Holland. 17th century The country is experiencing unprecedented prosperity. The so-called "Golden Age". At the end of the 16th century, several provinces of the country achieved independence from Spain.

Now the Protestant Netherlands went their own way. And Catholic Flanders (now Belgium) under the wing of Spain - its own.

In independent Holland, almost no one needed religious painting. 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 love for this type of art. The Dutch wanted to see their own life in the pictures. And the artists willingly went to meet them.

Never before has the surrounding reality been depicted so much. Ordinary people, ordinary rooms and the most ordinary breakfast of a city dweller.

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 paintings by Jan Vermeer 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, a “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 had a chance to experience the widest range of emotions during his life. Therefore, in his early works there is so much fun and bravado. And so many complex feelings - in the later ones.

Here he is young and carefree in the painting “The Prodigal Son in the Tavern”. On her knees is Saskia's beloved wife. He is a popular artist. Orders are pouring in.

Rembrandt. The prodigal son in the tavern. 1635 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden

But all this will disappear in some 10 years. Saskia will die of consumption. Popularity will disappear like smoke. A large house with a unique collection will be taken away for debts.

But the same Rembrandt will appear, which will remain for centuries. The naked feelings of the characters. Their most secret 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 commission group portraits. So there was a lot of similar works depicting people working together: shooters of the same guild, doctors of 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 sit at the table with the same expression on their faces and just look. Hals was different.

Look at his group portrait "Arrows of the Guild 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. At the same time, there is no chaos here. There are many characters, but no one seems superfluous. Thanks to the surprisingly correct arrangement of figures.

Yes, and in a single portrait, Hals surpassed many artists. His models are natural. People from high society in his paintings are devoid of far-fetched grandeur, and models from the bottom do not look humiliated.

And his characters are very emotional: they smile, laugh, gesticulate. Like, for example, this "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 customers. Who wanted to embellish their appearance. Hals did not go for 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 domestic genre. Rich and not very burghers talk slowly, ladies read letters, and a procuress watches courtship. Two or three closely spaced figures.

It was this master who developed the canons of the domestic genre. Which will then be borrowed by Jan Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch and many other "small" Dutch.

Gerard Terborch. A glass of lemonade. 1660s. State Hermitage Museum, 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 fabric of the dress.

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 inhabitants of Holland. We are used to seeing cozy courtyards and clean rooms in the pictures of the “small” Dutch. But Terborch dared to show unattractive Holland.

Gerard Terborch. Grinder. 1653-1655 Berlin State Museums

As you understand, 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 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

What Jan Vermeer looked like is not known for certain. It is only obvious that in the painting "Artist's Workshop" he depicted himself. True 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 "Street of Delft".

Jan Vermeer. Delft street. 1657 Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

It turned out that Vermeer spent his childhood on this street. The house pictured belonged to his aunt. She raised her five children there. She may be sitting on the doorstep sewing while 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" Dutch?

He was an unsurpassed master of light. In the painting “Woman with Scales”, the light gently envelops the face of the heroine, fabrics and walls. Giving the image an unknown spirituality.

And the compositions of Vermeer's paintings are carefully verified. You will not find a single extra detail. It is enough to remove one of them, the picture will “crumble”, and the magic will go away.

All this was not easy for Vermeer. Such amazing quality required painstaking work. Only 2-3 paintings per year. As a result, the inability to feed the family. Vermeer also worked as an art dealer, selling works by other artists.

5. Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684)

Peter de Hooch. Self-portrait. 1648-1649 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Hoch is often compared to Vermeer. They worked at the same time, there was even a period in the same city. And in one genre - household. In 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 fit into this space very harmoniously. As, for example, in his painting "Servant with a girl in the yard."

Peter de Hooch. Maid with a girl in the yard. 1658 London National Gallery

Until the 20th century, Hoch was highly valued. But few people noticed the few works of his competitor Vermeer.

But in the 20th century, everything changed. Hoch'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. Card players in the sun room. 1658 Royal Art Collection, London

Please note that in a modest house on the canvas "Card Players" there is a picture in an expensive frame.

This once again speaks of how popular painting was among ordinary Dutch. Pictures adorned every house: the house of a wealthy burgher, a modest city dweller, and even a peasant.

6. Jan Steen (1626-1679)

Jan Stan. Self-portrait with a lute. 1670s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Jan Steen is perhaps the most cheerful "small" Dutchman. But loving moralizing. He often depicted taverns or poor houses in which vice was found.

