Tweet exchange on Ask a Curator Day on Twitter
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Update 6/5/2012
A conversation on Twitter with the Wallace Collection:
new Post: Rediscovering an interest in 17th Century Dutch Paintings - at a gallery near you http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/17th-century-dutch-paintings-golden-age.html Tot ziens!
Wallace Collection
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The Lacemaker by Caspar Netscher
(taken at the Wallace Collection on 7th April 2012)
I was in the Netherlands Amsterdam Amsterdam have remained with me and I can still “spot” Dutch influences in Scotland at Culross, Preston Mill and the East Neuk of Fife . Similarly the trade between East Anglia and the Low Countries has an influence on landscapes and buildings. On 10th April BBC Radio3 Nightwave discussed landscape with Alexandra Harris contributing similar thoughts about Dutch influence on landscape culture in England
Just as my peripheral vision can pick up the Shard in London Harlem ’. This is a painting of a large church and town centre scene in Harlem in the Netherlands
Indeed a search in the National Gallery website is accessible and many of the paintings, once found, have a description. The National Gallery owes much of the collection to King George IV and Robert Peel. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/
The Gallery also has a trail round some of the Dutch paintings where it is possible to zoom into some of the images. This can make some paintings more accessible depending on the type of vision you may have.
Many of us with sight loss can make out something and these finely drawn paintings of the 17th Century allow me, with my peripheral vision, to get some idea of the painting while those with “tunnel vision” can often identify much of the detail. I have written down some names, but be careful in copying and pasting into searches on the internet. There are a few lists on the Internet but with Dutch names both the first name and the surnames have changed over the years.
Johannes Vermeer
Rembrandt van Rijn
Esaias van de Velde
Frans Hals
Jan van der Heyden
Jacob van Ruisdael
Jan Steen
Pieter de Hooch
Willem van de Velde the Younger
Caspar Netscher
Gerard ter Borch
Aelbert Cuyp
Adam Frans van der Muelen
David Teniers the Younger
Ludolf Backhuyzen
Meindert Hobbema
Johannes Lingebach
Hendrick ten Oevers
Adrian van de Velde
Some of the problems in resolving the Dutch, Flemish, French and English search terms can be avoided with this very useful website for those interested in Dutch and Flemish Art. It copes with the language divide in Belgium: http://www.codart.nl/index/
However, there is another problem with some art definitions. Netherlandish is the term often used (see my post on Hieronymus Bosch) then Flemish Art is used for the period of Spanish occupied South Netherlands or Flanders . Dutch is often used for North Netherlands, especially the Calvinist provinces which went on to gain independence and form the Kingdom of The Netherlands
It may be helpful to check out a list of Dutch artists and spellings. Also, if you have access to some collections on the internet, it is worth searching for a Facebook gallery and trying to enlarge the image. This sometimes works with a high resolution image. For a history of Dutch Painting I have found this link to the famous Boijmans museum in Rotterdam
A few days after the National Gallery talk, I visited Kenwood House in Hampstead, London UK
I also saw a painting by Albert Cuyp. (http://www.englishheritageprints.com/cuyp_view_of_dordrecht_j910518/print/517505.html)
This shows a scene in Dordrecht Buckingham Palace , National Gallery of Scotland as well as institutions in Frankfurt, Amsterdam , Rotterdam and New York
I mentioned to my friend Jackie as we made our first visit to the newly refurbished Wallace Collection galleries that optics was a new technique for painters to use in art and sharp lines were just about discernible to me. Sure enough the gallery notes at the Wallace mentioned that some painters used lenses to fine tune details!
The refurbishment of the Wallace Collection gallery of Dutch Paintings is worth visiting with an hour or so to spare. There are 3 rooms on the first floor and a lift is available if needed. I am still “scanning” the huge Boucher paintings on the stairway and remembered that Zoffany had copied the style early in his career. In each of the galleries there are notes and if a friend, or even another person, is around to read out these notes, they describe the painting if you can make out the detail.
Me by View of the Westerkerk, Amseterdam by Jan van der Heyden
(taken at the Wallace Collection on 24th March 2012)
It is important to realise that viewing the collection is not the same as in a conventional gallery. This is quite literally a collection - as the painting of Zoffany (Lawrence Dundas) shows. We asked one of the attendants if it was OK to take a photograph and having been told that it was (No flash), Jackie took one of me with a painting on either side and a view of the paintings on their own. I even took my first photograph since I lost my sight. Jackie politely told me that she must have moved, but I treated the phone as a viewfinder and must have moved myself but I am thinking of getting a camera so that I can snap my own things.
Me standing by Ships in a Calm by Willem van de Velde
(taken at the Wallace Collection on 24th March 2012 )
We had a short discussion with the attendant on duty and I must have been talking about the paintings of Cuyp in Dordrecht
Two weeks later I took another friend to visit the Wallace collection and we spent more time on the Dutch Galleries and had a more detailed look at the larger Dutch pictures in the Great Hall. In walking back via the Bonington pictures of French scenes with boats and harbours, I admired these as much as when I first noticed them. In the bookshop a selection of the black and white catalogues are on sale. These are a bargain as the monochrome photographs often give a clearer and sharper image of the painting. The text does indicate the colours used and provides a more academic study of the genre. I have often found that some descriptions are not easily matchable with a colour image.
TIP: There is a lot of construction in London ’s West End . Many buses are on diversion and it may be easier if taking a bus going south bound from the north to get off in Wigmore Street and get to Machester Square. If a bus is diverted in the north direction then Portman Square is navigable, though take care in crossing Baker Street at any time, any place and anywhere!
Books mentioned:
Dutch Painting by Christopher Brown, Phaidon (1993) (ISBN 978 0 7148 2865 7)
Van Dyck at the Wallace Collection by Jo Hedley (1999) (ISBN 0900 785 64 0)
The Wallace Collection – Catalogue of Pictures Volume IV - Dutch and Flemish (1992) (ISBN 0900 785 38 1)
Aelbert Cuyp Edited by Arthur K Wheelock Jr. (2002) (ISBN 0 89468 286 5)
Dutch Landscapes by Desmond Shawe-Taylor (2010) (ISBN 978 1 905686 25 4)
