#dutchgoldenage — Public Fediverse posts

"Vase of Flowers with an Ear of Corn," Rachel Ruysch, 1742.

We can always count on our old friend Rachel Ruysch to see out the week in style. Here Ruysch, regarded as one of the greatest still life artists of all time, gives us a bouquet of flowers that likely couldn't exist in real life....as they wouldn't be blooming at the same time. The roses and tulips and forget-me-nots all belong to different parts of the spring, and that ear of corn, with its dry husk, is definitely late summer.

Still, Ruysch depicts them all with loving precision, and creates an image of beauty that pleases the eye and rests the mind. Heaven bless you, Rachel Ruysch.

Happy Flower Friday!

From the National Gallery of Ireland.

#Art #RachelRuysch #FlowerFriday #StillLife #DutchGoldenAge #WomenArtists

"Portrait of the Painter Andries van Bochoven and His Family," Andries van Bochoven, 1629.

Van Bochoven (1609-34) died young, only 25, and didn't make much of a career as an artist, but he was obviously talented and well-taught. He only completed a handful of known paintings, of which this is the most popular.

His father Rutger, a prosperous merchant, sits at one end of the small table, about to lead the family in prayer. His wife Johanna sits at the other end, with the smallest children. The painter's grown sisters sit at the table, holding their own books, as if ready to follow along in the prayer. The grown brothers, with Andries holding brushes, stand in the back.

It has a certain charm but Andries, and several other members of the family, passed away during a plague epidemic in 1634-8. The painting stayed in the family until Rutger's death, evidently a reminder of times past.

Happy Portrait Monday, A Day Late! (I got the days mixed up....)

From the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

#Art #AndriesVanBochoven #DutchGoldenAge #GroupPortrait #PortraitMonday #FamilyDinner

"Portrait of the Painter Andries van Bochoven and His Family," Andries van Bochoven, 1629.

Van Bochoven (1609-34) died young, only 25, and didn't make much of a career as an artist, but he was obviously talented and well-taught. He only completed a handful of known paintings, of which this is the most popular.

His father Rutger, a prosperous merchant, sits at one end of the small table, about to lead the family in prayer. His wife Johanna sits at the other end, with the smallest children. The painter's grown sisters sit at the table, holding their own books, as if ready to follow along in the prayer. The grown brothers, with Andries holding brushes, stand in the back.

It has a certain charm but Andries, and several other members of the family, passed away during a plague epidemic in 1634-8. The painting stayed in the family until Rutger's death, evidently a reminder of times past.

Happy Portrait Monday, A Day Late! (I got the days mixed up....)

From the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

#Art #AndriesVanBochoven #DutchGoldenAge #GroupPortrait #PortraitMonday #FamilyDinner

"Portrait of the Painter Andries van Bochoven and His Family," Andries van Bochoven, 1629.

Van Bochoven (1609-34) died young, only 25, and didn't make much of a career as an artist, but he was obviously talented and well-taught. He only completed a handful of known paintings, of which this is the most popular.

His father Rutger, a prosperous merchant, sits at one end of the small table, about to lead the family in prayer. His wife Johanna sits at the other end, with the smallest children. The painter's grown sisters sit at the table, holding their own books, as if ready to follow along in the prayer. The grown brothers, with Andries holding brushes, stand in the back.

It has a certain charm but Andries, and several other members of the family, passed away during a plague epidemic in 1634-8. The painting stayed in the family until Rutger's death, evidently a reminder of times past.

Happy Portrait Monday, A Day Late! (I got the days mixed up....)

From the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

#Art #AndriesVanBochoven #DutchGoldenAge #GroupPortrait #PortraitMonday #FamilyDinner

"Portrait of the Painter Andries van Bochoven and His Family," Andries van Bochoven, 1629.

Van Bochoven (1609-34) died young, only 25, and didn't make much of a career as an artist, but he was obviously talented and well-taught. He only completed a handful of known paintings, of which this is the most popular.