Its main characters are revelers and ladies of easy virtue. He wanted to entertain the viewer, but implicitly warn him against a vicious life.

Jan Stan. Chaos. 1663 Art History Museum, Vienna

Stan 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 stocking gum, and not an empty chamber pot. And somehow it’s not at all the way the dog lies right on the pillow.

Jan Stan. Morning toilet. 1661-1665 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

But despite all the frivolity, Stan's color schemes are very professional. In this he surpassed many of the "small Dutch". See how the red stocking goes perfectly with the blue jacket and bright beige rug.

7. Jacobs Van Ruysdael (1629-1682)

Portrait of Ruisdael. Lithograph from a 19th century book.

Dutch culture in the 17th century

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 (after the name of 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 sections of the urban population, but the bourgeoisie, which came to power, took advantage of its conquests.
Liberation from the yoke of Spanish absolutism and the Catholic Church, the destruction 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 did the urban population prevail over the rural, but the main source profits were not industry (although textile production and especially shipbuilding were developed here), but intermediary trade, which expanded due to colonial policy. As the ruling classes became richer, 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 era were alive. The breadth of the national liberation movement, the rise of the self-consciousness of the people, the joy of liberation from the foreign yoke united the most diverse sections of the population. The country has developed conditions for the development of sciences and arts. The advanced thinkers of that time, in particular the French philosopher Descartes, found refuge here, and the fundamentally 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 create democratic and realistic art that directly reflects 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 not only of representatives of the ruling elite of society, but also of poor burghers, artisans, and 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 competed fiercely with each other. Few of them could feed themselves by painting, many took on a variety of jobs: Sten was an innkeeper, Hobbema was an excise official, Jacob van Ruysdael 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 their view 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 feudal philanthropist - the artist was completely dependent on the demands of the market. The tastes of bourgeois society predetermined the paths of development of Dutch art, and the artists who opposed them, defending their independence in matters of creativity, found themselves isolated, dying untimely in need 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 the Dutch artists was the surrounding reality, which had never before been so fully reflected in the works of painters of other national schools. Appeal to the most diverse aspects of life led to the strengthening of realistic tendencies in painting, the leading place in which was occupied by the everyday genre and portrait, landscape and still life. The more truthfully, the deeper the artists reflected the real world that opened before them, the more significant their works were.
Each genre had its own branches. So, for example, among the landscape painters there were marine painters (depicting the sea), painters who preferred views of flat places 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 domestic life, hunting scenes and markets; there were masters of church interiors and various types of still lifes - “breakfasts”, “desserts”, “shops”, etc. The features of the limitations of Dutch painting affected, narrowing 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 worked in various genres.
The formation of realistic Dutch painting took place in the struggle against the Italianizing trend and mannerism. Representatives of these trends, each in their own way, but purely outwardly, borrowed the techniques of Italian artists, deeply alien to the traditions of national Dutch painting. At an early stage in the formation of Dutch painting, covering the years 1609-1640, realistic tendencies were more clearly manifested in the portrait and everyday genre.

