Holland of those years conducted extensive colonial trade, it had a powerful fleet, and shipbuilding was one of the leading industries. Hardworking farmers, the Dutch managed to create a dairy farm on relatively small lands, which became famous in the European market. At the same time, Holland is the most important center of European culture. Protestantism, which completely supplanted the influence of the Catholic Church, led to the fact that the clergy did not have the same influence as in Flanders. The Dutch artists had another customer: the burghers, the magistrate, therefore the paintings in Holland at that time did not have the same dimensions as the canvases of Rubens or Jordaens, and they mainly solve non-monumental decorative problems. The main achievement of 17th century Dutch art was easel painting. Man and nature have been objects of observation and depiction by Dutch artists. Household painting becomes one of the leading genres, the creators of which were called "Little Dutchmen", either for the unpretentiousness of the subjects, or because of the small size of the paintings. Hence, a wide range of painting on specific topics: portrait, landscape, still life, animalistic genre.
One of the largest portrait painters in Holland was Frans Hals. He worked in the genre of group portrait, depicting rifle guilds - corporations of officers for the defense and protection of cities. Individual portraits are sometimes called genre portraits due to the particular specificity of the image.
Landscape genre especially interesting. This is not nature in general, some general picture of the universe, but a national, namely the Dutch landscape, which we also recognize in modern Holland: windmills, desert dunes, canals with boats gliding along them in summer and with skaters in winter. The gray sky occupies a large place in the compositions. The flowering of landscape painting dates back to the middle of the 17th century; the greatest master of realistic landscape was Jacob van Ruisdael (see reproductions)... His works are usually full of deep drama, whether he depicts thickets, landscapes with waterfalls or a romantic landscape with a cemetery. Ruisdael's nature appears in dynamics, in eternal renewal. The simplest motives of nature under the brush Jan van Goyen and Salomon van Ruisdael acquire a monumental character. I only dealt with the seascape Ian Porsellis... The animalistic genre is closely related to the Dutch landscape. Favorite motive Albert Cape - cows at a watering hole. In addition to general plans, Paul Porter likes to depict one or more animals in close-up against the background of a landscape.
Brilliant development reaches still life ... The Dutch still life, in contrast to the Flemish, has a modest size and motives of an intimate nature. Peter Claesz and Willem Head more often depicted the so-called "breakfast": dishes with a ham or pie on a relatively modestly served table. In a skillful arrangement, objects are shown in such a way that one feels like the inner life of things. The color is restrained and refined. With the change in the life of Dutch society, the nature of still lifes also changes. "Breakfasts" Kheda are replaced by luxurious desserts Kalfa... Simple utensils are replaced by marble tables, carpet tablecloths, silver goblets, vessels made of mother-of-pearl shells, and crystal glasses. Kalf achieves amazing virtuosity in conveying the texture of peaches, grapes, crystal surfaces. The uniform tone of the still lifes of the previous period is replaced by a rich gradation of the most exquisite colorful shades.
Within the circle of Franz Hals, where Adrian Brouwer, a Flemish painter, formed, a distinct interest in the topics household painting. Adrian van Ostade usually depicts the shadow sides of the life of the peasantry. Since the 40s in his work, satirical notes are increasingly replaced by humorous ones. Sometimes these small pictures are colored with great lyrical feeling.
The interior acquires special poetry among the "small Dutchmen". The real singer of this theme was Peter de Hooch. His rooms with a half-open window, with casually thrown shoes or an abandoned broom, are usually depicted without a human figure, but a person is invisibly present here, there is always a connection between the interior and people. When he depicts people, he deliberately emphasizes a certain frozen rhythm, depicts life as if frozen, as motionless as the things themselves.
The pinnacle of Dutch realism, the result of the picturesque achievements of Dutch culture, is the work of Rembrandt. As a true Dutchman, he is not afraid of realistic details, as a great artist, he knows how to avoid naturalism. In the 30s, Rembrandt first seriously began to engage in graphics, especially etching. The legacy of Rembrandt the graphic artist, who left the graffiti and unique drawings, is no less significant than the pictorial heritage. On the etchings, there are mainly biblical and gospel subjects, but in drawing, as a true Dutch artist, he often turns to the genre of genre. Rembrandt had a tremendous influence on art, he had many students, some did not go further than external imitation of the teacher, and the majority betrayed him, moving to positions of academism and imitation of the Flemings, and then the French. In the last quarter of the 17th century, the decline of the Dutch school of painting begins, the loss of its national identity, and from the beginning of the 18th century, the end of the great era of Dutch realism begins.
With the triumph of the bourgeois system and Calvinism, the strongholds of monumental decorative and ecclesiastical art in Holland collapsed. The tasks of painting palaces and castles, set by baroque artists in monarchist countries, almost never occurred in Holland. The nobility was too weak to support the existence of a large decorative arts. Calvinism, on the other hand, was against paintings in their temples.
The demand for paintings was nevertheless extremely high. He came mainly from private individuals, and, moreover, to a large extent from circles that did not have large material wealth. The type of small easel paintings designed to hang in rooms of modest size is developing and becoming the dominant type. Along with commissions, paintings were even more often executed for the art market, and trade in them was widespread. The great demand for paintings led to a huge production, and because of their overproduction, very many artists had to look for other sources of livelihood in addition to their direct profession. Outstanding painters often turn out to be either gardeners, or innkeepers, or employees (Goyen, Steen, Gobbema, etc.).
With regard to themes and pictorial techniques in the Dutch painting of the 17th century, the beginning of realism completely dominates. The artist was required, first of all, to convey truthfully the external forms of the surrounding life in all the diversity of its phenomena.
The growing importance of personality in the new bourgeois society resulted in the extraordinary spread of the portrait. A long period of struggle, where the winner felt his strength, contributed to this process. The large role played then by various organizations and, first of all, shooting societies, gave rise to a special type of group public portrait, which is widely developed and becomes one of the specific phenomena of Dutch painting. Following the numerous group portraits of the shooters, a similar character of groups of representatives of various trade shops, medical corporations (the so-called "anatomy"), and heads of almshouses appear.
The tension of resistance to foreign invaders exacerbated national sentiment. Art began to be required not only to be truthful - it had to depict its own, folk people and the situation of today, unadorned pictures of native nature, everything that the mind was proud of and that the eye was used to seeing: ships, beautiful cattle, an abundance of food, flowers. The dominant types of subject matter, along with the portrait, became genre, landscape, images of animals and still life. Religious painting rejected by the Protestant Church was not excluded, but did not play any major role and acquired a completely different character than in the countries of ruling Catholicism. The mystical principle was supplanted in them by a realistic interpretation of the subjects, and the paintings of this circle were clothed mainly in the forms of everyday painting. Scenes from ancient history are encountered as an exception and are used to hint at current political events. Like all allegories, they were successful in narrow circles involved in literary and humanitarian interests.