His father Rutger, a prosperous merchant, sits at one end of the small table, about to lead the family in prayer. His wife Johanna sits at the other end, with the smallest children. The painter's grown sisters sit at the table, holding their own books, as if ready to follow along in the prayer. The grown brothers, with Andries holding brushes, stand in the back.

It has a certain charm but Andries, and several other members of the family, passed away during a plague epidemic in 1634-8. The painting stayed in the family until Rutger's death, evidently a reminder of times past.

Happy Portrait Monday, A Day Late! (I got the days mixed up....)

From the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

#Art #AndriesVanBochoven #DutchGoldenAge #GroupPortrait #PortraitMonday #FamilyDinner

"Portrait of the Painter Andries van Bochoven and His Family," Andries van Bochoven, 1629.

Van Bochoven (1609-34) died young, only 25, and didn't make much of a career as an artist, but he was obviously talented and well-taught. He only completed a handful of known paintings, of which this is the most popular.

His father Rutger, a prosperous merchant, sits at one end of the small table, about to lead the family in prayer. His wife Johanna sits at the other end, with the smallest children. The painter's grown sisters sit at the table, holding their own books, as if ready to follow along in the prayer. The grown brothers, with Andries holding brushes, stand in the back.

It has a certain charm but Andries, and several other members of the family, passed away during a plague epidemic in 1634-8. The painting stayed in the family until Rutger's death, evidently a reminder of times past.

Happy Portrait Monday, A Day Late! (I got the days mixed up....)

From the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

#Art #AndriesVanBochoven #DutchGoldenAge #GroupPortrait #PortraitMonday #FamilyDinner

"The Love Letter," Johannes Vermeer, c. 1669-70.

Vermeer (16321675) is a much-acclaimed and much-studied painter of the Dutch Golden Age, and hailed as one of the all-time greatest.

His output was almost entirely scenes of middle-class life, although sometimes with religious or allegorical meaning, and all painted in the same two rooms of his house, but with expertly-depicted light. He was famous in his hometown of Delft but after his death he was largely forgotten until the 19th century when he was rediscovered and his work acclaimed for modern generations. Today, only about 34 paintings of his survive, although a number of fakes were produced over the years, including one forger who sold to Nazi soldiers.

Here we have an interior scene of a woman being handed a letter, but her expression is an eager one. Her instrument, a cittern, was a symbol of passionate love, and the loss of one of her slippers is also a racy hint. The paintings behind her, of a stormy sea and a traveler on a road, suggest her lover is on a voyage.

From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #JohannesVermeer #DutchGoldenAge #WomenInArt

"The Tulip," Judith Leyster, 1643.

Leyster (1609-60) suffered a fate common to many women artists....she was respected and popular in her time, but after her death her work was attributed to male artists.

Leyster was a busy painter of still lifes, portraits, and genre scenes (everyday life). Details of her early life and education are scant, but she joined the local artists' guild when she was 20. She busily painted until her marriage in 1636 to another painter, Jan Molenaer, when she slowed down, and she died at 50. After her passing, her work was credited either to her husband or to painter Frans Hals, whom she once sued, but also may have been her teacher, as their styles are very similar.

Her work was rediscovered in 1893 and a huge project was undertaken to analyze various works. Now a substantial body of work is credited to her.

Happy Flower Friday!

From the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #JudithLeyster #WomenArtists #FlowerFriday

"Titus van Rijn, the Artist's Son, Reading," Rembrandt van Rijn, 1656/7.

What can I say about Rembrandt (1606-69), other than he's one of the most recognizable names in art? A painter and printmaker, he pretty much defines the Dutch Golden Age. But unlike may other artists of the period, he didn't specialize.

Unlike, say, our friend Rachel Ruysch, who specialized in flowers, Rembrandt did all sorts of genres. Portraits, historic, religious, landscapes, mythical scenes, animals...he was all over the artistic map. Some of his work courted controversy; a painting of Bathsheba created a furor as everyone knew the nude Bathsheba was Rembrandt's mistress. He also had persistent financial troubles that led to him being ruled incompetent and his affairs managed by his son.