Landscape of Holland

The principles of the Dutch realistic landscape took shape during the first third of the 17th century. Instead of conditional canons and idealized, imaginary nature in the paintings of the masters of the Italianizing direction, 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 motifs of the national landscape, but also 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 representatives of the Dutch realistic landscape was Jan van Goyen (1596-1656). He worked in Leiden and The Hague. The favorite motifs of the artist Jan van Goyen in his small landscapes: valleys and the water surface of wide rivers with cities and villages on their banks on gray, cloudy days. A lot of space (about two-thirds of the picture) Jan van Goyen left the sky with swirling clouds saturated with moisture. Such is the painting “View of the Vaal River near Nijmegen” (1649, Moscow, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), sustained in a thin brown-gray range of colors.
A special kind of landscape depicting animals, pastures with cows, sheep was created by Paul Potter (1625-1654). 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, the still life, which was distinguished by an intimate character, became widespread in Holland in the 17th century. Dutch artists chose a wide variety of objects for their still lifes, they knew how to perfectly compose them, to reveal the features of each object and its inner life, inextricably linked with human life.
Dutch painters of the 17th century Pieter Claesz (circa 1597 - 1661) and Willem Heda (1594-1680/1682) painted numerous variants of "breakfasts", depicting hams, ruddy buns, blackberry pies, fragile glass goblets half-filled with wine, with amazing skillfully conveying the color, volume, texture of each item. The recent presence of man is palpable in the disorder, the accidental arrangement of things that have just served him. But this disorder is only apparent, since the composition of each still life is carefully thought out and found. A discreet greyish-gold, olive tonal range unifies the subjects and gives 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, the painters Claes and Heda give way to the “desserts” of the Dutch artists Abraham van Beijeren (1620/1621-1690) and Willem Kalf (1622-1693). Beieren's still lifes are strict in composition, emotionally rich, colorful. Willem Kalf throughout his life painted in a free manner and democratic "kitchens" - pots, vegetables and still lifes, aristocratic in 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, the still life follows the same paths as all Dutch art, losing its democracy, its spirituality and poetry, its charm. Still life turns into a decoration of the home of high-ranking customers. With all the decorativeness and skill of execution, late 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 to converge with the aesthetic views of the French nobility, lead to the idealization of artistic images, their refinement. Art is losing ties with the democratic tradition, losing its realistic basis and entering a period of long decline. Strongly exhausted in the wars with England, Holland is losing its position as a great trading power and the largest artistic center.

French art of the 17th century

In the French art of the 17th century, the ideas about man and his place in society, generated by the time of the formation of centralized monarchies in Europe, found the most complete reflection. The classical country of absolutism, which ensured the growth of bourgeois relations, France experienced an economic boom and became a powerful European power. The struggle for national unification against feudal self-will and anarchy helped to strengthen the high discipline of the mind, the sense of responsibility of the individual for his actions, and interest in state problems. The philosopher Descartes developed the theory of will, proclaiming the dominance of the human mind. He called for self-knowledge and the conquest of nature, considering the world as a rationally organized mechanism. Rationalism became a characteristic feature of French culture. By the middle of the 17th century, a national literary language had developed - it affirmed the principles of logical clarity, accuracy and a sense of proportion. In the work of Corneille and Racine, the French classical tragedy reached its apogee. In his dramas, Molière recreates the "human comedy". France was experiencing the heyday of national culture, it is no coincidence that Voltaire called the 17th century "great".
French culture of the 17th century was formed in the conditions of the establishment of absolutism. However, its diversity and inconsistency determined a broad movement for national unification. It found vivid responses to the sharp social conflicts that accompanied the birth of a new society. In the first half of the 17th century, the foundations of the state were shaken by peasant and city uprisings, a large democratic movement of the parliamentary Fronde. On this basis, utopias were born, dreams of an ideal society based on the laws of reason and justice, and free-thinking criticism of absolutism. The development of French art in the 17th century went through two stages, coinciding with the first and second half of the century.

Art of Western Europe in the 18th century

The eighteenth century in Western Europe is the last stage of the long transition from feudalism to capitalism. In the middle of the century, the process of primitive 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 carried out. A civilized society arose, a periodical press appeared, political parties were formed, a struggle was going on for the emancipation of man from the shackles of a feudal-religious worldview.
In the visual arts, the importance of a directly realistic depiction of life increased. The sphere of art expanded, it became an active spokesman for liberation ideas, filled with topicality, fighting spirit, denounced the vices and absurdities of not only feudal, but also the emerging bourgeois society. It also put forward a new positive ideal of an unfettered 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 national, appealed not only to the circle of refined connoisseurs, but to a broad democratic environment.

