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.
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•
Frans Hals
The Gypsy Girl
– The Louvre. Paris
Frans Hals
The Lute Player
The 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.
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•
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 Maker
The timeless
stillness and
soft natural
light of this
painting are
characteristic of
Vermeer’s work.
Jan Vermeer
Mistress and Maid
• Vermeer
• Soldier and Laughing
Girl
Vermeer
The Geographer
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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.