Titus van Rijn (1641-68) was the only child by Rembrandt's wife Saskia to live to adulthood. He was a frequent model for his father, and his death at 26 was a sad blow. Here he is, absorbed in a book, and looking like the apple of his father's eye.

Happy Portrait Monday!

From the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #Rembrandt #PortraitMonday #TitusVanRijn

"Titus at His Desk," Rembrandt van Rijn, 1655.

Who doesn't know Rembrandt?

This is a portrait of his one surviving son by his first wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh. (Three other children died within weeks of their birth.) Saskia herself died of tuberculosis a year after Titus' birth, and her illness and death affected him greatly, as we can see from his paintings of her on her deathbed. There is a tender sort of anxiety in his depictions of Titus, who he painted frequently, as if fearful that he could leave any day.

Titus van Rijn (1641-1668) was by all accounts an intelligent and willful child who adored his father and did everything he could to help him, especially when Rembrandt's financial problems led to a bankruptcy. When Titus got older, he and Rembrandt's mistress Hendrickje set up a corporation as art dealers to generate work and support for his father.

Titus married in 1668 to Magdalena van Loo, but died a few months later of unstated causes. His daughter Titia was born six months after his passing. Rembrandt himself passed on the following year.

Happy Portrait Monday!

From the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #RembrandtVanRijn #PortraitMonday #Portraits

"The Feast of St. Nicholas," Jan Steen, 1665-8.

Steen (1626-79) was famous for his scenes of everyday life, which were both sentimental but also humorous.

In this Yuletide scene, the good little girl has a bucket of treats, while the sobbing brother has none...but grandmother seems to be beckoning to him from the back, hinting she may have a surprise for him. Another brother points up the chimney to amaze a youngster. There's a miniature still life in the lower left corner, and an assortment of goodies here and there. One child holds a gingerbread man in the form of St. Nicholas himself.

The scene is chaotic and jumbled, a hallmark of Steen's work, and many feel it was his way of depicting the society of the time. There's also a possible hint of darkness. The little girl's doll is John the Baptist; an odd selection for a child's toy. Some scholars have noted that John the Baptist is the patron of epileptics, and perhaps that it's an indication the girl has convulsions and that he's meant to watch over her.

Scenes of everyday life were popular in the Netherlands at the time, and Steen was popular for his visual storytelling & his tendency to poke gentle fun at society.

From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #JanSteen #DutchGoldenAge #GenreArt #StNicholas #HoHoHo

"The Feast of St. Nicholas," Jan Steen, 1665-8.

Steen (1626-79) was famous for his scenes of everyday life, which were both sentimental but also humorous.

In this Yuletide scene, the good little girl has a bucket of treats, while the sobbing brother has none...but grandmother seems to be beckoning to him from the back, hinting she may have a surprise for him. Another brother points up the chimney to amaze a youngster. There's a miniature still life in the lower left corner, and an assortment of goodies here and there. One child holds a gingerbread man in the form of St. Nicholas himself.

The scene is chaotic and jumbled, a hallmark of Steen's work, and many feel it was his way of depicting the society of the time. There's also a possible hint of darkness. The little girl's doll is John the Baptist; an odd selection for a child's toy. Some scholars have noted that John the Baptist is the patron of epileptics, and perhaps that it's an indication the girl has convulsions and that he's meant to watch over her.

Scenes of everyday life were popular in the Netherlands at the time, and Steen was popular for his visual storytelling & his tendency to poke gentle fun at society.

From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #JanSteen #DutchGoldenAge #GenreArt #StNicholas #HoHoHo

"The Feast of St. Nicholas," Jan Steen, 1665-8.

Steen (1626-79) was famous for his scenes of everyday life, which were both sentimental but also humorous.

