ArtPage on Dutch Art

Dutch art - Also known as art of the Netherlands, and as art of the principal state of Holland.

Making generalizations about the visual culture of any group of people is a crude endeavor, especially with a culture as diverse as that of the Netherlands. With this thought in mind, know that this survey, as any must be, is tremendously limited in its breadth and depth.

[Expect a more in-depth article to appear here soon.]

Examples:

Jan van Eyck (Dutch, died 1441), The Arnolfini Marriage [aka Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife], 1434, oil on wood panel, 81.8 x 59.7 cm, National Gallery, London. A convex mirror hangs on the wall behind the bride and groom. In this mirror is a reflection of the scene in the room. The frame of the mirror contains ten rondels which are scenes from the life of Christ. See convex, frame, mirror, and symbol.

Count de Meurs, (Netherlandish), Drawings in a Letter, 1493, Library of Zutphen, Netherlands. Manuscripts dating back to the Middle Ages often used sequential pictures accompanied by text, or sometimes even used text-balloons for captions as in this example. See cartoon.

Quentin Metsys (Dutch, 1465/6-1530), The Banker and his Wife, 1514, oil on panel, 0.705 x 0.670 m, Louvre. See narrative art.

Jan van der Straet (Stradanus) (Dutch, 1523-1604), Painter's Studio, woodcut. As the master paints a large canvas with a picture of St. George and the Dragon at the center, an apprentice paints a portrait from a model at left, two make drawings and one mixes colors in the foreground, two more grind pigments into oil on the right, and a last one carries a canvas toward the doorway. Windows let in natural light from several angles. There are numerous shelves, drawers and tables for supplies and works-in-progress. See studio.

Netherlands, 1570, Dalmatic, polychrome wool and silk, interlocking tapestry weave, with embroidery accentuating details of the design, 43 1/4 x 45 1/2 inches (109.8 x 115.6 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This is part of a rare set of Roman Catholic priest's vestments to survive the Protestant Reformation. See costume.

Adrien de Vries (Dutch, c. 1546-1626), Mercury and Psyche, 1593, bronze, 84 1/2 x 36 x 28 inches (215 x 92 x 72 cm), Louvre. See Mannerism and mythology.

Jacques de Gheyn the Elder (Dutch, 1565-1629), Vanitas Still Life, 1603, oil on wood panel, 32 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches (82.6 x 54 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See niche, still life, and vanitas.

Jan Brueghel the Elder (Dutch , 1568-1625)

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (Dutch, 1573-1621), Bouquet of Flowers in an Arch, c. 1620, oil on copper, 0.23 x 0.17 m, Louvre. See still life.

Frans Hals (Dutch, c. 1581-1666), Young Man and Woman in an Inn ("Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart"), 1623, oil on canvas, 41 1/2 x 31 1/4 inches (105.4 x 79.4 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. (On the Met's page, you can enlarge any detail.) See Baroque.

Hendrick Terbrugghen (Dutch, 1588-1629), The Gamblers, 1623, oil on canvas, 33 x 44 7/8 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch, 1590-1656), The Denial of St. Peter, about 1620-1625, oil on canvas, 43 1/2 x 57 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Also see Caravaggisti.

Willem Claesz. Heda (Dutch, 1594-1680/2), Breakfast with a Crab, 1648, oil on canvas, 46 1/2 x 46 1/2 inches (118 x 118 cm), Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Heda was the master of the Dutch ontbijt or breakfast piece. See still life.

Jan Josephsz. van Goyen (Dutch, 1596-1656), The Pelkus Gate near Utrecht, 1646, oil on wood panel, 14 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches (36.8 x 57.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Salomon van Ruysdael, Drawing the Eel, 1650s, oil on wood panel, 29 1/2 x 41 3/4 inches (74.9 x 106 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See landscape.

Aert van der Neer (Dutch, 1603/4-1677), Landscape at Sunset, oil on canvas, 20 x 28 1/8 inches (50.8 x 71.4 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See landscape.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch, Amsterdam, 1606-1669), The Raising of Lazarus, c. 1630, oil on wood panel, 37 7/8 x 32 inches (96.2 x 81.3 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Nicolaes Ruts, 1631, oil on panel, 46 x 34 3/8 inches (116.8 x 87.3 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Flora, c. 1635, oil on canvas, 49 x 40 inches (125 x 101 cm), Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653, oil on canvas, 56 1/2 x 53 3/4 inches (143.5 x 136.5 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. (On the Met's page, you can enlarge any detail.)

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Christ Presented to the People, 1655, drypoint, 14 x 17 7/8 inches (35.6 x 45.4 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1658, oil on canvas, 52 5/8 x 40 7/8 inches (133.7 x 103.8 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1668/69, oil on canvas, 103 x 81 inches (262 x 205 cm), Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Judith Leyster (Dutch, 1609-1660), The Concert, c. 1633, oil on canvas, 24 x 34 1/4 inches, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.

Dutch, Rotterdam, Ketubah, 1648, on parchment, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. See Jewish art and ketubah.

Adriaen van Ostade (Dutch, 1610-1685), Rustic Interior with a Man Feeding a Child, 1648, etching and drypoint, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emery U, Atlanta, GA. See Baroque and genre.

Adriaen van Ostade, Reading the News at the Weavers' Cottage, 1673, pen and brown ink, watercolor, white heightening, traces of graphite; framing lines by the artist (?) in brown ink and gold, 9 5/8 x 7 15/16 inches (24.4 x 20.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See genre.

