Unusual self-portraits painted using mirrors by Courbet, Corinth, Bonnard, Gentileschi, Peeters, and Velázquez.
Peeters
The main driving forces were a rich diversity in both Dutch society and its painted themes, and the popularity of paintings among the republic’s citizens. Visual art thrived.
From the start of the Eighty Years’ War with Habsburg Spain, through the Union of Utrecht, foundation of the East India Company, tulip mania, and abundant Rembrandts.
Four women painters who achieved greatness against the odds, between 1580 and 1665: Lavinia Fontana, Clara Peeters, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Elisabetta Sirani.
Tuna fishing in Spain, goldfish sold as pets or in a Berlin flat, underwater with a diver, and in many still lifes, including those of William Merritt Chase, the master of fish.
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.
Although not entirely new, from 1620 still life paintings were highly popular, thanks to skilled painters migrating from Flanders and Brabant to escape religious oppression.
In 1579, 7 of the more northerly provinces in the Low Countries formed the Dutch Republic. That soon prospered from its international trade, and saw the creation of millions of paintings that changed European art.
In some of the earliest European paintings, the Fall of Man, the fable of the cat’s paw, in Vanitas paintings, and for their mischief and mayhem.
The humble mouse seen in Millais’ portrait of Cinderella, Klimt’s Fable, still life paintings, and an illustration by the artist who died with Captain Scott.
The Eclectic Light Company 