In this Yuletide scene, the good little girl has a bucket of treats, while the sobbing brother has none...but grandmother seems to be beckoning to him from the back, hinting she may have a surprise for him. Another brother points up the chimney to amaze a youngster. There's a miniature still life in the lower left corner, and an assortment of goodies here and there. One child holds a gingerbread man in the form of St. Nicholas himself.

The scene is chaotic and jumbled, a hallmark of Steen's work, and many feel it was his way of depicting the society of the time. There's also a possible hint of darkness. The little girl's doll is John the Baptist; an odd selection for a child's toy. Some scholars have noted that John the Baptist is the patron of epileptics, and perhaps that it's an indication the girl has convulsions and that he's meant to watch over her.

Scenes of everyday life were popular in the Netherlands at the time, and Steen was popular for his visual storytelling & his tendency to poke gentle fun at society.

From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #JanSteen #DutchGoldenAge #GenreArt #StNicholas #HoHoHo

"The Feast of St. Nicholas," Jan Steen, 1665-8.

Steen (1626-79) was famous for his scenes of everyday life, which were both sentimental but also humorous.

In this Yuletide scene, the good little girl has a bucket of treats, while the sobbing brother has none...but grandmother seems to be beckoning to him from the back, hinting she may have a surprise for him. Another brother points up the chimney to amaze a youngster. There's a miniature still life in the lower left corner, and an assortment of goodies here and there. One child holds a gingerbread man in the form of St. Nicholas himself.

The scene is chaotic and jumbled, a hallmark of Steen's work, and many feel it was his way of depicting the society of the time. There's also a possible hint of darkness. The little girl's doll is John the Baptist; an odd selection for a child's toy. Some scholars have noted that John the Baptist is the patron of epileptics, and perhaps that it's an indication the girl has convulsions and that he's meant to watch over her.

Scenes of everyday life were popular in the Netherlands at the time, and Steen was popular for his visual storytelling & his tendency to poke gentle fun at society.

From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #JanSteen #DutchGoldenAge #GenreArt #StNicholas #HoHoHo

"The Feast of St. Nicholas," Jan Steen, 1665-8.

Steen (1626-79) was famous for his scenes of everyday life, which were both sentimental but also humorous.

In this Yuletide scene, the good little girl has a bucket of treats, while the sobbing brother has none...but grandmother seems to be beckoning to him from the back, hinting she may have a surprise for him. Another brother points up the chimney to amaze a youngster. There's a miniature still life in the lower left corner, and an assortment of goodies here and there. One child holds a gingerbread man in the form of St. Nicholas himself.

The scene is chaotic and jumbled, a hallmark of Steen's work, and many feel it was his way of depicting the society of the time. There's also a possible hint of darkness. The little girl's doll is John the Baptist; an odd selection for a child's toy. Some scholars have noted that John the Baptist is the patron of epileptics, and perhaps that it's an indication the girl has convulsions and that he's meant to watch over her.

Scenes of everyday life were popular in the Netherlands at the time, and Steen was popular for his visual storytelling & his tendency to poke gentle fun at society.

From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #JanSteen #DutchGoldenAge #GenreArt #StNicholas #HoHoHo

"The Goldfinch," Carel Fabritius, 1654.

Fabritius (1622-54) was a Dutch Golden Age artist, a member of the Delft school and a pupil of Rembrandt who worked hard to create his own style. At a time when the main style was spotlighted subjects against dark backgrounds, he did delicately lit subjects against light backgrounds.

This is a bit unusual for the period in that it uses illusionary techniques to give a trompe l'oeil effect, and the original has the bird as life sized. Goldfinches were popular pets at the time; their song was pleasant, they could be taught some tricks, and they were thought to bring good health.

Fabritius was killed in 1654 by an explosion of a gunpowder store, which destroyed a quarter of the city and killed over 100 people. This painting was lost until 1859, when it turned up in the collection of a Belgian journalist and art critic, who got it from the family of a soldier who owned it for a long time; how he got it is a mystery.

