hoakley General, Life, Painting

The Dutch Golden Age: Conclusions and contents

Aelbert Cuyp (1620–1691), The Maas at Dordrecht (c 1650), oil on canvas, 114.9 x 170.2 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Wikimedia Commons.

This series attempts to describe how European painting changed during the Dutch Golden Age, between about 1600-1672.

Fresheneesz, Map of the Low Countries, 1556-1648 (2006). Image by Fresheneesz, via Wikimedia Commons.

Provinces that united in the Dutch Republic are shown in red, orange and yellow in this map. Its centres of art included The Hague, its de facto capital, Utrecht, Leiden, Delft, Harlem, and Amsterdam. To the south were the lands composing the Spanish Netherlands, notably Flanders and Brabant, including the cities of Antwerp and Brussels.

Introduction

History

bruegelwinterlandscapeskaters
Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569), Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap (1565), oil on panel, 37 x 55.5 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. Wikimedia Commons.

Painted fifty years before the dawn of the Golden Age, Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap (1565) is a precursor to winter scenes of the Dutch Republic.

Origins
Life in the Republic
Historical context 1565-1643
Historical context 1644-1674
Decline and legacy
How did it happen?

Genres

Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613–1670) and Jan Vos (1610–1667), The Celebration of the Peace of Münster, 18 June 1648, in the Headquarters of the Crossbowmen’s Civic Guard (St George Guard), Amsterdam (1648), oil on canvas, 232 x 547 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Group portraits
Ordinary people

kalfewervesselspomegranate
Willem Kalf (1619–1693), Still Life with Ewer, Vessels and Pomegranate (c 1645), oil on canvas, 103.5 x 81.3 cm, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Wikimedia Commons.

Still Life
Vanitas

eckhoutjabutis
Albert Eckhout (c 1610–1666), Study of Two Brazilian Tortoises (c 1640), tempera and gouache on paper mounted on panel, 30.5 x 51 cm, Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons.

Animal painting
Chiaroscuro in Utrecht
Stories

Landscapes

Cloudscapes
Nocturnes

cuypmaasdordrecht
Aelbert Cuyp (1620–1691), The Maas at Dordrecht (c 1650), oil on canvas, 114.9 x 170.2 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Wikimedia Commons.

Water
Mills

Aert van der Neer (1604–1677), Winter Landscape (c 1660), oil on panel, 46.2 x 70.2 cm, Dorchester House, London. Wikimedia Commons.

Winter

Individual artists

Troubled women of Paulus Bor

terborchspinner
Gerard ter Borch (1617–1681), The Spinner (c 1655), oil on panel, 33.6 x 28.6 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons.

Everyday life of Gerard ter Borch
Aelbert Cuyp 1
Aelbert Cuyp 2
Jan Miense Molenaer

rembrandtlucretia2
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669), Lucretia (1666), oil on canvas, 110.2 x 92.3 cm, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN. Wikimedia Commons.

Rembrandt to 1640
Rembrandt after 1640
Jacob van Ruisdael’s trees

vermeermilkmaid
Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), The Milkmaid (c 1658-59), oil on canvas, 45.5 x 41 cm, The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons.

Johannes Vermeer 1
Johannes Vermeer 2
Unique imagery of Domenicus van Wijnen

Fishermen at Sea exhibited 1796 by Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Fishermen at Sea (1796), oil on canvas, 91.4 x 122.2 cm, The Tate Gallery (Purchased 1972), London. © The Tate Gallery and Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported), http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-fishermen-at-sea-t01585

Painted over a century after the end of the Golden Age, JMW Turner’s Fishermen at Sea (1796) is a direct descendant of the maritimes and nocturnes developed by the artists of the Dutch Republic.

The innumerable paintings of the Golden Age transformed European painting from the art of the Renaissance to prepare it for the Age of Enlightenment and the major changes of the nineteenth century. Art broke free from domination by religious themes and patronage by the church and ruling elites, with the opening up of secular genres including landscape painting.

Related articles

A Painted Weekend in Amsterdam: 1645-1867
A Painted Weekend in Amsterdam: 1871-1923
Interiors by Design: The Dutch Golden Age
Blur in paintings: Vermeer
Landscape composition: Dutch Horizons
Still Life History: 2 Clara Peeters the pioneer
Still Life History: 3 The Dutch Golden Age

Next to Rembrandt: In Memoriam Adriaen van der Werff 1
Next to Rembrandt: In Memoriam Adriaen van der Werff 2
Landscapes for All Reasons: Paintings of Aelbert Cuyp 1
Landscapes for All Reasons: Paintings of Aelbert Cuyp 2
Landscapes for All Reasons: Paintings of Aelbert Cuyp 3
The Making of Vermeer’s Milkmaid
Commemorating 300 years since the death of Jan Weenix
Distant panoramas: The 400th anniversary of Philip de Koninck 1
Distant panoramas: The 400th anniversary of Philip de Koninck 2
The Golden Home: 400th anniversary of Gerard ter Borch, 1
The Golden Home: 400th anniversary of Gerard ter Borch, 2
Adriaen van de Velde
The 400th anniversary of the birth of Paulus Potter