The main trends in the social and ideological development of Western Europe in the 18th century manifested themselves unevenly in different countries. If in England the industrial revolution that took place in the middle of the 18th century consolidated the compromise between the bourgeoisie and the nobility, then in France the anti-feudal movement had a more massive character 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 the primary untouched Nature and the Mind that protects it, with its criticism of the modern corrupted civilization and the dream of the harmony of benevolent nature and a new democratic civilization, gravitating towards the natural condition.
The eighteenth century is the age of Reason, all-destroying skepticism and irony, the age of philosophers, sociologists, economists; the exact natural sciences, geography, archeology, history, and materialistic philosophy, connected with technology, developed. Invading the mental life of the era, scientific knowledge created the foundation for accurate observation and analysis of reality for art. Enlighteners proclaimed the goal of art to imitate nature, but ordered, improved nature (Didero, A. Pope), cleared by reason from the harmful effects of a man-made civilization created by an absolutist regime, social inequality, idleness and luxury. The rationalism of the philosophical and aesthetic thought of the 18th century, however, did not suppress the freshness and sincerity of feeling, but gave rise to a striving for proportionality, grace, and harmonious completeness of the artistic phenomena of art, from architectural ensembles to applied art. Enlighteners attached great importance in life and art to feeling - the focus of the noblest aspirations of mankind, a feeling that longs for purposeful action, containing a force that revolutionizes life, a feeling capable of reviving the primordial virtues of a “natural person” (Defoe, Rousseau, Mercier), following natural laws. nature.
Rousseau's aphorism "A man is great only in his feelings" expressed one of the remarkable aspects of the social life of the 18th century, which gave rise to an in-depth, refined psychological analysis in a realistic portrait and genre, the lyrical landscape is imbued with poetry of feelings (Gainsborough, Watteau, Bernay, Robert) "lyrical novel", " poems in prose" (Rousseau, Prevost, Marivaux, Fielding, Stern, Richardson), it reaches its highest expression in the rise of music (Handel, Bach, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Italian opera composers). On the one hand, “little people” became the heroes of artistic works of painting, graphics, literature and theater of the 18th century - people, like everyone else, placed in the usual conditions of the era, not spoiled by prosperity and privileges, subject to ordinary natural movements of the soul, content with modest happiness. Artists and writers admired their sincerity, naive immediacy of the soul, close to nature. On the other hand, the focus is on the ideal of an emancipated civilized intellectual man, generated by the enlightenment culture, analysis of his individual psychology, conflicting mental states and feelings with their subtle nuances, unexpected impulses and reflective moods.
Acute observation, a refined culture of thought and feeling are characteristic of all artistic genres of the 18th century. Artists sought to capture everyday life situations of various shades, original individual images, gravitated towards entertaining narratives and enchanting spectacle, sharp conflicting actions, dramatic intrigues and comedic plots, sophisticated grotesque, buffoonery, graceful pastorals, gallant festivities.
New problems were also put forward in architecture. The importance of church building has decreased, and the role of civil architecture has increased, exquisitely simple, updated, freed from excessive impressiveness. In some countries (France, Russia, partly Germany) the problems of planning the 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, the synthetic perception and completeness 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 intensified in them. The subject of a special cult was the art of everyday life, decorative forms. 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 modification of late baroque forms into the decorative rococo style. The originality of the art of the first half of the 18th century - in 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 elegant intimacy, restrained lyricism, on the other hand, gravitating towards the “philosophy of pleasure”, towards fabulous images of the East - Arabs, Chinese, Persians. Simultaneously with Rococo, a realistic trend developed - for some masters it acquired a sharply accusatory 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 1760-1770s. 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 genre with plots borrowed from Roman history. They were called upon to emphasize the greatness of the monarchy, which had lost its authority, in accordance with the reactionary interpretation of the ideas of "enlightened absolutism." Representatives of advanced thought turned to the heritage of antiquity. In France, the Comte de Caylus opened the scientific era of research in this area ("Collection of Antiquities", 7 volumes, 1752-1767). In the middle of the 18th century, the German archaeologist and art historian Winckelmann (History of the Art of Antiquity, 1764) urged artists to return to "the noble simplicity and calm grandeur of ancient art, bearing in itself a reflection of the freedom of the Greeks and Romans of the era of the republic." The French philosopher Diderot found plots in ancient history that denounced tyrants and called for an uprising against them. Classicism arose, contrasting the decorativeness of Rococo with natural simplicity, the subjective arbitrariness of passions - knowledge of the laws of the real world, a sense of proportion, nobility of thought and deeds. Artists first studied ancient Greek art at newly discovered monuments. 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. Classicism of the 18th century is characterized by an anti-feudal revolutionary orientation. It was intended to unite the progressive forces of the nation to fight against absolutism. Outside of France, classicism did not have the revolutionary character that it had in the early years of the French Revolution.
Simultaneously with classicism, experiencing its influence, the realistic trend continued to live. Rationalist tendencies were outlined in it: artists sought 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, sincere. A related pre-romantic trend in art arose, and interest in the Middle Ages and folk art forms arose. Representatives of these movements asserted the value of the noble and active feelings of a person, revealed the drama of his conflicts with the environment, prompting him to interfere in real public affairs in the name of the triumph of justice. They paved the way "to the knowledge of the human heart and the magical art of presenting to the eyes the origin, development and collapse of a great passion" (Lessing) and expressed the growing need for agitated, 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 escalated - the progressive democratic and the reactionary bourgeois. Expressing the advanced ideas of the time, the realistic art of the 19th century affirmed the aesthetic values ​​of reality, glorified the beauty of real nature and the working man. The 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 lives. Critical positions determined the basis of the method of realistic art in the 19th century. 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, Honoré Balzac, Henri Stendhal, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy), music (Johann Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Richard Wagner) reaches the highest heights. With regard to architecture and applied arts, after the rise that defined the Empire style, both of these arts are in crisis. There is a disintegration of monumental forms, stylistic unity as an integral artistic system, covering all types of art. The easel forms of painting, graphics, and partly sculpture, which gravitate towards monumental forms in their best manifestations, receive the most complete development.