These days it's famous for being central to a prize-winning novel by Donna Tartt, but its style and history are worth knowing on their own.

From the Mauritshuis, The Hague.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #CarlFabritius #Birds #TrompeLOeil

"Self-Portrait with a Turban," Wallerant Vaillant, c.1650-60.

Vaillant (1623-77) was born in France, to a family of artists; he had four brothers who also all became painters. Wallerant is said to have taught all of his brothers to draw and paint, and they all settled in Amsterdam.

Vaillant was primarily a printmaker and engraver, and is thought to have developed the mezzotint style of printing, along with Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who he was tutoring. But he did turn out a small number of paintings, mostly portraits, including a series of self-portraits in various modes of dress.

Here we have him in a flamboyant red turban, echoing a similar self-portrait of Rembrandt. The fabric is richly printed and well-depicted; it's a very well-done portrait. I wonder about his expression, though....it seems a mixture of wariness and defiance, as if daring us to say something about the turban!

Happy Portrait Monday!

From a private collection.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #WallerantVaillant #Selfie #PortraitMonday #Turban

Was it considered cheating for Jan Vermeer to have used a camera obscura for making his paintings?
#vermeer #janvermeer #arthistory #art #paintings #dutchgoldenage #cameras #cameraobscura

Johannes Vermeer should have become a photographer rather than a painter.
#vermeer #janvermeer #painters #dutchgoldenage #photography #art #arthistory

"The Fall of Man," Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, 1592.

Van Haarlem (1562-1638) was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a leader of the Northern Mannerist style, and an important precursor to Frans Hals in the realm of portraiture.

He started off as a painter of mythological subjects, with very Italian-inspired and fairly artificial styles, but later came to embrace a more Realist style favored in the Netherlands. He studied in France but was born in and spent his adult life in the city of Haarlem, where he became the official city painter, with a number of official commissions. He also was a noted portraitist, becoming an important influence on later painters, although his history, Biblical, and mythical scenes sometimes seem more like chances to paint naked bodies than anything else. Lots of bare limbs, buttocks thrust at the viewer, people being unclad for the sake of being unclad, to the point that the scene and its meaning get lost in all the flesh. I guess that's the Mannerist style for you...

From the RIjksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #Mannerist #CornelisVanHaarlem #AdamAndEve #Nudity #Nekkid

"The Fall of Man," Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, 1592.

Van Haarlem (1562-1638) was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a leader of the Northern Mannerist style, and an important precursor to Frans Hals in the realm of portraiture.

He started off as a painter of mythological subjects, with very Italian-inspired and fairly artificial styles, but later came to embrace a more Realist style favored in the Netherlands. He studied in France but was born in and spent his adult life in the city of Haarlem, where he became the official city painter, with a number of official commissions. He also was a noted portraitist, becoming an important influence on later painters, although his history, Biblical, and mythical scenes sometimes seem more like chances to paint naked bodies than anything else. Lots of bare limbs, buttocks thrust at the viewer, people being unclad for the sake of being unclad, to the point that the scene and its meaning get lost in all the flesh. I guess that's the Mannerist style for you...

From the RIjksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #Mannerist #CornelisVanHaarlem #AdamAndEve #Nudity #Nekkid

"The Fall of Man," Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, 1592.

Van Haarlem (1562-1638) was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a leader of the Northern Mannerist style, and an important precursor to Frans Hals in the realm of portraiture.

He started off as a painter of mythological subjects, with very Italian-inspired and fairly artificial styles, but later came to embrace a more Realist style favored in the Netherlands. He studied in France but was born in and spent his adult life in the city of Haarlem, where he became the official city painter, with a number of official commissions. He also was a noted portraitist, becoming an important influence on later painters, although his history, Biblical, and mythical scenes sometimes seem more like chances to paint naked bodies than anything else. Lots of bare limbs, buttocks thrust at the viewer, people being unclad for the sake of being unclad, to the point that the scene and its meaning get lost in all the flesh. I guess that's the Mannerist style for you...

