DUTCH GENRE PAINTING

• In 1648, a treaty was signed dividing the Low Countries on the northwest coast of Europe into

• Catholic Flanders and

• Protestant Holland.

• The Protestant faith discouraged images and sculptures of saints, believing that this was a form of idolatry (the worship of idols).

Genre Paintings

• Dutch artists turned away from the religious paintings that had been popular for centuries and began to paint scenes from everyday life.

• These scenes from everyday life are known as Genre paintings.

• The Dutch people enjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Europe at this time, as trade with other countries was thriving.

• They were pleased to see paintings that depicted their comfortable homes and the taverns where they enjoyed their leisure time.

• There was a great demand for portraiture, as well, as the middle classes gained wealth and sought the prestige associated with having one’s image preserved.

Frans Hals

1580 - 1666

Hals, the Portrait Painter

• Hals was a portrait painter, who preferred to paint laughing, informal pictures of people.

• He used quick, dashing brushstrokes to give his works a fresh, just-finished look. His portraits are so successful in capturing a fleeting expression that they look like candid photographs. (Mittler. Art in Focus)

• The casual appearance of the brushwork is an illusion, however. His technique took time and tremendous skill.

• Frans Hals• Portrait of Isaak

Abrahamz Massa

• For many years, Frans Hals was among the busiest and most prosperous portrait painters in Holland. As he grew older, however, the public turned to other, more fashionable painters. His carefree life, huge family, and constant lawsuits for past debts finally drove him into bankruptcy and he was buried in 1666 with money from a pauper’s fund provided by the city of Haarlem. (Mittler. Art in Focus)

• The painting of Isaac Abrahamz is owned by the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, and is regarded as one of the gallery’s most valuable acquisitions.

• Note the characteristic informality of the pose. Abrahamz seems to be caught in the moment of turning to face the artist. His mouth is slightly open, as if he is about to speak.

• The moustache and the lace on the collar are painted with the short dashing strokes that give this painting its fresh, “just finished” appeal.

• Frans Hals• The Gypsy Girl

– The Louvre. Paris

Frans Hals

The Lute PlayerThe Louvre. Paris

• The very loose brushwork here gives the portrait lively movement.

• Frans Hals.• Youth with a Skull• Note the convincing

foreshortening of the hand that is extended toward the viewer.

• This picture forms part of the Vanitas tradition of painting. This vibrant youth will one day look like the skull he holds.

Rembrandt

Van Rijn

1606 -1669

• Rembrandt is widely regarded as the greatest Dutch painter of his time.

• His skill allowed him to paint portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, historical subjects and even religious subjects, which were not as popular at the time – he could do it all.

• Rembrandt’s style is characterized by his handling of light for dramatic effect (much like the Baroque painters).

• Rembrandt painted over ninety self portraits in his lifetime. His admirers can watch him age over the decades.

• Self Portrait• at age 34•

• Rembrandt• Portrait of Christ’s

head

• Rembrandt’s religious pictures emphasized the human. Rubens, whom we studied earlier, was painting at the same time in Catholic Flanders. He produced religious paintings that were emotionally charged and showed muscular, robust figures, Rembrandt’s Christ is human. Where Rubens was emotional, Rembrandt was spiritual, private, subtle.

The Supper at Emmaus

• The Supper at Emmaus recalls the gospel story that takes place after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

• Peter and James were walking from Jerusalem to the town of Emmaus, and were joined by a stranger who spoke to them of the scriptures, explaining much that had not been clear to them.

• It was not until they arrived at an inn and shared a meal, that the disciples recognized Jesus as he broke bread with them.

• This painting depicts the moment of revelation.• The quiet way Rembrandt depicts this scene contrasts

with the far more dramatic handling of Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Mathew.

• Rembrandt• The Return of the

Prodigal Son• Rembrandt depicts a

father’s loving acceptance of his delinquent son, who has returned from a life of vice and begs forgiveness.

• The Return of the Prodigal Son was painted very late in Rembrandt’s career, in 1668/69. It is intensely personal, and human and compassionate.

• Rembrandt had lived against the moral fabric of his time. After the early death of his wife, Saskia, in 1642, he had two mistresses. He was prevented from marrying either of them due to conditions set out in Saskia’s will.

• Three of the four children he had with Saskia died before she did, and the remaining son died before Rembrandt himself.