A typical feature of the Dutch school of this time is the narrow specialization in certain types of topics constantly observed among its representatives. This specialization leads to a differentiation of genres: some artists develop almost exclusively everyday scenes from the life of the middle and upper strata of the bourgeoisie, all the attention of others is directed to the peasant life; among landscape painters, for many it is difficult to find anything other than plains, canals, villages and pastures; others are attracted by forest motives, while others specialize in the image of the sea. Dutch artists not only set themselves the task of accurately conveying the objects and phenomena depicted, but strive to give the impression of space, as well as the impact on the forms of the atmosphere and light that envelop them. The problem of transmitting light and air is a common and basic pictorial quest for the 17th century Dutch school. Thus, painting involuntarily acquires the beginning of emotionality, causing certain moods in the audience.
The first quarter of the 17th century is a transitional period for Dutch painting, when the features just noted have not yet received their full development. From the thematic point of view, the main types of Dutch painting - landscape and everyday life - are still relatively little differentiated. Both genre and landscape elements in the paintings of this time are often equivalent. There are many conventions in purely specific images, both in the general construction of the landscape and in color.
Along with the local realistic traditions that continue to live, the influence of Italy is strong, in particular, both its mannerist currents and the realistic art of Caravaggio. The most typical representative of the latter trend was Honthorst (1590-1656). The impact on the Dutch is also very noticeable of the German artist Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610), who worked in the early 17th century. Romanticism in the interpretation of themes selected from the Bible or from ancient literature, as well as the well-known Orientalism (attraction to the East), expressed in the selection of types, attire and other details, are combined in his work with an increased desire for decorative effects. Peter Lastman (1583-1633) emerged as the leading artist of this group.
Frans Hals. Frans Hals (c. 1580-1666) was the first painter to bring the Dutch school into full bloom. His activity was almost entirely in Harlem. Here, already around 1616, he was promoted as the foremost major portrait painter and retained his role in this area until the end of his life. With the appearance of Hals, the strictly realistic and poignantly individual Dutch portrait reaches maturity. Everything timid, petty, naturalistic that distinguishes his predecessors is overcome.
The initial phase of the Hals art has not been clarified. We immediately see the master solving the most difficult problem of the group portrait. He paints one after another of the shooters of the St. Hadrian and St. George (Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum), where the liveliness of a crowded meeting and the brightness of the types of each of those present are conveyed with inimitable ease. The pictorial skill and compositional resourcefulness of the groupings go hand in hand in these portraits with an extraordinary acuteness of characteristics. Hals is not a psychologist: the mental life of his models usually passes by for him. And he writes for the most part of people whose whole life passes in conditions of intense, vigorous activity, but who do not go too deeply into questions of a psychological nature. But Hals, like no one else, captures the appearance of these people, is able to grasp the most fleeting, but at the same time the most characteristic in facial expression, in posture, in gesticulation. Cheerful by nature, he seeks to capture every image in a moment of revival, joy, and no one conveys laughter with such subtlety and variety as he does. Portrait of an officer (1624, London, Wallace collection), swaying on a chair "Geytgeisen" (late 1630s, Brussels, art gallery), "Gypsy" (late 1620s, Louvre), or the so-called "Harlem witch" Malle Bobbé (Berlin) can be named as typical examples of his poignant and often perky art. Men, women, children are portrayed by him with the same feeling of a living image ("Portrait of a young man with a glove", c. 1650, Hermitage). The impression of liveliness is also facilitated by the Hals technique itself, unusually free and growing in its breadth over the years. The decorative brilliance of the early works is subsequently tempered, the color becomes silvery, the freedom to use black and white tones speaks of a skill that can afford the boldest painterly daring. In some works, impressionistic methods of color solutions are outlined. Hals paints countless individual portraits before recent years life, but ends up again with group portraits. Generalized in color, revealing the senile weakness of the hand in the drawing, they nevertheless remain unusually expressive. Their characters represent a group of elders of an almshouse (1664, Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum), where the eighty-year-old artist found his last refuge. His art was too advanced in its time to ensure material success among the then bourgeois society.
Rembrandt. A generation later than Hals, the gigantic figure of Rembrandt (1606-1669) grows up against the backdrop of asserting Dutch realism. His work is the greatest pride of Holland, but the significance of this master is not limited to one nationality. Rembrandt presents himself as one of the greatest realist painters of all time and at the same time one of the greatest masters of painting.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in 1606 in Leiden and was the son of a wealthy flour mill owner. He early discovered a passion for painting and after a short stay at Leiden University devoted himself entirely to art. At the end of the usual three-year period of study with an insignificant local artist Jacob Svannenburch, Rembrandt went to improve in Amsterdam, where he became a student of Lastman. Having mastered a number of techniques of the latter, he also perceived the influence of the realistic direction of the caravaggists.
Returning to Leiden, Rembrandt began working as an independent craftsman, had great success, and this success prompted him to move to Amsterdam, where he settled in 1631. Here Rembrandt very soon became a fashionable artist, filled with orders and surrounded by many students. At the same time, the brightest time in his personal life also opened.
In 1634 he married a young, pretty girl, Saskia Van Uhlen-borg, who belongs to a prominent bourgeois family in Amsterdam and brought him a large fortune as a dowry. It increased the already growing prosperity of the successful master, provided him with material independence and at the same time allowed him to surrender to the passion for collecting works of art and all kinds of antiques.
Already during Rembrandt's stay in Leiden, and even more so after moving to Amsterdam, the main features of his art are clearly felt. The circle of his images covers religious subjects, history, mythology, portrait, genre, animal world, landscape, still life. In the center of Rembrandt's attention is still a person, a psychologically correct transfer of characters and emotional movements. This interest in psychological problems manifests itself in countless portraits, as well as in Rembrandt's favorite biblical themes, which give him the coveted excuse to portray human relationships and characters. The master's inherent gift of storytelling allows him to captivate the audience not only with the expressiveness of images, but also with the entertaining presentation of the chosen plot.
Rembrandt's images reveal his deeply realistic understanding of the tasks of art. He is constantly studying nature and keenly peers into all forms of the surrounding reality. His attention is attracted by everything in which the characteristic is clearly expressed: facial expression, gestures, movements, costumes. He records his observations either in drawings or in picturesque sketches. The latter fall mainly in its early period. The acquired knowledge of form and its expressiveness then becomes an integral part of all compositional works of Rembrandt and gives them extraordinary truthfulness.