From the RIjksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #Mannerist #CornelisVanHaarlem #AdamAndEve #Nudity #Nekkid

"The Fall of Man," Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, 1592.

Van Haarlem (1562-1638) was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a leader of the Northern Mannerist style, and an important precursor to Frans Hals in the realm of portraiture.

He started off as a painter of mythological subjects, with very Italian-inspired and fairly artificial styles, but later came to embrace a more Realist style favored in the Netherlands. He studied in France but was born in and spent his adult life in the city of Haarlem, where he became the official city painter, with a number of official commissions. He also was a noted portraitist, becoming an important influence on later painters, although his history, Biblical, and mythical scenes sometimes seem more like chances to paint naked bodies than anything else. Lots of bare limbs, buttocks thrust at the viewer, people being unclad for the sake of being unclad, to the point that the scene and its meaning get lost in all the flesh. I guess that's the Mannerist style for you...

From the RIjksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #Mannerist #CornelisVanHaarlem #AdamAndEve #Nudity #Nekkid

"The Fall of Man," Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, 1592.

Van Haarlem (1562-1638) was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a leader of the Northern Mannerist style, and an important precursor to Frans Hals in the realm of portraiture.

He started off as a painter of mythological subjects, with very Italian-inspired and fairly artificial styles, but later came to embrace a more Realist style favored in the Netherlands. He studied in France but was born in and spent his adult life in the city of Haarlem, where he became the official city painter, with a number of official commissions. He also was a noted portraitist, becoming an important influence on later painters, although his history, Biblical, and mythical scenes sometimes seem more like chances to paint naked bodies than anything else. Lots of bare limbs, buttocks thrust at the viewer, people being unclad for the sake of being unclad, to the point that the scene and its meaning get lost in all the flesh. I guess that's the Mannerist style for you...

From the RIjksmuseum, Amsterdam.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #Mannerist #CornelisVanHaarlem #AdamAndEve #Nudity #Nekkid

"Still Life with Flowers and Butterflies," Maria van Oosterwijck, 1668.

Van Oosterwijck (1630-93) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of florals and still lifes. She was a significant painter for her time, in part because she was also a crafty businesswoman who marketed her paintings to various noble houses, generating quite a demand.

Historians are sometimes unkind to her; she never married, but raised an orphaned nephew, and taught one of her servants to paint and to be self-sufficient. As she never married she's sometimes seen as "incomplete" while fellow painter Rachel Ruysch, who married and raised ten children, is usually depicted very sympathetically.

I like to think of her as a dedicated professional, taking joy in her art and in her autonomy, as one of the few women who were professional artists at the time. I love that she elevated one of her servants to be her own person. Not many upper-class women would do that.

Happy Flower Friday!

From the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

#Art #MariaVanOosterwijck #DutchGoldenAge #FlowerFriday #StillLife #WomenArtists

"Vanitas Still Life," Maria van Oosterwijck, 1868.

Van Oosterwijck (1630-93) was a Dutch painter of flowers and still lifes, as many women painters of the period were. Few details of her life are known, except she was a respected artist and smart businesswoman who successfully sold paintings to many noble and royal houses in Europe...but was still denied membership in the painter's guild because of her sex.

Here we have a "vanitas" painting; that is, a still life which includes some morbid subject matter to remind the viewer that life is fleeting. It's common for vanitas paintings to have skulls and other markers of death, but also have money (here, a coin-bag), an hourglass, and other markers of things that change and pass by.

An appropriate message for the Halloween season, eh?

From the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #WomenArtists #StillLife #Vanitas #MariaVanOosterwijck

"Landscape with an Arched Bridge," Rembrandt, c. 1638.

Rembrandt! I don't know if I've featured Rembrandt here before, and if I haven't, it's about bloody time. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) is considered one of the greatest visual artists of all time, and certainly one of the best of the Dutch Golden Age.

