this allows for a wide perspective. This is where the similarities, perhaps, end: the father’s painting is full of dramatic intensity, while the son’s is just a landscape. And the difference is not in the plot, but in psychology: the father’s art reflects his restless spirit, while the son’s character is conflict-free.
Jan van Goyen (1596–1656) Winter on the River. B/g. Wood, oil. 68x90.5
Researchers note a characteristic feature of the artist’s style, which attracts the attention of the average viewer - the horizon in the artist’s paintings is placed quite low, therefore, the sky occupies approximately two-thirds of the canvas area. This is probably explained by the fact that the state of the sky - whether it is clear or of varying degrees of cloudiness - has an extraordinary influence on the visible color of the large expanse of water, which, as a rule, the painter depicted and gained fame for it. Although the work presented does not depict the sea, but a winter ice-bound river, the sky still plays a very important role. In Goyen's works it is never cloudless blue or light blue, but is always covered in clouds. The artist's canvases are made in a monochromatic painterly manner. Cloudy, foggy days are usually depicted.
Meindert Gobbema (1638–1709) Water mill. B/g. Oak, oil. 59.5x84.5
In the 17th century, Jacob van Ruisdael dominated Dutch landscape painting along with Rembrandt. Of Ruisdael's Amsterdam students, Meindert Gobbema (Hobbema) acquired almost greater fame than the teacher.
Meindert Gobbema is the last of the great Dutch landscape painters of the 17th century. Gobbema's paintings are distinguished by their simplicity, naturalness and careful execution. The artist is attracted by trees, dense forest, views of villages, peasant houses with red roofs, a church bell tower lost in the haze on the horizon, and a midground illuminated by sunlight. Often the main motif in such landscapes is an old mill. Many of the master’s variations on this theme are kept in different museums around the world, the Dresden painting is one of them.
With a mill in a person's mind, anyway, European culture, many ideas and ideas are associated, always emotionally coloring our perception of it both in reality and in art. Traditionally associated with it is the idea of solitude, colored by romantic experiences. Endlessly flowing water is associated with the idea of the immutability of existence, a rotating wheel - the main mechanism of the mill - through an allusion to the “wheel of Fortune” introduces the idea of vicissitudes of fate into the circle of generated images.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Portrait of a Knight with a Red Band 1625–1627. Oil on canvas. 90x70
If we very briefly define the difference between Dutch and Flemish art of the 17th century, we can say that in the first, still lifes, called “blende”, predominate due to the realistic features and amazing detail of the image, brought to the point of illusion, in the second, ceremonial portraits. Anthony van Dyck is the brightest representative of the genre, a master of ceremonial portraits and religious subjects in the Baroque style.
“Portrait of a Knight with a Red Band” is one of the best examples of Van Dyck’s work. Compositionally, it is constructed beautifully: the model’s face is in the horizontal center of the picture, energy, strength and courage are felt in its rotation, it attracts the viewer’s gaze. The texture and shine of the knight's armor is wonderfully conveyed.
The portrait was painted at that period of his life when Van Dyck created unusually easily, quickly and at the same time achieved ideal elaboration of his works. At the end of his life, the financially strapped master was forced to write too much to have time to do it with complete artistic perfection. From 1621 to 1627 he lived in Italy, spending most of his time in the highest circles of Genoese society. Many representatives of the aristocracy became models for him. However, it has still not been possible to identify the character in this painting. It is even possible that this is not a portrait of a real person, but some kind of allegory.
Rembrandt (1606–1669) Portrait of Saskia van Uylenburch 1633. Oak, oil. 52.5x44.5
Around 1631-1632 Rembrandt moved permanently to Amsterdam. He settled in one of the rooms of the art dealer Hendrik van Uylenburch, who already had the daughter of his relative, Saskia van Uylenburch, living with him. The young people fell in love and got married two years later. The girl came from a wealthy family, which is how Rembrandt got into high society. The happiest period of his life began, he became a famous and fashionable artist.
A number of portraits of his wife date back to the thirties. She was the artist's favorite model. So, in addition to the presented painting, one can name “Flora”, in which Rembrandt depicted Saskia shortly before the birth of their son Titus. Saskia also served as a model for the master’s famous “Danae”.
Rembrandt (1606–1669) Self-portrait of the artist with his wife Saskia 1635. Oil on canvas. 161x131
During his life, Rembrandt painted many self-portraits. The Dresden painting captures the joy of life, the exultation of owning a loved one - components of the emotional state of the painter of this period. The open gaze of the characters, directed at the viewer (it seems that they are inviting you to share their joy of being), the radiant face of Rembrandt, as if he has achieved all the blessings of life - this is the mood of this canvas.