In parallel with heightened attention to the essence of phenomena, Rembrandt is completely absorbed in purely pictorial problems and mainly the problem of chiaroscuro. The originality and skill of her solutions brought him the fame of the greatest painter. The sophistication of Rembrandt's light, combined with coloristic effects, is of high artistic value in the master's paintings. But this is not only a self-sufficient decorative value. Rembrandt's interpretation of lighting effects is at the same time one of major means identifying the nature of images. Its composition is based on the ratio of illuminated and shadowed plans. Their distribution, highlighting some forms and concealing others, draws the viewer's attention to what is especially significant for the narrative or characterization and thereby enhances expressiveness. The picturesque side is organically linked to the content.
Rembrandt's artistic activity is imbued with inner unity from beginning to end. But his creative path nevertheless allows one to distinguish a number of clearly expressed stages characterized by some specific features.
After years of apprenticeship and the first independent steps, such a new stage is the 1630s. During this period, Rembrandt had strong, on the one hand, romantic elements and fantasy, on the other, the formal features of Baroque art. In this case, the impression of fiction is caused mainly by the effect of illumination, which does not always depend on a specific source, but is generated, as it were, by the emitting ability of the objects themselves. For the baroque tendencies of Rembrandt's art of this period, the agitation of the artistic language, the dynamism and pathos of the compositions, partly the sharpness of the color are indicative. At this stage, Rembrandt has a constant tendency to theatricalization of images, prompting the master to paint himself and his loved ones dressed in magnificent cloaks, helmets, turbans, berets, or to depict Saskia either in the image of biblical heroines, or as an ancient goddess.
He approaches custom portraits, of course, differently. Their liveliness characteristics, skill in sculpting forms, seeking elegance and at the same time a certain severity justify his then glory as a portrait painter. The group portrait, known as "The Anatomy of Doctor Tulp" (1632, The Hague, Mauritshuis), where these features were joined by the ability to unite the depicted persons by a community of attention to the lecture read by Tulip at the anatomical table, was Rembrandt's first particularly loud success.
With the extreme abundance of portraiture falling in the decade under review, Rembrandt found time for the figurative, narrative painting that fascinated him. The Angel Leaving the Tobias Family (1637, Louvre) is an example of the noted Baroque features of this period. The plot borrowed from the Bible, which presents the moment when the angel who helped the son of Tobias to heal his father, leaves the family he has benefited from, is saturated with elements of the genre. An even more definite genre approach to the topic is captured in the Hermitage painting The Parable of the Winegrowers (1637). In this case, the gospel parable turns into a purely realistic scene of the settlement of the rich owner with the workers. Faithfulness of gestures and facial expressions are no less characteristic of Rembrandt than the painterly problem of transmitting light streaming through small windows and dying in the depths of a high, semi-dark room.
The artistic skill and the greenish-golden color characteristic of Rembrandt in the 1630s are manifested in fullness in one of his most famous paintings, the Hermitage Danae (1636). By the feeling of life in the transfer of the body, in the gesture, in the expressiveness of the face, it unusually vividly reveals the realism of the artist's artistic concept at this time of his creative development.
With the beginning of the 1640s, Rembrandt's work entered a new phase, lasting until the middle of the next decade. The master's independence of understanding of the tasks of art, his desire for deep life truth, interest in psychological problems, which over the years manifested itself more and more, revealed in Rembrandt the largest creative individuality, far ahead of the culture of the bourgeois society around him. The deep content of Rembrandt's art was inaccessible to the latter. It wanted art that was realistic, but more superficial. The originality of Rembrandt's pictorial techniques, in turn, ran counter to the generally accepted careful, somewhat sleek manner of writing. As the times of the national heroic struggle for independence receded into the past, in the tastes of the ruling environment, tendencies towards elegance and a certain idealization of the image grew. The intransigence of Rembrandt's views, supported by his material independence, led him to a complete disagreement with society. This break with the bourgeois milieu manifested itself most definitely in connection with the commissioning of a large group portrait from the Amsterdam Riflemen's Guild. The painting executed as a result of this order (1642, Amsterdam) did not satisfy the customers and remained incomprehensible even in artistic circles. Instead of a more or less usual portrait group, Rembrandt gave a picture of the performance of an armed squad rushing to the sound of a drum after their leaders. The portrait characteristics of those depicted receded into the background before the dynamism of the scene. The broadly conceived picturesqueness of the contrasts of chiaroscuro gave this picture a romantic character, giving rise to its conventional name - "Night Watch".
The conflict with the dominant environment and the sharp drop in orders as a result did not affect the creative energy of the master. It also did not reflect the change in the family conditions of Rembrandt, who lost his beloved wife in the year of the creation of the just mentioned picture, who was the constant inspirer of his female images... A few years later, another one takes its place. Appearing at first in the humble role of a servant, Hendrike Stoffels then becomes a faithful friend of the master's life and provides him with the peace and quiet of family comfort.
The coming period was favorable for the development of Rembrandt's art. The enthusiasm of youth disappears from his work. It becomes more focused, more balanced and even deeper. The complexity of compositions and pathos are replaced by a gravitation towards simplicity. Sincerity of feeling is not disturbed by the search for external effects. The problem of chiaroscuro still holds the attention of the master. The color gets hotter. Golden yellow and red tones dominate it. Religious in nature, but purely genre in the interpretation of the plot, the Hermitage painting “ Holy family"(1645) is extremely characteristic of this time.
Along with biblical genre compositions, this period is replete with a new type of depiction of reality for Rembrandt - landscapes. Paying tribute to his romantic inclinations in some cases, he creates, along with this breathtaking, strict realism of approach, pictures of an unadorned Dutch village. Small "Winter View" (1646, Kassel), depicting in the light of a clear frosty day a peasant yard and several figures on the surface of a frozen canal, in terms of the subtlety of feeling and the veracity of visual perception, serves as one of the most perfect examples of the realistic landscape of the Dutch.
In portraits, Rembrandt now finds himself freer in the choice of models and mainly paints faces with a pronounced individuality. These are mainly elderly women and old Jews. But with the same poignancy, he is able to convey the charm of a young woman's face or the charm of a youthful appearance. Everything petty is inferior in these portraits to a generalized, but at the same time unusually sharp presentation of the image. This is largely due to the increasing breadth of the manner of technical execution.
Despite the vastness and artistic value of what was created during this period, Rembrandt's financial situation by the mid-1650s turned out to be extremely difficult. Due to the fall in the number of orders, the difficult sale of paintings, and especially the carelessness of the master in the conduct of his affairs, Rembrandt experienced great financial difficulties. The debt associated with the acquisition of an expensive house during Saskia's life threatened complete ruin. Attempts to extricate himself from debt could only postpone the disaster, but it still erupted. In the summer of 1656, Rembrandt was declared insolvent and all of his property was sold at auction. Deprived of his usual shelter, he was forced to move with his family to the poor Jewish quarter of the trading capital, and here, in acutely felt shortage, his last days passed.
