(6) Netherlands: Notable Artists (and their Art)

1556 - 1626 - Adrian de Vries (All Facts)

• Dutch Sculptor

• He worked with bronze

• He was frequently employed by General Wallenstein, the Duke of Friedland and Mecklenburg

• He died and was buried in Prague

1622 - 1654 - Carel Fabritius (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He was a student of Rembrandt’s, but eventually left his workshop

  • He was considered the most gifted of Rembrandt’s students

• He had just finished painting his self-portrait (depicted on the front) when an explosion of a gunpowder factory destroyed a quarter of the town of Delft, he being among its victims

1642 - Carel Fabritius: The Raising of Lazarus (All Facts)

1591 - 1656 - Dirck Hals (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He produced scenes of people playing backgammon

1596 - 1656 - Jan van Goyen (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He was a landscape artist who perfected the art of conveying subtleties of atmosphere

• He had considerable influence on younger artists

1640s - 1670s - Delft School (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age painting school / school of painters based in the namesake city

• Its artists favored images of domestic life, views of households, church interiors, courtyards, squares and the streets of the city

• The movement began with Carel Fabritius and Nicolaes Maes in the 1640s followed by Pieter de Hooch and Johannes Vermeer in the 1650s

1609 - 1660 - Judith Leyster (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

  • She was the daughter of a brewery owner

• She was admitted to the Painters’ Guild of St. Luke in Haarlem

  • This was extremely rare for her time

  • Her admission reflects the Dutch Republic’s openness and tolerance at the time

• She showed a great talent from an early age as a painter of domestic scenes, portraits, and still life

• Many of her subjects recalled those of Frans Hals, who was her teacher and quite his equal

  • While her critics said that she imitated her teacher Hals too closely, she sued Hals for taking one of her apprentices for himself

1629 - Judith Leyster: The Serenade (All Facts)

1629 - Judith Leyster: The Jolly Toper (All Facts)

• Depicts a man laughing over his glass of wine

1633 - Judith Leyster: A Game of Cards (All Facts)

1582 - 1666 - Frans Hals (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

1664 - Frans Hals: Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse (All Facts)

1610 - 1668 - Jan Miense Molenaer (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

1629 - Jan Miense Molenaer: Two Boys and a Girl Making Music (All Facts)

1606 - 1669 - Rembrandt (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He was best known for his series of self-portraits, which spanned a period of 40 years and stood out as his greatest masterpieces

• He left Leyden for Amsterdam for a fashionable center where intended to paint portraits, spurred on by his prior success

  • He first made his name in the city with his group portrait, “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp”

  • For the longest time, he was the most popular and most wealthy portrait painter in Amsterdam

  • At one point he was declared bankrupt and all his goods were put up for sale, which obviously shocked the city

    • His four-story house, where he lived and worked for 20 years, was put in the name of his son Titus, was put up for sale, along with his entire art collection

  • He (eventually) gave up painting the burghers of Amsterdam for religious subjects and landscapes and this “personal” work lost him many patrons

    • His problems were compounded by the cost of his collection

• His wife was named Saskia, who was painted in some of his paintings, but she died 26 years before him

  • They had a son named Titus

  • Under his wife’s will, he could not marry again or he had to forfeit her estate

  • His second companion, Hendrickje Stoffels, who was once his maid, had borne him a daughter, who took charge of her affairs jointly with Titus, his son

  • He outlived his son Titus and his second companion and mistress Hendrickje Stoffels

• He defied the dictates of fashion to pursue his artistic genius

• He died in solitude and in poverty

1631 - Rembrandt: Scholar at a Window (All Facts)

1632 - Rembrandt: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (All Facts)

• Depicts the namesake doctor, a physician who gave his namesake lecture, watched by a group of fascinated students

• Painting which gave the namesake painter his first taste of fame in Amsterdam

1642 - Rembrandt: The Night Watch (All Facts)

• Depicts the militia company of Captain Frans Banning-Cocq

• Depicts Cocq’s 18 guards with their pikes

• The namesake painter, instead of paying the guards 100 guilders each as was typical for the day, agreed to vary the sum according to the degree of visibility of each man, as he was painting the guards shrouded in the shadow

• The painting’s admirers said it made other militia portraits “look like playing cards”

1661 - Rembrandt: Conspiracy of Claudius Civilus (All Facts)

• Work which was the namesake painter’s most important commission up to that point

• Work which was on a gigantic canvas, roughly 5.5 square yards

1662 - Rembrandt: The Syndics of the Draper’s Guild (All Facts)

1602 - 1670 - Salomon von Ruisdael (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

