The Paintings Of the Golden Age
Painting of this era could typically be classified in the following ways:
- Historical
- Portraiture (individual persons and groups)
- Landscape and cityscape
- Genre painting & scenes of everyday life.
- Still life
Many paintings were Allegories, in which painted objects conveyed symbolic meaning about the subject, were often applied. For instance, a still life might include a skull, an hourglass and a snuffed out candle, symbols which all emphasized mortality. A glass sphere in a painting meant a connection with the spiritual world, a white porcelain jug was a love potion, while a lemon the antidote to the potion. Seasons were often indicated by human activities that were typical for that time of the year such as skating, sowing, or harvesting. A great many paintings often had a moralistic message hidden under the surface, with an open window indicating a moral choice to made.
My Favorite Painters
The number of Dutch painters over this particular hundred year period was truly startling, click here for just the names of those who appeared in records for this period alone.
I love the paintings of this age, I believe they are incredible and beautiful in their detail, composition, their use of light. I can loose myself in one painting for hours just playing in the shadows and light, exploring the room, or scene or wandering through the minds of those depicted. To really appreciate these paintings you have to set aside some quiet time and just sit and look, and look, and look. Below are my most loved painters, the ones whose works have touched me and enthralled me the most.
Rachel Ruysch (born 1664, died 1750)
 She was born in The Hague, but moved to Amsterdam when she was three. Her father Frederik Ruysch, a famous anatomist, and botanist, was appointed there as a professor. At fifteen Ruysch was apprenticed to Willem van Aelst, a prominent Delft painter, known for his flower paintings. She married in 1693 to a portrait painter, Juriaen Pool with whom she had ten children. In 1706 Ruysch was invited to Düsseldorf to serve as court painter to Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. She remained there from 1708 until the prince's death in 1716.. After she returned to Holland, Ruysch kept painting for her prominent clients. Ruysch was also noted for her paintings of detailed and realistic crystal vases. Ruysch lived eighty-five years and her dated works establish that she painted from the time she was a young woman until she was an octogenarian. About a hundred paintings by her are known. The background of the paintings are usually dark. Ruysch died in Amsterdam in 1750 at the fine old age of 86.,
Judith Leyster (born 1610, died 1660)
 Leyster was born in Haarlem as the eighth child of Jan Willemsz Leyster, a local brewer and clothmaker. By 1633, she was a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, one of only two women who gained entrance into the group. Within two years of her entry into the guild, she had taken on three male apprentices. Records show that Leyster sued Frans Hals for stealing one of her students who had left her workshop not three days after he arrived. In 1636, she married Jan Miense Molenaer, a more prolific, though less talented, artist. In hopes of better economic prospects, they moved to Amsterdam, where the art market was far more stable. They remained there for eleven years; they had five children, only two of which survived to adulthood. Most of Leyster's dated works are from 1629-1635, which coincides with the period before she had children. They eventually moved to Heemstede where in 1660 Leyster died at the age of 50.
Jan Steen
 Jan Steen was born in Leiden, where his wealthy, Catholic family had run the tavern ‘The Red Halbert’ for three generations. Jan Steen attended the Latin school in Leiden. He received his painting education from Nicolaes Knupfer (1603-1660), a German painter of historical and figurative scenes in Utrecht and influences of Nicolaes Knupfer can be found in Steen's use of composition and colour. In 1648 Jan Steen joined the Sint Lucas Guild of painters at Leiden, but soon after became an assistant to renowned landscape painter Jan van Goyen and moved into his house on the Bierkade in The Hague. On Oct 3, 1649 he married van Goyen's daughter Margriet, with whom he would have seven children. Steen worked with his father-in-law until 1654, when he moved to Delft, where he ran brewery ‘De Roscam’, but he was unsuccessful in this venture. In 1670, after the death of his wife in 1669 and his father in 1670, Steen moved back to Leiden, where he stayed the rest of his life. In April 1673 he married again, with Maria van Egmont, who gave him another child. In 1674 he became president of the Sint Lucas Guild. He died in Leiden in 1679 and was interred in a family grave in the Pieterskerk, Leiden.
Jan van Goyen
Jan van Goyen studied art in the town of Haarlem. At age 35, he established a permanent studio at Den Haag. Most painters of the 17th century fell into one of four categories, a painter of portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, or genre. Dutch painting was highly specialized and rarely could an artist hope to achieve greatness in more than one area in a lifetime of painting. Jan van Goyen would be classified primarily as a landscape artist with a particular eye for the subjects of everyday life. He painted many of the canals in and around Den Haag as well as the towns and villages surrounding countryside of Delft, Rotterdam, Leiden, and Gouda. Goyen’s particular skill was to grind out a colour collection of neutral grays, umbers, ocher and earthen greens that looked like they were pulled from the very soil itself, it was a most uncanny technique. He would use a varnish oil medium as a suspending medium to grind his powered pigments into paint. He would then apply thin layers of paint which he could easily blend. The lighter areas of the picture were treated heavier and opaque with a generous amount of white lead mixed into the paint. He would show light falling on the painting in a light section which is then reflected back at the viewer with a startling result that is almost three dimensional.
List Of Dutch Master Painters
|