This particular image has been the subject of controversy for about a century. It was originally believed to have been the work of one of Rembrandt's students, Govert Flinck. Debate, and the judgement of art experts, has swung back and forth until conclusive analysis showed it definitely was Rembrandt's work.

The light hitting those trees, and the whole of it, makes me think "early autumn." The sun is low in the sky, and dark storm clouds are gathering...watch out!

From the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

#Art #DutchGoldenAge #RembrandtVanRijn #Landscape

"Grove of Large Oak Trees at the Edge of a Pond," Jacob van Ruisdael, 1665.

Van Ruisdael (c. 1629- 1682) was the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Born into a family of artists, it's unknown exactly who taught him. It's assumed he learned from his father and/or uncle, but there's no documentation. His earliest known work is dated 1646.

Details of his life are sketchy and unclear; he might have studied medicine, some claim he was Jewish (although he's buried in a Protestant cemetery), there are no known likenesses of him, no known marriages or relationships, and there were rumors he died in poverty although that was disproven.

This painting works well as an allegory; we have the tall oaks but also the fallen, broken one under a stormy sky; all comes to an end. Also worth noting that the herdsman and cattle were added by another artist much later; this is known as "staffage" and makes me cringe.

From the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.

#Art #DutchArt #DutchGoldenAge #JacobVanRuisdael #Landscape #Allegory

"Bouquet of Flowers," Maria van Oosterwijck, second half of the 17th century.

Van Oosterwijck (1630-1693) was a Dutch painter of still lifes, mostly florals. She was quite a success, and a canny businesswoman, marketing her works to various crowned heads of Europe. She was a professional painter at a time when few women were, but she was still denied membership in the Painter's Guild because of her sex.

By all accounts, she was a deeply religious woman, and many of her paintings include symbols, either through color or other means, of her religious views. Butterflies were to mean the Resurrection, for instance.

She never married, but dedicated herself to her painting. She raised her nephew, and taught one of her servants to paint and be an artist herself, so she could be self-supporting. I like that aspect of her; not only being independent and self-determined, but helping others to be so as well, even if she was denied some opportunities because of the prejudices of the time.

From a private collection.

#Art #DutchArt #FloralArt #WomenArtists #DutchGoldenAge #Baroque #MariaVanOosterwijck #StillLife

The Girl With the Pixel Earring

https://streetartutopia.com/2024/04/07/the-girl-with-the-pixel-earring/

"The Sweeper," Pieter Janssens Elinga, 1670.

Elinga (1623-1682?) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, noted mostly for his domestic interiors, often with strong geometric patterns, as we see here on the floor, and the arrangement of rectangles in the tall room.

Like yesterday's artist, Hoogstraten, Elinga was an experimenter with small dioramas that were experiments in perspective.

Few details of his life are available; no exact date of death is known; he was alive in 1657 when he paid a poll tax, and his wife signed an official document stating she was a widow in 1682, so it was sometime between those two dates.

There's leaves on the trees outside the tall windows here....maybe she's doing her spring cleaning?

From the Petit Palais, Paris.

#Art #DutchArt #DutchGoldenAge #PieterElinga #Interiors #DomesticScene #SpringCleaning

"The Sweeper," Pieter Janssens Elinga, 1670.

Elinga (1623-1682?) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, noted mostly for his domestic interiors, often with strong geometric patterns, as we see here on the floor, and the arrangement of rectangles in the tall room.

Like yesterday's artist, Hoogstraten, Elinga was an experimenter with small dioramas that were experiments in perspective.

Few details of his life are available; no exact date of death is known; he was alive in 1657 when he paid a poll tax, and his wife signed an official document stating she was a widow in 1682, so it was sometime between those two dates.

There's leaves on the trees outside the tall windows here....maybe she's doing her spring cleaning?

From the Petit Palais, Paris.

#Art #DutchArt #DutchGoldenAge #PieterElinga #Interiors #DomesticScene #SpringCleaning

"The Sweeper," Pieter Janssens Elinga, 1670.