With national identity in the art of any capitalist country, common features are enhanced: a critical assessment of the phenomena of life, historicism of thinking, that is, a deeper objective understanding of the driving forces of social development, both past historical stages and the present. One of the main achievements of the art of the 19th century is the development of historical themes, in which for the first time the role of not only individual heroes, but also the masses of the people is revealed, and the historical environment is more specifically recreated. All types of portraiture, everyday genre, landscape with a pronounced national character are widely used. The heyday is experiencing satirical graphics.
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 polished works of the so-called salon artists, that is, those who occupied a dominant place in art salons. To please the tastes and demands of bourgeois customers, they cultivated superficial descriptions, erotic and entertaining motives, the spirit of apology for bourgeois foundations and militarism.
As early as the 1860s, Karl Marx remarked that "capitalist production is hostile to certain branches of spiritual production, such as art and poetry." Art interests the bourgeoisie mainly either as a profitable investment (collecting) or as a luxury item. Of course, there were collectors with a true understanding of art and its purpose, but these were few, exceptions to the rules. In general, acting as a trendsetter and the main consumer of art, the bourgeoisie imposed its limited understanding of art on artists. The development of large-scale mass production with its impersonality and reliance on the market entailed the suppression of creativity. The division of labor in capitalist production cultivates a 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 have in mind the general impossibility of artistic progress in the 19th and 20th centuries. The founders of scientific communism praised in their writings the achievements of, for example, the 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 ​​of 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 nobility's artistic culture, as well as against manifestations of the limitations of bourgeois ideology. The highest achievements of art at that time were associated with the revolutionary pathos of the masses, who believed in the victory of the ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity. This is the heyday of revolutionary classicism and the birth of romantic and realistic art.
The second stage, from 1815 to 1849, falls at the time of the establishment of the capitalist system in most European countries. In the advanced democratic art of this stage, a transition is being made to a resolute critique of the exploitative essence of bourgeois society. This is the period of the highest flowering of revolutionary romanticism and the formation of the art of critical realism.
With the aggravation of class contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, reaching its apogee during the Paris Commune (1871), the antagonism between the reactionary bourgeois and democratic cultures is even more pronounced. At the end of the 19th century, criticism of the capitalist way of life, both in literature and in works of fine art, is carried out from the standpoint of the growing worldview of the revolutionary proletariat.

Similar information.

In the 17th century, the Dutch school of painting became one of the leading in Europe. It was here, for the first time in the history of world art, that the objects of the surrounding reality turned out to be a source of creative inspiration and artistic design. In the Dutch art of this time, the formation of a whole system of genres, which began in the Renaissance, was completed. In portraits, everyday paintings, landscapes and still lifes, the artists with rare skill and warmth conveyed their impressions of the surrounding nature and unpretentious life. They reflected the collective image of Holland - a young republic that defended its independence in the war with Spain.

"Morning of a Young Lady" 1660 Frans Miris the Elder. Wood, oil. State Hermitage

Paintings of artists on everyday topics (or genre paintings) depicting a person in a familiar, everyday environment, reflected the established forms of life, behavior and communication of people belonging to various classes of Dutch society. Designed to decorate the interiors of the houses of merchants, artisans or wealthy peasants, the paintings of Dutch artists were small in size. Artists made money by selling paintings that were painted with the possibility of detailed viewing at close range. This, in turn, gave rise to a particularly careful, delicate manner of writing.

