More rich and lucent skies light cavalry troopers, migrating peasants, the baptism of an Ethiopian eunuch, and a river scene. Then he suddenly stopped painting.
Cuyp
Trained as a landscape painter, he used his landscapes for genre scenes, animal and human portraits, even myths and a religious work, and was influenced by Claude Lorrain.
A period in which the winters were exceptionally cold, landscapes showing folk skating on frozen canals and rivers, promenading, and playing kolf, and ancestor of modern golf.
With much of the Dutch Republic close to water, views of the coast became marines, those of cities showed boats busy nearby, and the countryside was overrun by rivers.
Unusual paintings to add novelty to a collection, with maritimes, river views, cloudscapes, Amsterdam burning, and a couple of distinctive ‘negatives’.
How the first cloudscapes were painted of the flat lands of the Dutch Republic, and their supports were turned to devote even more space for the sky.
Early explorations in the landscapes of Aelbert Cuyp, tortoises from Brazil, the first dedicated animal painter in Paulus Potter, and a concert of birds by Melchior d’Hondecoeter.
Paintings of summer storms from the dawn of landscape art and Giorgione, through Poussin and Vernet, to Palmer and Constable.
The red that lasts hundreds of years without fading, but it’s a highly toxic salt of mercury. Used in European paintings from the Romans to the late 19th century.
Giorgione’s Tempest, Cuyp’s Thunderstorm over Dordrecht, Delacroix, a prairie on fire, and viewing lightning safely indoors.
The Eclectic Light Company 