Elinga (1623-1682?) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, noted mostly for his domestic interiors, often with strong geometric patterns, as we see here on the floor, and the arrangement of rectangles in the tall room.

Like yesterday's artist, Hoogstraten, Elinga was an experimenter with small dioramas that were experiments in perspective.

Few details of his life are available; no exact date of death is known; he was alive in 1657 when he paid a poll tax, and his wife signed an official document stating she was a widow in 1682, so it was sometime between those two dates.

There's leaves on the trees outside the tall windows here....maybe she's doing her spring cleaning?

From the Petit Palais, Paris.

#Art #DutchArt #DutchGoldenAge #PieterElinga #Interiors #DomesticScene #SpringCleaning

"The Sweeper," Pieter Janssens Elinga, 1670.

Elinga (1623-1682?) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, noted mostly for his domestic interiors, often with strong geometric patterns, as we see here on the floor, and the arrangement of rectangles in the tall room.

Like yesterday's artist, Hoogstraten, Elinga was an experimenter with small dioramas that were experiments in perspective.

Few details of his life are available; no exact date of death is known; he was alive in 1657 when he paid a poll tax, and his wife signed an official document stating she was a widow in 1682, so it was sometime between those two dates.

There's leaves on the trees outside the tall windows here....maybe she's doing her spring cleaning?

From the Petit Palais, Paris.

#Art #DutchArt #DutchGoldenAge #PieterElinga #Interiors #DomesticScene #SpringCleaning

"The Sweeper," Pieter Janssens Elinga, 1670.

Elinga (1623-1682?) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, noted mostly for his domestic interiors, often with strong geometric patterns, as we see here on the floor, and the arrangement of rectangles in the tall room.

Like yesterday's artist, Hoogstraten, Elinga was an experimenter with small dioramas that were experiments in perspective.

Few details of his life are available; no exact date of death is known; he was alive in 1657 when he paid a poll tax, and his wife signed an official document stating she was a widow in 1682, so it was sometime between those two dates.

There's leaves on the trees outside the tall windows here....maybe she's doing her spring cleaning?

From the Petit Palais, Paris.

#Art #DutchArt #DutchGoldenAge #PieterElinga #Interiors #DomesticScene #SpringCleaning

Marveling at Reinier Nooms' 1689 - 1720 masterpiece "Lucht" at #Rijksmuseum: His attention to detail strikes a chord, interpretations of light and shadow create depth and drama. Thoughts?

#Rijksmuseum #ArtExploration #ReinierNooms #DutchGoldenAge
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-P-1888-A-13542

X-ray imaging of The Night Watch reveals previously unknown lead layer - Enlarge / Rembrandt's The Night Watch underwent many chemical and mecha... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=1990394 #operationnightwatch #artconservation #dutchgoldenage #thenightwatch #dutchmasters #x-rayimaging #rembrandt #science #physics #art

Exploring the depth of human emotion through the symphony of nature, Caspar Luyken's 1700 masterpiece 'Embleem: regen' #Rijksmuseum tells an exquisitely melancholic tale. What do you perceive in the rain-drenched canvas?
#ArtConnoisseur #DutchGoldenAge #R
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-P-1896-A-19368-1799

Jan van Huysum - Arcadian Landscape with a Bust of Flora, ca. 1725

#JanVanHuysum #DutchGoldenAge #ClassicArt #VintageArt #painting #Malerei #vintage #publicdomain #art #artwork #Kunst #SeeClassicArt #Netherlands #Dutch #Nederland #Holland #landscape #landscapes #LandscapePainting

Aelbert Cuyp - The Maas at Dordrecht, 1650

#AelbertCuyp #Maas #Dordrecht #Netherlands #Dutch #Nederland #Holland #DutchGoldenAge #ClassicArt #VintageArt #painting #Malerei #vintage #publicdomain #art #artwork #Kunst #SeeClassicArt #OldMasters #ships #marineart #marinepainting