• His only descendent was Cornelia, the daughter he had with his second mistress.

• Rembrandt’s awareness that he was in need of divine mercy gives this painting poignancy and power.

The Night Watch

• The Night Watch is an enormous painting, measuring 3.7 metres by 4.4 metres.

• Rembrandt’s virtuoso handling of light and shadow draw your attention to various key places in the work, and keep the viewer’s eye moving through the very complex composition.

• Group portraits were often commissioned by guilds, professional groups, and military companies in Rembrandt’s time.

• The usual thing was to line everyone up in a very formal composition. Everyone who was included had to pay a share of the cost, and the more you paid, the more prominently you would appear in the portrait.

Here’s an example of what was typical. This is not by Rembrandt.

• The Night Watch is a group portrait, but you can see how different it is from what other artists were doing at the time. It was originally titled The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq. The captain is the figure at the centre of the composition, wearing the red scarf.

Jan Vermeer

1632 - 1675

• Vermeer was not nearly as prolific as Rembrandt. We know of only 40 paintings by this artist, who was forgotten for two centuries and only recognized as a genius in the late 1800s.

• Because so many of his paintings show inside scenes, Vermeer is often thought of as a painter of interiors.

• Even though there are people in his paintings, they seem to be less important than the organization of the composition and the effect of light on colour and textures.

• (Mittler. Art in Focus)

• Jan Vermeer

• Girl with a Pearl

Earring.

This painting is

often referred to

as the Dutch

Mona Lisa.

• The Girl with a Pearl Earring demonstrates Vermeer’s fascination with light. The pearl catches the light and glows, like the young girl’s face. Every colour in the painting is reflected in the pearl.

• No one knows who this girl might have been, but a recent novel and movie make her a servant in Vermeer’s large household. There were eleven children in the family.

• The colours in this painting are the ones favoured by Vermeer in many of his works:French ultramarine (blue) and lead-tin yellow.

• He used a technique that combined dense impasto (on the headdress, for instance,) with thin glazes of transparent colour.

• The use of these glazes allowed him to create the dissolving edges of objects. He suggests more than he describes the various textures of objects.

• Jan Veth, an art critic, wrote about The Girl with a Pearl Earring in 1908, saying: “more than with any other Vermeer, one could say that it looks as if it were blended from the dust of crushed pearls.”

• Vermeer

The Milkmaid

The Milkmaid

• Observe how all the lines of perspective converge on the pouring milk. The maid focuses her undivided attention on this simple task, and we are invited to do the same.

• Vermeer creates a timeless and beautiful image out of very ordinary subject matter.

• The woman, despite the fact that she is a lowly servant, has a tranquil dignity that recalls classical sculpture.

• The low viewpoint of the observer gives the maid stature and monumentality.

• The roundness of everything in the painting contributes to the impression of serenity.

• Jan Vermeer• The Love Letter

The Love Letter

• The Love Letter tells a story through carefully chosen and carefully arranged elements.

• The maid, on the left, has just handed a letter to her mistress, who glances up in hopeful nervousness.

• The maid smiles reassuringly and complicitly, suggesting that she knows where this letter has come from and that it is from someone special.

• The figures are framed by a doorway, through which the viewer looks, as if secretly observing the scene.

• The curtain has been pulled aside to capture this private moment. Vermeer’s picture raises the question: who is viewing this scene from the closet, and why?

• One of the pictures on the wall in the background provides a clue about the letter writer. The lower scene shows ships at sea, a common motif in paintings at the time, often appearing in pictures of people reading letters. The letter writer is perhaps at sea, or has travelled by ship to a distant location.

• Jan Vermeer• The Lace MakerThe timelessstillness andsoft naturallight of thispainting arecharacteristic of Vermeer’s work.

Jan Vermeer

Mistress and Maid

• Vermeer• Soldier and Laughing

Girl

Vermeer

The Geographer

• Vermeer• The Map• Maker•

• The 17th Century was a time of exploration and science. There were new navigational tools and surveying techniques that allowed people to create accurate maps.

• Vermeer reflects the 17th century interest in maps by including them in several of his paintings.

Jan Vermeer – View of Delft

• This is one of only two outdoor scenes painted by Vermeer.

• The huge watery sky is characteristic of Dutch genre painting.

• Vermeer depicts a well ordered and peaceful world.