These adversities, as well as the misfortunes that befell Rembrandt later - the death of Hendrike, the death of Titus' only son - were powerless to stop the further growth of his genius. The late 1650s and 1660s are the most ambitious phase of Rembrandt's work. It represents, as it were, a synthesis of all his previous psychological and pictorial searches. The exceptional power of the images, the simplicity of the concept, the intensity of the hot color and the scope of the picturesque texture are the main features of this period. These qualities are equally manifested both in portraits and in biblical compositions. The group portrait of Sindica (the elders of the cloth shop, 1662, Amsterdam) created at this time is deservedly considered one of the heights of Rembrandt's work). A sharp psychological characteristic, simplicity of construction, concealing the infallibility of the rhythm of lines and masses, as well as a mean number of colors, but an intense color, summarize the entire previous path of Rembrandt as a portrait painter. In the field of biblical painting, the same role belongs to The Return of the Prodigal Son, which is in the Hermitage. The scene of the reconciliation of a son who repented of his wantonness and an all-forgiving father in its simplicity, drama and subtlety of conveying human experiences remains unsurpassed in world art. It is difficult for her to find anything equal in terms of the saturation of tone and breadth of the letter.
« Prodigal son"- one of the most recent paintings by the master and, apparently, dates back to 1669 - the year of Rembrandt's death. This death passed completely unnoticed, and only many years later, in the 18th century, understanding of the art of this great artist began to grow.
The value of Rembrandt is due, along with the painting of the master, to his huge heritage as a graphic artist. All the above properties of Rembrandt's works were reflected in graphic works no less vividly than in painting, and moreover, both in original drawings and in the field of printed graphics and engravings. In the latter respect, Rembrandt is the greatest master of etching.
Etchings are of no less importance to his characterization than paintings. Rembrandt's distinctive depth of psychological analysis, expressive realism of images and mastery of artistic technique are reflected in a long series of remarkable sheets, thematically even more diverse than the master's painting. Among the most famous are "Christ Healing the Sick" (the so-called "Leaf of a Hundred Florins", c. 1649), "Three Crosses" (1653), portraits of Lutma (1656), Haring (1655), Six (1647 ), as well as landscapes known as "Three Trees (1643) and" The Estate of the Gold Weigher "(1651).
Drawings occupy no less significant place in Rembrandt's graphic heritage. The acuteness and originality of Rembrandt's perception of the world around them are reflected in these numerous and varied sheets with special force. The manner of painting, like the pictorial manner of Rembrandt, noticeably evolves throughout the creative development of the master. If the early drawings of Rembrandt are worked out in detail and are rather complex in composition, then in a more mature period he performed them in a wide pictorial manner, unusually laconic and simple. Rembrandt usually drew with a goose or reed pen and was able to achieve exceptional power of expressiveness using the simplest techniques. His drawings, even when they are minute sketches of some everyday motive, represent a complete whole, fully conveying all the diversity of nature.
Rembrandt's art as a whole remained misunderstood by his contemporaries. During a period of success, an extremely large school of students nevertheless emerged around him, of which Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680), Herbrand van den Eckhout (1621-1674) and Art de Gelder (1645-1727) became the most famous. Having mastered the subject matter, compositional techniques and types of teachers, they did not go beyond external imitation of Rembrandt's techniques in their figure painting. The living influence of the master, on the contrary, definitely affected the numerous landscape painters adjacent to him - Phillips Konink (1619-1688), Doomer (1622-1700) and others. Regardless of this, his development of the problem of light became the cornerstone of the development of all subsequent Dutch painting.
However, the work of Rembrandt received full recognition only in the 19th century. And from that moment on, he never ceases to be one of the highest examples of realistic and at the same time picturesque embodiment of images.
17th century Dutch culture
The victory of the bourgeois revolution in the Northern Netherlands led to the formation of an independent state - the Republic of the seven united provinces - Holland (named after the most significant of these provinces); for the first time in one of the countries of Europe a bourgeois-republican system was established. The driving forces of the revolution were the peasants and the poorest strata of the urban population, but its gains were taken advantage of by the bourgeoisie, which came to power.
The liberation from the yoke of Spanish absolutism and the Catholic Church, the elimination of a number of feudal restrictions opened the way for the rapid growth of the productive forces of the republic, which, according to Marx, "was an exemplary capitalist country of the 17th century." Only in Holland at that time the urban population prevailed over the rural population, but the main source profits were not industry (although textile production and especially shipbuilding were developed here), but intermediary trade, which expanded thanks to the colonial policy. As the ruling classes grew rich, the poverty of the working people grew, the peasants and artisans were ruined, and by the middle of the 17th century class contradictions intensified.
However, in the first decades after the establishment of the republic, the democratic traditions of the revolutionary period were alive. The breadth of the national liberation movement, the rise of self-awareness of the people, the joy of liberation from the foreign yoke united the most diverse strata of the population. The conditions for the development of sciences and art have developed in the country. The progressive thinkers of that time, in particular the French philosopher Descartes, found refuge here, the materialistic philosophical system of Spinoza was formed. The highest achievements were achieved by the artists of Holland, such painters as Rembrandt, Ruisdael, Terborch, Hals, Hobbema, Honthorst and many other masters of painting. Dutch artists were the first in Europe to be freed from the oppressive influence of court circles and the Catholic Church and created art that was democratic and realistic, directly reflecting social reality.
Dutch painting of the 17th century
A distinctive feature of the development of Dutch art was a significant predominance among all its types of painting. Pictures adorned the houses of not only representatives of the ruling elite of society, but also poor burghers, artisans, peasants; they were sold at auctions and fairs; sometimes artists used them as a means of paying bills. The profession of an artist was not rare, there were a lot of painters, and they fiercely competed with each other. Few of them could feed themselves with painting, many took on a variety of jobs: Stan was an innkeeper, Hobbema was an excise official, Jacob van Ruisdael was a doctor.
The rapid development of Dutch painting in the 17th century was explained not only by the demand for paintings by those who wanted to decorate their homes with them, but also by looking at them as a commodity, as a means of profit, a source of speculation. Having got rid of the direct customer - the Catholic Church or an influential philanthropist-feudal lord - the artist found himself entirely dependent on market demands. The tastes of bourgeois society predetermined the path of development of Dutch art, and artists who opposed them, defended their independence in matters of creativity, found themselves isolated, died untimely in want and loneliness. Moreover, these were, as a rule, the most talented masters. Suffice it to mention the names of Hals and Rembrandt.