However, the portrait also contains a certain provocation that was clear to viewers of that time: the artist depicts himself in the image of... a prodigal son feasting with a courtesan. It is noteworthy that in the Gospel Luke clearly says: “... he squandered his substance by living dissolutely.” Rembrandt, having married for love, on the contrary, exaggerated the condition of his wife and gained a higher social status. How strikingly different this “prodigal son” is from the one who returned to his father after long wanderings in the Hermitage painting of the same name!
If the comparison with the biblical hero is quite obvious, then the other semantic meaning of the picture requires explanation. There is an allusion here to the symbol of the virtue of moderation, the transgression of which brought the prodigal son to a sad end. This symbol is a glass raised in the hand of a gentleman (that is, Rembrandt) - a “flute”, as it was called in Dutch usage of that time - a measured vessel, a sign of wise self-control, the emblem of which is emphasized by its disproportionately large size.
Willem Claes Heda (1593/1594-1680/1682) Breakfast with blueberry pie 1631. Wood, oil. 54x82
In the 17th century in Holland, many artists created still lifes, and among them there was a specialization: one depicted flowers, another - dishes, a third - musical instruments. Willem Klass Heda painted similar still lifes for several decades, at least they date back to both 1631 (represented by “Breakfast with Blueberry Pie”) and 1651. For such a long time working in one genre, artists achieved impressive perfection in the technique of rendering fruits and vegetables , textures of fabric, objects made of metal and glass, water in glasses. Still lifes with food were called “ontbijtjes” (from Dutch - “breakfast”).
The demand for such still lifes was very great. In the early 1630s, Heda began to write them, using the rather conservative canons of his contemporaries - Floris Klee van Dyck and Nicolaes Gillies. He also places the table strictly parallel to the plane of the picture, that is, the back wall of the room. Nevertheless, the artist brought a certain revival to the composition of his still lifes. So, his white tablecloth does not cover the entire table, but only part of it. Thus, he avoids the monotony of the background.
Head's long-term predilection for the same subjects is noteworthy. A cup, a glass, a shot glass, a Damascus blade, a pocket watch with an open lid and an amazingly accurately depicted mechanism (the artist used the finest brushes in his work) - all this was reproduced with undoubted love.
Jan Davids de Heem (1606–1684) Flowers in a glass vase and fruit. B/g. Oil on canvas. 100x75.5
Jan Davids de Heem is a Dutch artist who worked for some time in Leiden, but in 1635 he joined the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke and the following year became a citizen of Antwerp. Around 1667 he returned to his native Utrecht, but in 1672 he fled back to Antwerp from the French, who had captured the city.
De Heem became famous for his magnificent still lifes of flowers. They are so carefully executed that today they can well serve as a kind of reference book of European flora. But first of all, the canvases attract with their artistic qualities, the beauty of the combinations of plant colors and paints, the richness of their palette, the complexity of the composition, which allows one to imagine a bright color (colorful) range of flowers (plants).
Largely thanks to Jan Davids de Heem, still life became an independent genre of painting in the work of Dutch and Flemish masters of the 17th century. Still lifes of this time are largely allegorical. So, in addition to the flowers themselves, the picture presented shows a butterfly and a snail; on other canvases there are caterpillars and larvae. They mean not just the cycle of a person’s earthly life, but also death and resurrection.
Adrian Brouwer (1606–1638) Peasant fight while playing cards. B/g. Oak, oil. 26.5x34.5
Adrian Brouwer, a student of Frans Hals, was one of the most original creators in Flemish art. He lived a short life - only 32 years old, dying of the plague. The artist painted genre scenes from peasant life, folk dances, card players, smokers, hawk moths and fights. He was particularly interested in the feelings, expressions and facial expressions of the characters. Brouwer's paintings are distinguished by their liveliness and ingenuity of design. Some of his paintings may evoke thoughts of caricature. However, upon careful examination, it becomes clear that this is only a reproduction of everyday situations brought to great accuracy. In the master's paintings there is no deliberate condemnation of heroes through ridicule. He simply wrote about the life around him. The painter was not appreciated by his contemporaries; he was always in great need. Subsequent generations for a long time perceived Brouwer primarily as a humorist, but rather he was a tragic figure.
