First of three articles to celebrate the 400th anniversary of this master of the Dutch Golden Age, who painted almost anything with aplomb.
Golden Age
From being a sub-genre of landscape painting in the Dutch Golden Age, to recording the catastrophic fire which destroyed most of Moscow when Napoleon occupied the city.
His later portraits and domestic genre paintings grew lighter, and gave insight into home life at the time. His portrayal of fabrics is outstanding.
He innovated with full-length portraits, then from those developed domestic genre scenes which influenced Vermeer. He was born 400 years ago this month.
Many coasts are flat – a challenge to painters from the Netherlands and Belgium in particular. Here masters from the Golden Age, the Hague School, and others take on this challenge.
One of the finest still-life painters of any age, some of her work celebrated the sensual pleasures of food, others the futility of life.
Some of the finest landscapes from the Golden Age, and a mystery which was long assumed to be a self-portrait. An influence on Boudin, hence Monet.
His meticulous paintings of farm animals transformed landscape practice, and created a new sub-genre.
Had he been French or British, he would probably have been rated as one of the greatest painters of the 1800s.
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