The main object of the image for Dutch artists was the surrounding reality, which had never before been so fully reflected in the works of painters of other national schools. The appeal to the most diverse aspects of life led to the strengthening of realistic tendencies in painting, in which the genre and portraiture, landscape and still life took the leading place. The more truthfully, the more deeply the artists reflected the real world opening before them, the more significant were their works.
Each genre had its own offshoots. So, for example, among the landscape painters there were seascape painters (depicting the sea), painters who preferred the views of plains or forest thickets, there were masters who specialized in winter landscapes and landscapes with moonlight: among the genre painters, artists who depicted peasants, burghers, scenes of feasts and home life, hunting scenes and markets; were the masters of church interiors and different types still lifes - "breakfasts", "desserts", "shops", etc. Affected by the limited features of Dutch painting, which narrowed the number of tasks for its creators. But at the same time, the concentration of each of the artists on a particular genre contributed to the refinement of the painter's skill. Only the largest of the Dutch artists have worked in various genres.
The formation of realistic Dutch painting took place in the struggle against the Italianizing trend and mannerism. Representatives of these directions each in their own way, but purely outwardly borrowed techniques italian artistsdeeply alien to the traditions of national Dutch painting. At the early stage of the formation of Dutch painting, covering the years 1609-1640, realistic tendencies manifested themselves more vividly in the portrait and genre.
Holland landscape
The principles of the Dutch realistic landscape took shape during the first third of the 17th century. Instead of conventional canons and idealized, invented nature in the paintings of the masters of the Italian trend, the creators of the realistic landscape turned to depicting the real nature of Holland with its dunes and canals, houses and villages. They not only captured the character of the area with all the signs, creating typical motives of the national landscape, but sought to convey the atmosphere of the season, humid air and space. This contributed to the development of tonal painting, the subordination of all components of the picture to a single tone.
One of the largest exponents of the Dutch realistic landscape was Jan van Goyen (1596-1656). He worked in Leiden and The Hague. The favorite motives of the artist Jan van Goyen in his small landscapes: the valleys and water surface of wide rivers with cities and villages on their banks on gray, cloudy days. Jan van Goyen left a lot of space (about two-thirds of the picture) to the sky with swirling clouds saturated with moisture. Such is the painting "View of the Vaal River at Nijmegen" (1649, Moscow, State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. Pushkin), sustained in a fine brown-gray range of colors.
Paul Potter (1625-1654) created a special type of landscape depicting animals, pastures with cows and sheep. Having perfectly studied the habits of animals, the artist often gave them close-ups, carefully writing out the texture of each material, soft wool, and the smallest details. Such are the paintings "Bull" (1647, The Hague, Mauritshuis), "Dog on a Chain" (St. Petersburg, Hermitage).
Dutch still life
Along with landscape painting, still life, which was distinguished by an intimate character, was widely spread in 17th century Holland. Dutch artists chose a wide variety of objects for their still lifes, knew how to arrange them perfectly, to reveal the features of each object and its inner life, inextricably linked with human life.
Dutch painters of the 17th century Peter Claes (circa 1597-1661) and Willem Heda (1594-1680 / 1682) wrote numerous variants of "breakfast", depicting hams, ruddy buns, blackberry pies on the table, fragile glass goblets half-filled with wine, with an amazing skillfully conveying the color, volume, texture of each item. The recent presence of a person is palpable in the disorder, the randomness of the arrangement of the things that have just served him. But this disorder is only apparent, since the composition of each still life is strictly thought out and found. A restrained grayish-golden olive tonal range unites objects and lends a special sonority to those pure colors that emphasize the freshness of a freshly cut lemon or the soft silk of a blue ribbon.
Over time, the "breakfasts" of the still life masters, painters Klas and Kheda give way to the "desserts" of the Dutch artists Abraham van Beyeren (1620 / 1621-1690) and Willem Kalf (1622-1693). Beyeren's still lifes are strict in composition, emotionally rich, colorful. Willem Kalf throughout his life wrote in a free manner and democratic "kitchens" - pots, vegetables and aristocratic still lifes for the selection of exquisite precious objects, full of restrained nobility, like silver vessels, goblets, shells saturated with internal burning of colors.
In the further development, still life follows the same paths as all Dutch art, which is losing its democracy, its spirituality and poetry, its charm. The still life turns into a decoration for the dwelling of high-ranking customers. For all the decorativeness and skill of execution, later still lifes anticipate the decline of Dutch painting.
Social degeneration, the well-known aristocratization of the Dutch bourgeoisie in the last third of the 17th century give rise to a tendency towards convergence with the aesthetic views of the French nobility, lead to the idealization of artistic images, their crushing. Art loses its connection with the democratic tradition, loses its realistic basis and enters a period of prolonged decline. Greatly exhausted in the wars with England, Holland is losing its position as a great trading power and a major artistic center.
17th century French art
In French art of the 17th century, the most complete reflection of the idea of \u200b\u200bman and his place in society, generated by the formation of centralized monarchies in Europe, was found. The classic country of absolutism, which ensured the growth of bourgeois relations, France experienced an economic upsurge and became a powerful European power. The struggle for national unification against feudal willfulness and anarchy contributed to the strengthening of the high discipline of reason, a sense of individual responsibility for their actions, and interest in state problems. The philosopher Descartes developed a theory of the will, proclaiming the dominance of the human mind. He called for self-knowledge and the conquest of nature, viewing the world as a rationally organized mechanism. Rationalism has become a characteristic feature of French culture. By the middle of the 17th century, a national literary language was formed - it affirmed the principles of logical clarity, accuracy and a sense of proportion. French classical tragedy reached its climax in the works of Corneille and Racine. In his dramas, Moliere recreates the "human comedy". France experienced a flourishing of national culture, it is no coincidence that Voltaire called the 17th century "great".
French culture of the 17th century was formed under the conditions of the establishment of absolutism. However, its diversity and contradictoriness determined the broad movement for national unification. It found lively responses to acute social conflicts that accompanied the birth of a new society. In the first half of the 17th century, peasant and urban uprisings and a large democratic movement of the parliamentary Fronde shook the foundations of the state. On this basis, utopias, dreams of an ideal society based on the laws of reason and justice, and free-thinking criticism of absolutism were born. The development of French art in the 17th century went through two stages, coinciding with the first and second half of the century.
18th century Western European art
Eighteenth century in Western Europe - final stage long transition from feudalism to capitalism. In the middle of the century, the process of the initial accumulation of capital was completed, a struggle was waged in all spheres of social consciousness, and a revolutionary situation was ripening. Later, it led to the dominance of the classical forms of developed capitalism. Over the course of a century, a gigantic breakdown of all social and state foundations, concepts and criteria for evaluating the old society was taking place. A civilized society arose, periodicals appeared, political parties were formed, and there was a struggle for the emancipation of man from the fetters of a feudal-religious world outlook.