A quarrel while playing cards is one of Brouwer's favorite plots. The action takes place in a typical tavern with its squalid regulars and poor surroundings. However, in order to depict poverty in this way, the master obviously had to have a rich artistic imagination.
Adrian van Ostade (1610–1685) Artist in the studio 1663. Oil on wood. 38x35.5
Adrian van Ostade is a Dutch artist of the Baroque era, a representative of the everyday genre. He studied with Frans Hals, and later his creative style was greatly influenced by Rembrandt, but the talented Flemish genre painter Adrian Brouwer had a special influence. So Ostade became a writer of everyday life of the Dutch. The heroes of his paintings, as a rule, are ordinary people, hence the corresponding plots: scenes in a tavern (sometimes with brawls), tipsy brethren, tipsy musicians (a whole gallery: a violinist, a flutist, a bagpiper, a ripper; it’s even surprising how many commoners knew how to play musical instruments, especially the violin).
On the presented canvas the plot is decent. Some believe that this is a self-portrait of the painter. Be that as it may, the sight of the workshop and the artist selflessly working in it evokes a good feeling: a spacious room, flooded with light from a beautifully barred window, a disorder that can be considered creative... Everything is done in warm harmonious colors. In a word, the picture creates a romantic mood, evokes sadness for the old days and a state of complete immersion in creativity.
Gerard Terborch (1617–1681) Woman washing her hands. Around 1655. Oil on wood. 53x45
Gerard Terborch is an outstanding master of genre painting of the Dutch school of the 17th century. At the beginning of his career he painted mainly scenes of peasant life and soldiers, and from the late 1640s he began to specialize in interior scenes with a small number of characters - as a rule, these were couples, ladies reading, writing and playing music. It is possible that the lady depicted here is the artist’s sister.
The artist lived in poverty, which explains the fact that he used a narrow circle of close people, in particular his sister Gezina, as models. Most likely, it is she who is represented in the painting “Woman Washing Her Hands.”
Usually, this kind of plot is interpreted by researchers as an allegory of dissolute life, but in this case the content of the work probably represents an allegory of virtue. Its symbols are the curtains of the bed being drawn (in many other paintings it is pulled apart), the lady washing her hands (since the time of the trial of Christ by Pontius Pilate, this gesture symbolizes reluctance to participate in something reprehensible), the absence of jewelry on the table (in other similar scenes he same Terborch, such decorations are “read” as payment for love pleasures) and finally a dog, protecting the peace of mind of the owner. The clearest illustration of the meaning of the animal symbol can be seen in Jan van Eyck’s painting “Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple,” kept in the National Gallery in London (see volume 11 of the “Great Museums of the World” collection).
From a picturesque point of view, Terborch in this work showed himself to be an unsurpassed master of rendering matter, in particular white satin (the girl’s dress) and the multi-colored tablecloth.
David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) Country celebration at the Crescent tavern. Fragment 1641. Oil on canvas. 93x132
David Teniers the Younger (the Younger because he was named the same as his father, David Teniers the Elder) surpassed his parent and, it is believed, teacher. The artist's best paintings were created in the 1640s, when he became the court painter of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. Teniers collected an art collection for the ruler and became its custodian. In this status, Teniers showed himself very clearly: he not only compiled a catalog of the collection, but also made small copies of many paintings, including valuable paintings by masters of the Venetian school of the Renaissance. He is credited with more than 2,000 of his own works, although, of course, he was not as prolific. The Dresden Gallery houses nine works by the artist.
A significant part of Teniers's legacy consists of numerous works depicting scenes of the life of the common people. The picture presented is typical example The kermes genre, popular in Dutch art, is a village holiday with an indispensable small musical ensemble, cheerful dances of the villagers, and funny everyday scenes. Victor Hugo in “Notre Dame de Paris” writes the following about Teniers: “The orgy took on more and more Flemish character. The brush of Teniers himself could give only a vague idea of it.”
Wermeer of Delft (1632–1675) At the Pimp 1656. Oil on canvas. 143x130
Jan Wermeer of Delft is the greatest master of Dutch genre and landscape painting.
The painting “At the Pimp” is one of the artist’s many works in the genre of everyday scenes. As almost always in the art of the small Dutch, the scene contains an allegorical meaning. In this case, as in Rembrandt’s self-portrait with Saskia, the plot goes back to the Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son. In Vermeer's work, a frank episode is depicted in a brothel with all the attributes of a depraved life: a coin that a gentleman offers to a lady (payment for selling love), glasses of wine in the hands of a woman and a gentleman on the left, a neck, probably a lute, which introduces an allusion to music into the overtones of the semantic content of the picture , strongly associated with love. By means of painting, the artist conveys the content of the mise-en-scène, which presents to the viewer, one might say, a theatrical scene with lively and clear dialogues. The gentleman on the left, turning his gaze to the viewer, seems to invite him to take part in the feast.