Terrace Society. 1620 Esais Van De Velde. Wood, oil. State Hermitage

Throughout the 17th century, Dutch genre painting underwent a significant evolution. In the period of its formation, at the beginning of the century, plots on the themes of recreation, entertainment of young wealthy Dutchmen, or scenes from the life of officers were common. Such paintings were called "banquets", "societies", "concerts". Their painting was distinguished by a variegated color, an elevated joyful tone. The painting "Society on the Terrace" by Esaias van de Velde belongs to the works of this kind.

By the beginning of the 1930s, the formation of the Dutch genre painting was completed. Crowded "societies" gave way to small-figured compositions. The image of the environment surrounding a person began to play an important role. There has been a division of genre painting along social lines: plots on themes from the life of the bourgeoisie, and scenes from the life of peasants and the urban poor. Both those and other paintings were intended to decorate the interior.

"Fight". 1637 Adrian van Ostade. Wood, oil. State Hermitage

One of the most famous artists who worked in the "peasant genre" was Adrian van Ostade. In the early period of creativity, the image of the peasants in his paintings was distinguished by an accentuated comicality, sometimes reaching a caricature. So, in the painting “The Fight”, illuminated by a sharp light, the fighting people seem not to be living people, but puppets, whose faces are like masks distorted by grimaces of malice. The opposition of cold and warm colors, sharp contrasts of light and shadow further enhance the impression of the scene's grotesqueness.

Village Musicians. 1635 Adrian Van De Ostade 1635 Oil on wood. State Hermitage

In the 1650s, there was a change in Adrian Ostade's painting. The artist turned to more calm subjects, depicting a person during habitual activities, most often in moments of rest. Such, for example, is the interior painting “Village Musicians”. Ostade skillfully conveys the concentration of the “musicians” who are carried away by their occupation, depicting children watching them through the window with barely noticeable humor. The variety and softness of the play of light and shade, the greenish-brown color scheme unite people and their environment into a single whole.

"Winter view". 1640 Isaac Van Ostade. Wood, oil. State Hermitage

Adrian's brother, Isaac van Ostade, who died early, also worked in the "peasant genre". He depicted the life of rural Holland, in the nature of which a person felt at home. The painting "Winter View" presents a typical Dutch landscape with a gray sky hanging heavily over the earth, a frozen river, on the banks of which the village is located.

"The patient and the doctor." 1660 Jan Steen. Wood, oil. State Hermitage

The genre theme of the art of the Ostade brothers was continued by Jan Steen, a talented master who, with a sense of humor, noticed the characteristic details of the life and relationships of the characters in his paintings. In the painting “Revelers”, the artist himself looks merrily and slyly at the viewer, sitting next to his wife, who fell asleep after a fun feast. In the film “The Patient and the Doctor”, through the facial expressions and gestures of the characters, Jan Steen skillfully reveals the plot of an imaginary illness.

"A room in a Dutch house". Peter Janssens. Canvas, oil. State Hermitage

In the fifties and sixties of the 17th century, the subject of genre paintings gradually narrowed. The figurative structure of the paintings is changing. They become calmer, more intimate, more lyrical contemplation, quiet thought appear in them. This stage is represented by the works of such artists as: Pieter de Hooch, Gerard Terborch, Gabriel Metsu, Pieter Janssens. Their works embodied a poetic and somewhat idealized image of the everyday life of the Dutch bourgeoisie, who once fought for their rights and independence, and now have achieved sustainable prosperity. So, in the interior painting “A Room in a Dutch House” by Peter Janssens, a cozy room flooded with sunlight is depicted with sunbeams playing on the floor and on the walls, in the painting “The Old Lady by the Fireplace” by Jacob Wrehl, a room with a fireplace immersed in soft twilight is depicted. The choice of composition in the works of both artists emphasizes the unity of man and his environment.

"Glass of lemonade." 1664 Gerard Terborch. Host (translation from wood), oil. State Hermitage

During these years, the Dutch genre painters for the first time tried to reflect in their works the depth of a person's inner life. In everyday life situations, they found an opportunity to reflect the diverse world of the subtlest experiences. But, you can see this only with a careful and careful examination of the picture. So, in Gerard Terborch's painting "A Glass of Lemonade", the subtle language of gestures, touches of hands, and eye contact reveals a whole gamut of feelings and relationships between the characters.