In the visual arts, the importance of a directly realistic representation of life increased. The sphere of art expanded, it became an active exponent of liberating ideas, filled with topicality, a fighting spirit, exposed the vices and absurdities of not only feudal, but also the emerging bourgeois society. It also put forward a new positive ideal of the unrestrained personality of a person, free from hierarchical ideas, developing individual abilities and at the same time endowed with a noble sense of citizenship. Art became nationwide, appealing not only to a circle of sophisticated connoisseurs, but to a wide democratic environment.
| Fine art of the 18th century in the best works analysis of the subtlest human experiences, reproduction of nuances of feelings and moods are characteristic. Intimacy, lyricism of images, but also analytical observation (sometimes merciless) are characteristic features of the art of the 18th century. both in the portrait genre and in everyday painting. These features of the artistic perception of life are the contribution of the 18th century to the development of the world artistic culture, although it should be admitted that this was achieved at the cost of losing the universal completeness in the depiction of spiritual life, integrity in the embodiment of the aesthetic views of society inherent in the painting of Rubens, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Poussin. | |
The main trends in the social and ideological development of Western Europe in the 18th century in different countries manifested themselves unevenly. If in England the industrial revolution, which took place in the middle of the 18th century, consolidated the compromise between the bourgeoisie and the nobility, then in France the antifeudal movement was more widespread and was preparing a bourgeois revolution. Common to all countries was the crisis of feudalism, its ideology, the formation of a broad social movement - the Enlightenment, with its cult of primary untouched Nature and Reason, protecting it, with its criticism of modern corrupted civilization and the dream of harmony of benevolent nature and a new democratic civilization, gravitating towards natural condition.
The eighteenth century is the century of Reason, all-destructive skepticism and irony, the century of philosophers, sociologists, economists; the exact natural sciences, geography, archeology, history, and materialistic philosophy, connected with technology, developed. By invading the mental everyday life of the era, scientific knowledge also created the foundation for art for accurate observation and analysis of reality. The enlighteners proclaimed the goal of art to imitate nature, but nature is ordered, improved (Diderot, A. Pop), cleared by reason of the harmful effects of man-made civilization created by the absolutist regime, social inequality, idleness and luxury. The rationalism of philosophical and aesthetic thought of the 18th century, however, did not suppress the freshness and sincerity of feelings, but gave rise to an aspiration for proportionality, grace, harmonious completeness of artistic phenomena of art, starting with architectural ensembles and ending with applied art. The enlighteners attached great importance in life and art to feeling - the focus of the noblest aspirations of mankind, a feeling that thirsts for purposeful action that contains the power that revolutionizes life, a feeling that can revive the primordial virtues of "natural man" (Defoe, Rousseau, Mercier), following natural laws nature.
Rousseau's aphorism "A man is great only by his feelings" expressed one of the remarkable aspects of social life of the 18th century, which gave rise to an in-depth sophisticated psychological analysis in a realistic portrait and genre, the lyrical landscape (Gainsborough, Watteau, Berne, Robert) was imbued with the poetry of feelings "lyric novel", " poems in prose ”(Russo, Prevost, Marivaux, Fielding, Stern, Richardson), it reaches the highest expression in the rise of music (Handel, Bach, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Italian opera composers). On the one hand, “small people” became the heroes of the works of art of painting, graphics, literature and theater of the 18th century - people, like everyone else, put in the usual conditions of the era, not spoiled by wealth and privileges, subject to ordinary natural movements of the soul, content with modest happiness. Artists and writers in them were delighted with sincerity, naive spontaneity of the soul, close to nature. On the other hand, the focus is on the ideal of an emancipated civilized intellectual person born of the enlightenment culture, the analysis of his individual psychology, contradictory mental states and feelings with their subtle shades, unexpected impulses and reflective moods.
Sharp observation, refined culture of thought and feeling are characteristic of all art genres of the 18th century. The artists strove to capture everyday life situations, diverse in shades, original individual images, gravitated towards entertaining narratives and enchanting entertainment, sharp conflict actions, dramatic intrigues and comically constructed fables, refined grotesque, buffoonery, graceful festivals.
New problems were raised in architecture as well. The importance of church building has diminished, and the role of civil architecture has grown, exquisitely simple, updated, freed from excessive imposing. In some countries (France, Russia, partly Germany), the problems of planning cities of the future were solved. Architectural utopias were born (graphic architectural landscapes - Giovanni Battista Piranesi and the so-called "paper architecture"). The type of private, usually intimate residential building and urban ensembles of public buildings became characteristic. At the same time, in the art of the 18th century, in comparison with previous eras, synthetic perception and the fullness of the coverage of life decreased. The former connection of monumental painting and sculpture with architecture was broken, the features of easel painting and decorativeness increased in them. The art of everyday life and decorative forms became the subject of a special cult. At the same time, the interaction and mutual enrichment of various types of art increased, the achievements acquired by one type of art were more freely used by others. Thus, the influence of the theater on painting and music was very fruitful.
The art of the 18th century went through two stages. The first lasted until 1740-1760. It is characterized by the transformation of late baroque forms into the decorative rococo style. The peculiarity of the art of the first half of the 18th century is a combination of witty and mocking skepticism and sophistication. This art, on the one hand, is refined, analyzing the nuances of feelings and moods, striving for graceful intimacy, restrained lyricism, on the other hand, tending to the "philosophy of pleasure", to the fabulous images of the East - Arabs, Chinese, Persians. Simultaneously with the rococo, the realistic direction developed - among some masters it acquired an acutely incriminating character (Hogarth, Swift). The struggle of artistic trends within national schools was openly manifested. The second stage is associated with the deepening of ideological contradictions, the growth of self-consciousness, the political activity of the bourgeoisie and the masses. At the turn of the 1760s - 1770s. The Royal Academy in France opposed Rococo art and tried to revive the ceremonial, idealizing style of academic art of the late 17th century. The gallant and mythological genres gave way to the historical with plots borrowed from Roman history. They were called upon to emphasize the greatness of the monarchy that had lost its authority in accordance with the reactionary interpretation of the ideas of "enlightened absolutism." Representatives of progressive thought turned to the heritage of antiquity. In France, Count de Keyluce opened the scientific era of research in this area (Collection of Antiquities, 7 volumes, 1752-1767). In the mid-18th century, the German archaeologist and art historian Winckelmann (History of Antiquity Art, 1764) urged artists to return to "the noble simplicity and calm grandeur of ancient art, reflecting the freedom of the Greeks and Romans of the republican era." The French philosopher Diderot found in ancient history plots denouncing tyrants, calling for an uprising against them. Classicism arose, opposing the decorativeness of the Rococo to natural simplicity, to the subjective arbitrariness of passions - the knowledge of the laws of the real world, a sense of proportion, the nobility of thought and deeds. For the first time, artists studied ancient Greek art on newly discovered sites. The proclamation of an ideal, harmonious society, the primacy of duty over feeling, the pathos of reason are common features of classicism of the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the classicism of the 17th century, which arose on the basis of national unification, developed in the conditions of the flourishing of the noble society. The classicism of the 18th century was characterized by an anti-feudal revolutionary orientation. He was called to unite the progressive forces of the nation to fight absolutism. Outside of France, classicism did not have the revolutionary character that it distinguished in the early years of the French Revolution.