Wermeer of Delft (1632–1675) Girl reading a letter at the open window 1657. Oil on canvas. 83x64.5
The letter motif is often found in Vermeer's paintings and is always embodied in the image of the heroine reading a message from her lover, who is far from her.
It is noteworthy that on the presented canvas the artist planned to depict a cupid with a letter. This is evidenced by studies of work in X-rays, which revealed the pattern of cupid. Thus, the symbolic meaning of the entire scene is beyond doubt. Researcher Norbert Schneider even saw in the still life and the crumpled tablecloth on the table symbols of broken vows of marital fidelity and extramarital affairs. Apples and peaches are an allusion to the biblical story of the Fall.
Jacob van Ruisdael (1628–1682) Jewish cemetery 1655–1660. Wood, oil.84x95
Almost at the same time as Rembrandt, another remarkable Dutchman was working - Jacob van Ruisdael - the greatest master of landscape, whose works are distinguished not only by high skill, but also by deep philosophical content.
The master's landscapes are full of drama and philosophical reflections. It was these creative traits that manifested themselves with exceptional force in the most complex and tragic work, “The Jewish Cemetery.” It is based on an image of one of the corners of a real-life ancient Jewish cemetery located near Amsterdam. In the background are the ruins of an old synagogue, which operated until 1675 and was destroyed by a lightning strike. On the front are several marble tombstones, one of them belongs to the former personal physician of the French king Henry IV, the second to the chief rabbi of Amsterdam, and the third to some wealthy citizen.
The painting is done in dark blue-green tones; the background creates a stormy sky with ominous, low-hanging clouds. The heavy cemetery silence is accurately conveyed, centuries-old sorrow permeates every corner. There is a feeling of the inevitability of death, the short duration and futility of earthly existence. Wolfgang Goethe called Ruisdael a poet and thinker. The ephemerality of human life is emphasized by the riot of vegetation, mighty trees, and the eternity of nature...
During the artist’s lifetime, the painting was called “Allegory of Human Life.” The choice of subject is noteworthy: why did the author depict a Jewish cemetery, and not a closer Protestant cemetery, to express his worldview? Why did the artist pay such exceptional attention to this particular work? In addition to numerous preparatory sketches, Ruisdael made two completed versions of the work: Dresden (1650–1653) and Detroit (1660). The artist did not leave any explanation for this.
It seems that philosophical content The painting “Jewish Cemetery” was inspired by the master’s reading of Ecclesiastes. This book made a very strong impression on him. The image of a stream running like a seething stream between stones is associated with the reading of the Old Testament. The book of the prophet Isaiah says: “Water, especially “living” water, flowing in spring, symbolizes life and happiness.”
Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667) Game Trader 1662. Oak, oil. 61x45
Gabriel Metsu, a Dutch artist and draftsman, painted religious and mythological subjects, still lifes and portraits. In the 1660s, Metsu's talent most fully manifested itself in the field of everyday genre, which reflected, to one degree or another, the influence of Steen, Terborch, de Hooch, and Vermeer.
Metsyu appears as a mature master, prone to narrative storytelling and an intimate and lyrical presentation of the theme, confidently mastering the techniques of warm tonal painting with strong sonorous contrasts of color spots and seemingly tactile materiality in the depiction of fabrics, furs, dishes, and expensive items. His cozy interiors are usually filled with two or three figures.
In one of his few works depicting life common people, Metsu reproduced the street corner. An old man, a game dealer, sits against a wall with cracked plaster, his clothes are torn, his appearance is pitiful. Intended to enhance the impression of poverty, a richly dressed woman passes by, to whom the old man offers his goods. The picture, built on social contrasts and claiming to provide deep insight into life, contains, however, only a simple statement of facts. The viewer is not touched by the ongoing event; the artist himself is cold towards him, looking at the poor old man through the eyes of a rich man. It is unusual for Metsya to feel social injustice and the tragedy of life.
