The images and themes of Dutch artists of the Golden Age are examined in the Yale University Art Gallery's new exhibition, "Holland of the Imagination: Dutch Prints and Drawings of the 16th and 17th Centuries."
The exhibition features more than 50 prints and drawings, including 15 etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn and works by Jacob de Gheyn II, Esias and Willem van de Velde, Willem Buytewech, Adriaen van Ostade and others.
Though Holland measures only 200 miles in any direction and its flat, non-arable land is mostly below sea level, the country was the preeminent power in Europe in the 17th century. At that time, Dutch merchant ships ruled the seas, Dutch banks were the envy of the world and Dutch citizens enjoyed both a higher standard of living and a higher literacy rate than any other European nation, according to the exhibition's organizers, Susan Boorsch, curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the gallery; Bryan Wolf, professor of American studies and English; and Christopher Wood, professor of the history of art.
At the same time, they note, there were wars, religious and regional conflicts, tensions among social classes and concerns about the number of immigrant workers swelling the ranks of the underclass.
Dutch artists, however, created a vision of a nation unified by its landscape, its people and its traditions by celebrating the flatness of the landscape, the pleasures of everyday life and the glories of a sometimes imagined past, say the organizers.
Boorsch, Wolf and Wood have grouped the works on view by subject. Among the works in the section "Labor and Trades" are engravings based on drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder titled "Big Fish Eat Little Fish" and "Prudence." A section on "Peasant Life" includes images of a simple and unexpectedly ordinary Holy Family's flight into Egypt. Scenes of windmills, cows and farmhouses are included in the "Landscape" group, which also features several well-known images by Rembrandt: "The Three Trees," "Landscape with Three Gabled Cottages Beside a Road" and "The Goldweigher's Field."
A section on "National Iconographies" explores how Dutch artists were particularly drawn to the Old Testament as the model for their new nation, which had been recently emancipated from the Hapsburg empire. The final section of the exhibit, "The Culture of Art," takes as its subject the making of art and includes artists' self-portraits -- including three by Rembrandt from different times of his life -- and scenes of artisans at work.
In conjunction with the exhibit, there will be "Art à la Carte" talks by two of the exhibition's organizers. Wood will speak on "How the Dutch Saw the World" on Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 12:20 p.m., and Wolf will discuss "Holland of the Imagination" on Wednesday, Jan. 30, also at 12:20 p.m. In addition, a symposium titled "Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe: The Dutch Experience" will take place at the Whitney Humanities Center Feb. 1 and 2. Further information on this event can be obtained by calling (203) 432-0673 or (203) 432-0670.
The Yale University Art Gallery, located at Chapel and York streets, is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (with extended hours on Thursday to 8 p.m.), and Sunday, 1-6 p.m. Admission is free. An entrance for persons using wheelchairs is located at 201 York St., with an unmetered parking space nearby on York Street. For recorded general and program information, call (203) 432-0600 or visit the gallery's website at www.yale.edu/artgallery.
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