Simultaneously with classicism, experiencing its impact, the realistic trend continued to live. Rationalistic tendencies were outlined in it: artists strove to generalize life phenomena.
In the second half of the 18th century, sentimentalism was born with its cult of feeling and passion, admiration for everything simple, naive, and sincere. A pre-romantic direction in art associated with it arose, and interest in the Middle Ages and folk art forms aroused. Representatives of these movements affirmed the value of the noble and active feelings of man, revealed the dramatic nature of his conflicts with the environment, prompting him to intervene in real public affairs in the name of the triumph of justice. They paved the way for “the knowledge of the human heart and the magical art of presenting the eyes of the birth, development and collapse great passion”(Lessing) and expressed the overdue need for excited, pathetic art.
19th century art
During the 19th century, capitalism became the dominant formation not only in Europe, but also on other continents. It was during this period that the struggle between two cultures sharply intensified - the progressive democratic and the reactionary bourgeois. By expressing cutting edge ideas time, the realistic art of the 19th century asserted the aesthetic values \u200b\u200bof reality, glorified the beauty of real nature and man of labor. Realism of the 19th century differed from previous centuries in that it directly reflected in art the main contradictions of the era, the social conditions of people's life. Critical positions formed the basis of the 19th century realistic art method. His most consistent incarnation was the art of critical realism - the most valuable contribution to the artistic culture of the era.
Various areas of culture of the 19th century developed unevenly. World literature (Victor Hugo, Honore Balzac, Henri Stendhal, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy), music (Johann Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Richard Wagner) reach the highest peaks. In terms of architecture and applied arts, then after the rise that determined the Empire style, both of these art forms are in crisis. There is a disintegration of monumental forms, style unity as an integral art systemcovering all types of art. The most fully developed easel forms of painting, graphics and, in part, sculpture, which tends in the best forms to monumental forms.
With national uniqueness in the art of any capitalist country, common features are strengthened: a critical assessment of the phenomena of life, historicism of thinking, that is, a deeper objective understanding of the driving forces of social development of both past historical stages and the present. One of the main achievements of 19th century art is the development of historical themes, which for the first time reveals the role of not only individual heroes, but also the masses, and more specifically recreates the historical environment. All types of portraits, genre genres, landscapes with a pronounced national character are becoming widespread. Satirical graphics are flourishing.
With the victory of capitalism, the big bourgeoisie becomes the main interested force in limiting and suppressing the realistic and democratic tendencies of art. The creations of the leading figures of European culture Constable, Goya, Gericault, Delacroix, Daumier, Courbet, Manet were often persecuted. The exhibitions were filled with refined works of the so-called salon artists, that is, who occupied a dominant place in art salons. To please the tastes and demands of bourgeois customers, they cultivated superficial description, erotic and entertaining motives, the spirit of apologetics of bourgeois foundations and militarism.
Back in the 1860s, Karl Marx noted that "capitalist production is hostile to certain branches of spiritual production, such as art and poetry." Art interests the bourgeoisie mainly as either a profitable investment (collecting), or as a luxury item. Of course, collectors met with a true understanding of art and its purpose, but these were very few exceptions to the rule. In general, acting as a trendsetter of tastes and the main consumer of art, the bourgeoisie imposed on artists its limited understanding of art. The development of mass production with its impersonality, relying on the market entailed the suppression of creativity... The division of labor in capitalist production cultivates the one-sided development of the individual and deprives labor itself of creative integrity. Speaking about the hostility of capitalism to art, Marx and Engels did not mean in general the impossibility of artistic progress in the 19th and 20th centuries. In their writings, the founders of scientific communism praised the achievements, for example, critical realism of the 19th century.
The democratic line of art, revealing the role of the people as the driving force of history and affirming the aesthetic values \u200b\u200bof the democratic culture of the nation, goes through a number of stages of development. At the first stage, from the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794 to 1815 (the time of the national liberation struggle of peoples against Napoleonic aggression), the exploitative essence of bourgeois society was not yet fully realized. Democratic art is formed in the struggle against the remnants of the noble artistic culture, as well as against the manifestations of the limitations of bourgeois ideology. The highest achievements of art at this time were associated with the revolutionary pathos of the masses, who believed in the victory of the ideals of freedom, equality and brotherhood. This is the heyday of revolutionary classicism and the emergence of romantic and realistic art.
The second stage, from 1815 to 1849, falls on the time of the establishment of the capitalist system in most European countries. In the advanced democratic art of this stage, the transition to a decisive criticism of the exploitative essence of bourgeois society is taking place. This is the period of the highest flowering of revolutionary romanticism and the addition of the art of critical realism.
With the sharpening of the class contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, which reached its climax during the Paris Commune (1871), the antagonism between the reactionary bourgeois and democratic cultures became even stronger. At the end of the 19th century, criticism of the capitalist structure, both in literature and in works of art, was carried out from the standpoint of the growing worldview of the revolutionary proletariat.
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Holland. 17th century. The country is experiencing an unprecedented heyday. The so-called "Golden Age". In the late 16th century, several provinces of the country achieved independence from Spain.
Now the Prostane Netherlands went their own way. And Catholic Flanders (present-day Belgium), under the wing of Spain, is its own.
In independent Holland, religious painting became almost useless. The Protestant Church did not approve of the luxury of decoration. But this circumstance "played into the hands" of secular painting.
Literally every inhabitant of the new country woke up to love this art form. The Dutch wanted to see their own life in the pictures. And the artists willingly went to meet them.
Never before have they portrayed the surrounding reality so much. Ordinary people, ordinary rooms and the most ordinary city dweller's breakfast.
Realism flourished. Until the 20th century, it will be a worthy competitor to academism with its nymphs and Greek goddesses.
These artists are called "small" Dutch. Why? The paintings were small in size, because they were created for small houses. So, almost all of Jan Vermeer's paintings are no more than half a meter high.
But I like the other version better. In the Netherlands in the 17th century, a great master, the "big" Dutchman, lived and worked. And all the others were "small" in comparison with him.
We are talking, of course, about Rembrandt. Let's start with him.