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Near half XVI 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 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 amazing art model the figures in the light, but somewhat cold in character and color of Bartholomew van der Gelst (1611 or 1612-70) and the striking fugue of his brush by 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 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 myself 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 own, dear, 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. Chief Representative This branch of painting is the famous and unusually 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 preserving in their painting national character. 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 the landscape is the painting of architectural views, which Dutch artists began to be practiced 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 that depicted 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 root. 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 and educated artist in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and with the 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 color, 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 Trost (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 her again the brilliance with which she shone in XVII 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. Gove (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 Mostart, 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 in their best manifestations they are 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, put a person in his proper place, and, if necessary, 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 we must add 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 remember 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 of this sincere style and the first result of this honest approach is a perfect drawing. Among Dutch painters Potter has 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 precision, 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 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 one 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 Adriaan 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! Main feature What characterizes these artists is a 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 is a phalanx of other painters, looking for inspiration outside the 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 traditions, 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 during 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 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 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 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 the sake of completeness of the list, one should also name Jan Lievens (1607-30), Rembrandt’s fellow student of P. Lastman, Abraham van Tempel (1622-72) and Pieter Neson (1612-91), who worked on Apparently, under the influence of V. d. Helst, 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 portraits, 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 the most various works : 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 in question, endowed with undoubted talent, but. infected by the spirit of the times, it should be noted Willem and Frans van Mieres the Younger (1662-1747, 1689-1763), Nicholas Vercolges (1673-1746), Constantijn Netscher (1668-1722) and Karel de Moor (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. Metsyu used bright colors, turning everyday life into a holiday, and de Hooch was inspired by simplicity family life, flooded with 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 clutter 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 Mostart, 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 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 Bol, 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, it would be necessary to 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.
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 "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 reign 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 Golls. 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. G. 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 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 geometric painting, this sense of color and chiaroscuro 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, a sky filled with silvery or golden vapors - all this, under the brush of the . 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 goal. 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, the goal. 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 of them, and the very expression " G. painting school", which came into general use, should be understood 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 of one general direction, however, such societies bore the name. guilds of st. Luke, if they contributed to this, then 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 G. 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 Greek 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 picturesque and sculptural 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. So, regarding the oldest of the Golls. 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 kept in the Vienna Gallery ("Holy Sepulcher" and "Legend of the Bones of St. John"), which he wrote for the Harlem Cathedral. 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 during the initial era of Georgian art: Hieronymus van Aken, nicknamed J. 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 nonsense 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 Imperial Hermitage). 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). A. Somov.
Encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - S.-Pb.: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .
Dutch painting, in fine arts
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 own, dear, 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 that depicted 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 root. 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 and educated artist in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and with the 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 color, 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 Trost (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. Gove (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).
Almost two hundred years later, in 1820, the Royal Palace was located in this building. art gallery- 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, and finally, the main discovery of the Dutch masters - 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 Art Gallery. This is chronologically the first art museum in Holland. Its exhibition, once collected by the prince himself and reflecting his taste, is dedicated to the 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.
We all know that unique works of art have been created in Holland over the centuries. But what is happening on the contemporary art scene today? Which young artist can take his place in history? Amsterdam, like many other major Dutch cities, has many interesting galleries that host large exhibitions of talented creative artists from all over the country. Since contemporary Dutch artists, famous both at home and abroad, huge amount, their works can be found both in large museums of the Stedelijk level and in small galleries KochxBos Gallery or Nederlands Fotomuseum.
Below are five rising Dutch artists who have attracted international attention and will undoubtedly contribute to Dutch art history.
Daan Roosegaard
“The goal of my work is to make people think about the future,” says Roosegaard. This artist and innovator is the winner of several awards. He rose to prominence in the contemporary art world with his 2006 installation Dune. Interactive illuminated signs installed along the Maas River in Rotterdam have opened doors for an artist obsessed with technology, design and architecture. In his works, Roosegaard creates a futuristic world in which people and technology interact harmoniously with each other. From February to May 5, the “Lotus Dome” will be on display in the Beuning hall of the Rijksmuseum. This two-meter dome reacts to the approach of people: hundreds of aluminum flowers bloom, feeling the warmth of visitors.
Levi van Veluw
Traditional ways of creating works of art for van Veluwu, an artist from Heuwelaken, are clearly not enough. His portfolio includes photographs, sculptures, drawings and installations, and the use of himself as material is the hallmark of his work. It is no coincidence that his first exhibition at the Ron Mandos gallery in Amsterdam featured a series of six photographs depicting beautifully detailed ballpoint pen drawings. Instead of a canvas, the artist painted on his own face. The connection between body and surface was discovered by post-war artists, who developed performance art to a level never before seen. But using everyday objects like a pen to create a work of art played an important role in van Veluwe's success. By developing the idea in his own personal style, Levi van Veluw was able to exhibit his work in the world's best museums and bring contemporary Dutch art to the international stage.