Frans Post (Dutch, c. 1612-1680), A Brazilian Landscape, 1650, oil on wood panel, 24 x 36 inches (61 x 91.4 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See landscape.

Willem Kalf (Dutch, 1619-1693), Still Life with Fruit, Glassware, and a Wan-li Bowl, 1659, oil on canvas, 23 x 20 inches (58.4 x 50.8 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See still life.

Philips Koninck (Dutch, 1619-1688), Wide River Landscape, c. 1648, oil on canvas, 16 1/4 x 22 7/8 inches (41.3 x 58.1 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See landscape.

Philips Koninck, An Extensive Wooded Landscape, oil on canvas, 32 3/4 x 44 5/8 inches (83.2 x 113.3 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Aelbert Cuyp (Dutch, 1620-1691), Dordrecht: Sunrise, c. 1650, oil on canvas, 40 1/8 x 63 3/8 inches (102 x 161 cm), Frick Collection, NY. Also see seascape.

Jan Steen (Dutch, 1626-1679), The Idlers, c. 1660, oil on wood panel, 15 x 12 inches (39 x 30 cm), Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael (Dutch, 1628/29-1682), Landscape with a Village in the Distance, 1646, oil on wood panel, 30 x 43 inches (76.2 x 109.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See landscape.

Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael (Dutch, 1628/29-1682), Landscape with a Footbridge, 1652, oil on canvas, 38 3/4 x 62 5/8 inches (98.4 x 159.1 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael, The Marsh, 1660s, oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 39 inches (72.5 x 99 cm), Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Pieter de Hooch (Dutch, 1629-1684).

Jan (or Johannes) Vermeer (Dutch, Delft, 1632-1675), Officer and Laughing Girl, 1655-1660, oil on canvas (lined), 19 7/8 inches x 18 1/8 inches (50.48 cm x 46.04 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Jan (or Johannes) Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Jug, c. 1660-67, oil on canvas, 18 x 16 inches (45.7 x 40.6 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. (On the Met's page, you can enlarge any detail.)

Jan (or Johannes) Vermeer, The Glass of Wine, c. 1661/62, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. See drapery.

Nicolaes Maes (Dutch, 1634-1693)

Meindert Hobbema (Dutch, 1638-1709), Entrance to a Village, c. 1665, oil on wood panel, 29 1/2 x 43 3/8 inches (74.9 x 110.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See landscape.

Hubert van Ravesteyn (Dutch, 1638 - c.1691)

Anonymous, Dutch, Delft, Covered Jar (possibly "The Golden Flowerpot"), c. late 17th-early 18th century, tin-glazed earthenware, Columbia Art Museum, SC.

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890), A Corridor in the Asylum, late May or June, 1889, black chalk and gouache on pink Ingres paper, 25 5/8 x 19 5/16 inches (65.1 x 49.1 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872-1944), Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 inches (127 x 127 cm), at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. See De Stijl.

Theo van Doesburg (Dutch, 1883-1931). See De Stijl.

Gerrit T. Rietveld (Dutch, 1884-1964), Schroder House, 1924-25, steel beams and columns, wood and concrete, Utrecht, The Netherlands. See De Stijl.

Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972), Balcony, 1945, lithograph, 11 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches (29.7 x 23.4 cm), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. In the center of this picture of a hillside town, Escher said he tried to break up the paper's flatness by "pretend[ing] to give it a blow with my fist at the back, but . . . the paper remains flat, and I have only created the illusion of an illusion." See flat and illusion.

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Other World, 1947, color wood engraving and woodcut printed in black, red-brown, and green, printed from three blocks; image 12 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches (31.8 x 26.1 cm), sheet 39.2 x 32.9 cm; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA. Depending upon which of this room's three windows we look out, we find our point of view is completely different and irreconsilable from each of the others.

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Up and Down, 1947, lithograph, 19 3/4 x 8 1/8 inches (50.3 x 20.5 cm).

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Drawing Hands, 1948, lithograph, 11 1/8 x 13 1/8 inches (282 x 332 mm).

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Relativity, 1953, lithograph, 11 1/8 x 11 5/8 inches (282 x 294 mm), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Here are three worlds, each with their own gravitational forces exist simultaneously, operating perpendicularly to one other.

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Convex and Concave, 1955, lithograph. See convex and concave.

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Print Gallery, 1956, lithograph, image 31.9 x 31.7 cm, sheet 41.2 x 40.4 cm, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA. See gallery.

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Belvedere, 1958, lithograph, 8 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches (462 x 295 mm), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. This belvedere has three stories, but its drawing results in an optical illusion. Escher has employed a hybrid of linear perspective that produces a mixture of two possibilities. Note how the pillars connect the second to the third story.

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Waterfall, 1961, lithograph,15 x 11 3/4 inches (380 x 300 mm).

Kees Kaldenbach's Vermeer page. Learn the month of the scene of the View of Delft and the exact location of the Little Street.
Dutch University Institute for Art History (DUIA) in Florence, Italy, has a library specializing in Italian, Dutch and Flemish artwith an online library catalogue. DUIA offers a research program with projects on Italian art, Dutch artists, and artistic exchanges between Italy and the Low Countries.

Also see architecture, Art Nouveau, Baroque, costume, design, Danish art, De Stijl, drawing, engraving, etching, flags of Europe, Fluxus, French art, furniture, genre, German art, history painting, illumination, jewelry, landscape, lithography, Madonna, Middle Ages, museum, mythology, narrative art, Northern Renaissance, nude, pastel, photography, porcelain, portrait, seascape, self-portrait, Spanish art, still life, textile, trompe l'oeil, and watercolor, among many other articles.