1. Rembrandt (1606-1669)
Rembrandt. Self-portrait at the age of 63. 1669 National Gallery of London
Rembrandt has experienced a wide range of emotions during his life. That is why there is so much fun and bravado in his early works. And there are so many difficult feelings in the later ones.
Here he is young and carefree in the painting The Prodigal Son in a Tavern. On my knees is my beloved wife Saskia. He is a popular artist. Orders flow like a river.
Rembrandt. The prodigal son in the tavern. 1635 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden
But all this will disappear after some 10 years. Saskia will die of consumption. Popularity will dissolve like smoke. Big house with a unique collection will be taken away for debts.
But the very Rembrandt will appear, which will remain for centuries. Bare feelings of heroes. Their innermost thoughts.
2. Frans Hals (1583-1666)
Frans Hals. Self-portrait. 1650 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Frans Hals is one of the greatest portrait painters of all time. Therefore, I would also rank him among the "big" Dutch.
In Holland at that time it was customary to order group portraits. This is how many similar works appeared, depicting people working together: shooters from the same guild, doctors from the same town, managing a nursing home.
In this genre, Hals stands out the most. After all, most of these portraits looked like a deck of cards. People with the same expression are sitting at the table and just looking. Huls was different.
Look at his group portrait of St. George ”.
Frans Hals. Arrows of the guild of st. George. 1627 Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
Here you will not find a single repetition in posture or facial expression. Moreover, there is no chaos here. There are many characters, but nobody seems superfluous. Thanks to the amazingly correct placement of the figures.
And in a single portrait, Khals surpassed many artists. His patterns are natural. People from high society in his paintings are devoid of contrived greatness, and models from the lower classes do not look humiliated.
And his characters are also very emotional: they smile, laugh, gesture. For example, this is "Gypsy" with a sly look.
Frans Hals. Gypsy. 1625-1630
Hals, like Rembrandt, ended his life in poverty. For the same reason. His realism went against the tastes of the customers. Who wanted to embellish their appearance. Khals did not go to outright flattery, and thus signed his own sentence - "Oblivion".
3. Gerard Terborch (1617-1681)
Gerard Terborch. Self-portrait. 1668 Mauritshuis Royal Gallery, The Hague, Netherlands
Terborch was a master of the genre of genre. The rich and not so burghers talk leisurely, the ladies read the letters, and the pimp watches the courtship. Two or three closely spaced figures.
It was this master who developed the canons of the everyday genre. Which will then be borrowed by Jan Vermeer, Peter de Hooch and many other "small" Dutchmen.
Gerard Terborch. A glass of lemonade. 1660s. State Hermitage, St. Petersburg
A Glass of Lemonade is one of Terborch's famous works. It shows another advantage of the artist. Incredibly realistic image of the dress fabric.
Terborch also has unusual works. Which speaks of his desire to go beyond the requirements of customers.
His "Grinder" shows the life of the poorest people in Holland. We are used to seeing cozy courtyards and clean rooms in the paintings of "small" Dutchmen. But Terborch dared to show the unsightly Holland.
Gerard Terborch. Grinder. 1653-1655 Berlin State Museums
As you can imagine, such works were not in demand. And they are a rare occurrence even in Terborch.
4. Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)
Jan Vermeer. Artist's workshop. 1666-1667 Museum of Art History, Vienna
What Jan Vermeer looked like is not known for certain. It is only obvious that in the painting "The Artist's Workshop" he depicted himself. Truth from the back.
Therefore, it is surprising that a new fact from the life of the master has recently become known. It is associated with his masterpiece "Delft Street".
Jan Vermeer. Delft street. 1657 Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
It turned out that Vermeer's childhood passed on this street. The house depicted belonged to his aunt. She raised her five children in it. Perhaps she is sitting on the doorstep with sewing, and her two children are playing on the sidewalk. Vermeer himself lived in the house opposite.
But more often he depicted the interior of these houses and their inhabitants. It would seem that the plots of the paintings are very simple. Here is a pretty lady, a wealthy city dweller, checking the work of her scales.
Jan Vermeer. Woman with weights. 1662-1663 National Gallery of Art, Washington
How did Vermeer stand out among thousands of other "small" Dutchmen?
He was the consummate master of light. In the painting "Woman with Scales", light softly envelops the heroine's face, fabrics and walls. Giving the picture an unknown spirituality.
And also the compositions of Vermeer's paintings are carefully verified. You will not find any unnecessary details. It is enough to remove one of them, the picture "crumbles", and the magic will go away.
All this was not easy for Vermeer. Such an amazing quality required painstaking work. Only 2-3 paintings per year. As a result, it is impossible to feed the family. Vermeer also worked as an art dealer, selling works of other artists.
5. Peter de Hooch (1629-1684)
Peter de Hooch. Self-portrait. 1648-1649 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Hoha is often compared to Vermeer. They worked at the same time, there was even a period in the same city. And in one genre - everyday. At Hoch we also see one or two figures in cozy Dutch courtyards or rooms.
Open doors and windows make the space of his paintings multi-layered and entertaining. And the figures are inscribed in this space very harmoniously. As, for example, in his painting "A maid with a girl in the courtyard."
Peter de Hooch. A maid with a girl in the yard. 1658 London National Gallery
Until the 20th century, the Hoch was highly prized. But the few works of his competitor Vermeer, few people noticed.
But in the 20th century, everything changed. Hoh's glory faded. However, it is difficult not to recognize his achievements in painting. Few people could combine the environment and people so competently.
Peter de Hooch. The card players in the sunny room. 1658 Royal Art Collection, London
Note that in a modest house, the canvas "Card Players" hangs a picture in an expensive frame.
This once again shows how popular painting was among ordinary Dutch people. Pictures adorned every house: the house of a rich burgher, and a modest city dweller, and even a peasant.
6. Jan Steen (1626-1679)
Jan Steen. Self-portrait with a lute. 1670s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Jan Steen is perhaps the funniest "little" Dutchman. But loving morality. He often depicted taverns or poor houses in which vice was prevalent.
Its main characters are revelers and ladies of easy virtue. He wanted to entertain the viewer, but latently warn him against a vicious life.
Jan Steen. A mess. 1663 Museum of Art History, Vienna
Sten also has quieter works. Like, for example, "Morning Toilet". But here, too, the artist surprises the viewer with too frank details. There are traces of elastic in stockings, and not an empty chamber pot. And somehow the dog is lying right on the pillow.
Jan Steen. Morning toilet. 1661-1665 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
But despite all the frivolity, Sten's color schemes are very professional. In this he excelled many "small Dutchmen". See how a red stocking goes well with a blue jacket and a bright beige rug.
7. Jacobs van Ruisdael (1629-1682)
Ruisdael's portrait. Lithograph from a 19th century book.