Tony Van Til
Tony Van Til received higher education majoring in Fine Arts in St. Just - educational institution, located in the small southern town of Breda, in 2007. After graduation, the young artist is engaged in interesting projects. One of them is "Twitter Sculptures". Since 2012, he has maintained a Twitter account where he describes ideas for sculptures in 140 characters. For example, one of the ideas is “a portrait of a Botox beauty, enlarged to the size of a 4-story wall,” others are more abstract: the creation of “shadows with growing pain.” Among the artist’s other works are a series of drawings containing more ideas for sculptures. Is tweeting a creative process? For Van Til, the answer is yes.
Anouk Kruythof
This Dordrecht-based artist uses photographs as source material to create sculptures, installations, books and brochures for distribution. She sometimes creates anonymous items (such as cards and posters) that visitors can take home. The Stedelijk Museum is currently hosting an exhibition of her and fellow Dutch artist Pauline Olseten. The installation on the ground floor presents their interpretation of street photography. A characteristic feature of the works is an emphasized admiration for people and strangers. Another aspect of life that attracts her attention is color. According to the artist, she “creates order in chaos” using the method of color gradation.
Harma Heikens
It is difficult not to mention Harma Heikens when talking about contemporary Dutch art. Her first exhibitions date back to the early 1990s. The life-size sculptures combine manga style and contemporary street art. The work of Harma Heikens is not easy to perceive, especially at first. Many even called them “quirky kitsch.” This is due to the fact that the artist chose a very painful topic: the exploitation of children in a consumer society where values are distorted. Her sculptures depict the disturbed world of poor and exploited children, acting as a wake-up call to the viewer to address deep-rooted social problems.
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. Lived and worked in the Netherlands in the 17th century great master, the “big” Dutchman. 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 Terborch 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 to 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.
It is therefore surprising that it has recently become known new fact from the life of a master. 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, MadridJan 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. 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 the beginning 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 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 Terborch 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 to 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, MadridJan 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 (“Riflemen’s 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 looks, 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 heyday of landscape painting in the Dutch school dates back to the middle of the 17th century. 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 painted by Rembrandt developed 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 by the captain's figure on 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. Portraits of late Rembrandt are very different from 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 come down to 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 XVIII century The end of the great era of Dutch realism is coming.
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 development 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 different schools mixed and masters lost distinctive features their schools, and the remaining artists of Holland cease to have the spirit of national creativity. Many different and new styles are emerging. Artists try to paint in all genres, looking for 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 transmit light under open air, in enclosed spaces they masterfully depict the texture of objects. Household painting is at the top thanks to Jan Steen (1626-1679), Gerhard Terborch (1617-1681), Pieter de Hooch (1629-1624).
1. Little Dutch
The Little Dutch are a group of artists of the 17th century, which “unites” painters of small-sized landscape and everyday genre paintings (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. The “Little Dutchmen” continued the traditions of the Dutch masters of the Renaissance, who argued that art should not only bring pleasure, but also remind one 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. The works of Pieter Bruegel had a significant influence on the landscape (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 - genre painting - began to have a new concept. 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 has fallen asleep after a cheerful 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 according to social criteria: subjects 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 early period creativity, the depiction of peasants was comical. Thus, 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 players playing on the floor and on the walls. sunny bunnies. 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 items in Dutch still life 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, ivy - 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 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.
Portraiture. 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 Dutch portraiture, but also to 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 group porter scheme. Creating very living work By combining 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 in the portrait of Willem Heythuisen, and sometimes a slight irony slips through 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 Hals is the portrait of a man 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. There is no vitality in the regents, 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) is the largest representative of the 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 the inner world of man. This is the pinnacle of development of Dutch art of the 17th century. Rembrandt's artistic heritage is distinguished by a variety of genres. He painted portraits, still lifes, landscapes, genre scenes, paintings on historical, biblical, and mythological themes. But the artist’s work reached its greatest depth in 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 of his later works, the artist plunges the entire surface of the canvas into 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 by creative biography Rembrandt by creating many male and female studies. 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.
Vermeer's early paintings have sublime imagery ( 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 it was revived only in the 19th century, thanks to the activities of art critic and the 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. This became a distinctive feature of 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 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, a 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 Wrong 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 Cornelisen (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 own, dear, 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 root. 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 and educated artist in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and with the 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 Trost (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. Gove (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).
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
Terborch 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 to 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.