A stolen painting of a concert, a girl with a pearl earring, ladies with a maid and writing a letter, an astronomer and a geographer.
Netherlands
Finding form with his famous compositions of figures lit by daylight from windows on the left. His use of maps, curtains, and his unique depth of field effects.
Washerwoman below stairs, a kitchen maid, haggling in the market, selling fish door-to-door, pouring milk, farming families, and drinking.
The arrival and writing of letters, a milkmaid at work, a mother removing nits from her daughter’s hair, spinning, drinking lemonade, and learning to play the lute.
Citizens of the Dutch Republic joined organisations such as guilds for different occupational groups, civic militia, and the administration of charity. And they loved to be painted in group portraits.
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.
A woman spinning in front of her bed, a view of a street, a waterfront, marketplace, boats on the river, canals, windmills, a sandy beach, clouds, and frozen rivers – everyday life in the Golden Age.
Expressing a weariness with this life and yearning for the next, they originated in Flanders, but soon became popular in the Dutch Republic in its Golden Age.
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.
Saskia died in 1642, so he hired a widow to look after his young son. They became lovers, broke up, and he lived with his former maid. In 1656 he was made insolvent, and spent the rest of his life in poverty, painting even more wonderfully.
The Eclectic Light Company 