  • He was the uncle of Jacob von Ruisdael

1660 - Salomon von Ruisdael: Beach at Egmond aan Zee (All Facts)

1613 - 1675 - Gerrit Dou (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

1665 - Gerrit Dou: A Woman Playing a Clavichord (All Facts)

1632 - 1675 - Johannes Vermeer / Jan Vermeer (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He was a member of the “Delft School” as he was from Delft, and helped Delft gain pre-eminence in Dutch Golden Age Painting

  • He was born in Delft and never left his native town throughout his life

  • There, he met and influenced quite heavily the up-and-coming painter Pieter de Hooch

  • There, he and de Hooch raised “genre painting” to a fine art

• His work is characterized by

  • the richness and serenity of his rendering of domestic interiors of Dutch houses and the scenes of domestic life going on within them

  • scenes associated with music, which appeared to be his favorite subject

• His work is characterized by

  • his paint, which gives a translucent glow to every object on the canvas

  • his colors, especially his blues, which are of an incomparable richness

    • his golden calms are also excellent

• Most of his work shows the interior of the house on the main square where both he and his father worked as art dealers

1655 - Johannes Vermeer: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (All Facts)

1658 - Johannes Vermeer: The Milkmaid (All Facts)

1659 - Johannes Vermeer: Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (All Facts)

1661 - Johannes Vermeer: View of Delft (All Facts)

1662 - Johannes Vermeer: Woman with a Water Jug (All Facts)

1664 - Johannes Vermeer: Woman with a Pearl Necklace (All Facts)

1665 - Johannes Vermeer: Girl with a Pearl Earring (All Facts)

1670 - Johannes Vermeer: The Lacemaker (All Facts)

1672 - Johannes Vermeer: The Guitar Player (All Facts)

1675 - Johannes Vermeer: Girl with a Flute (All Facts)

1626 - 1679 - Jan Steen (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

  • He was born in Leiden but painted awhile in Delft as a member of the “Delft School” before returning to Leiden

• He co-founded the “Leiden Guild”

• He excelled at genre paintings of social and domestic scenes

1629 - 1679 - Pieter de Hooch (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He was a member of the “Delft School” as he was from Delft, and helped Delft gain pre-eminence in Dutch Golden Age Painting

  • There, he met Johannes Vermeer and Carel Fabritius

  • He raised “genre painting” to a fine art

  • He later moved to Amsterdam

• He was heavily influenced by Johannes Vermeer, which the namesake’s own work reflects

• His work is characterized by

  • scenes of the intimacy of comfortable middle-class homes with welcoming atmospheres

  • scenes in courtyards or rooms with swaggering soldiers playing cards or drinking with women

  • the richness and serenity of his rendering of domestic interiors of Dutch houses and the scenes of domestic life going on within them

1618 - 1680 - Peter Lely (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

  • He moved to and settled in London

• He was known for his portraits

  • Among his finest works are 13 portraits of the English admirals who fought in the Second Anglo-Dutch War

• He was court painter to King Charles II of England

  • He also worked for King Charles of England and Oliver Cromwell as well

  • He was thus employed by King Charles, King Charles II, and Oliver Cromwell of England

  • He was thus a man of broad sympathies

1617 - 1681 - Gerard ter Borch (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He was a genre and portrait painter

• He specialized in genteel interior scenes

• His best compositions rivaled that of his contemporary Vermeer

• He died in Deventer

1628 - 1682 - Jacob von Ruisdael (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

  • He was the nephew of Salomon von Ruisdael

• He excelled in county landscapes and seascapes

• He died in Haarlem

1610 - 1685 - Adriaen van Ostade (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He was known for his farmyard and low-life scenes

1642 - Adriaen van Ostade: A Barn Interior with a Slaughtered Pig (All Facts)

1634 - 1693 - Nicolaes Maes (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter and Co-Founder of the Delft School

1655 - Nicolaes Maes: Young Woman Peeling Apples (All Facts)

1656 - Nicolaes Maes: Woman Plucking a Duck (All Facts)

1633 - 1707 - Willem van de Velde the Younger (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

1665 - Willem van de Velde the Younger: Dutch men-o'-war and other shipping in a calm (All Facts)

1638 - 1709 - Meindert Hobbema (All Facts)

• Dutch Golden Age Painter

• He was best known for his landscapes, which concentrate on sunlit, summery representations of nature

• He was the leading student of Jacob von Ruisdael

• His work was as popular in England (Britain) as it was in Holland (the Netherlands)

1663 - Meindert Hobbema: Road on a Dyke (All Facts)

1689 - Meindert Hobbema: The Avenue at Middelharnis (All Facts)