"Breakfast". 1660 Gabriel Metsu. Wood, oil. State Hermitage

The object world begins to play a large role in the genre paintings of this period. It not only characterizes the material and emotional environment of a person's life, but also expresses the diversity of the relationship of a person with the outside world. The set of objects, their arrangement, a complex system of symbols, as well as the gestures of the characters - everything plays a role in creating the figurative structure of the picture.

"Revelers". 1660 Jan Steen. Wood, oil. State Hermitage

Dutch genre painting was not distinguished by a wide variety of subjects. Artists limited themselves to depicting only a certain circle of characters and their occupations. But, with their help, Dutch genre painting was able to convey a reliable image of mores, customs, and ideas about the life of a person in the 17th century.

In preparing the publication, materials from open sources were used.

Having won victory in the struggle against Spain for its independence, bourgeois Holland became the most economically developed state in Western Europe. The main Dutch city of Amsterdam has been defined as one of the largest shopping centers in Europe.

Along with the economy, Dutch painting is also developing. Unlike other Western European countries, baroque paintings of palaces and castles were not popular in Holland - the weakness of the nobility served as an obstacle to the development of decorative art. The Calvinist Church of Holland also did not seek to decorate its temples with paintings.

Nevertheless, painting flourished in Holland: artists received numerous commissions from private individuals. Even Dutch peasants could hang a small picture in their home - these creations of artists were so cheap.

In the 17th century over two thousand artists worked in little Holland. They put the production of paintings on stream, produced canvases in whole batches and handed them over to sellers. Almost every master performed from two to five compositions a week.

Often, the production of paintings outstripped demand, therefore, in order to feed themselves, the artists had to simultaneously do other work. Such well-known masters as J. Sten, M. Gobbema, J. van Goyen and many others were employees, gardeners, and tavern keepers at the same time.

Typically, painters specialized in one particular topic. For example, H. Averkamp painted winter views, E. van der Poel depicted night fires, G. Terborch and G. Metsu - everyday scenes, P. Klas and V. K. Heda - breakfast still lifes.

Very often, artists collectively worked on one picture: one painted the sky, another - grass and trees, the third - human figures. The most successful works that were successful with the public were copied and served as a model for creating countless versions.

Although the art of talented painters was subordinated to commercial purposes, the masters usually managed to avoid falsehood. Most of these canvases are distinguished by their realism, integrity and clarity of composition, freshness of color and excellent technique.

The portrait genre became widespread in Dutch painting. A large role in the life of the country was played by various organizations (shooting society, groups of representatives of the medical corporation and trade shops), which contributed to the emergence of a group public portrait.

The long-term struggle with the Spanish colonialists sharpened the sense of national identity, so in painting, in addition to realism, the depiction of characteristic national features was especially welcomed. Artists painted the sea and ships, cattle, flowers. In addition to the portrait, such genres as landscape and still life developed. There was also religious painting, but there was no element of mysticism in it; biblical stories were presented
the artist rather as domestic scenes.

Frans Hals

Frans Hals was born around 1581 in Antwerp to a weaver's family. In his youth, he came to Haarlem, where he lived almost without a break until his death (in 1616 he visited Antwerp, and in the mid-1630s - Amsterdam). Little is known about Hals' life. In 1610 he entered the Guild of St. Luke, and in 1616 - in the chamber of orators (amateur actors).

Hals quickly became one of the most famous portrait painters in Haarlem. In the XV-XVI centuries. in the painting of the Netherlands there was a tradition to paint portraits only of representatives of the ruling circles, famous people and artists. The art of Khals is deeply democratic: in his portraits we can see an aristocrat, a wealthy citizen, an artisan and even a person from the very bottom. The artist does not try to idealize the depicted, the main thing for him is their naturalness and originality. His nobles behave as uninhibited as the representatives of the lower strata of society, who are depicted in the paintings of Hals as cheerful people, not devoid of self-esteem.

A large place in the painter's work is occupied by a group portrait. The best works of this genre were portraits of officers of the rifle company of St. George (1627) and the rifle company of St. Adrian (1633). Each character in the paintings has its own bright personality, and at the same time, these works are distinguished by their integrity.

Hals also painted custom-made portraits, in which wealthy burghers and their families are placed in relaxed poses (“Portrait of Isaac Massa”, 1626; “Portrait of Hethuisen”, 1637). The images of Hals are lively and dynamic, it seems that the people in the portraits are talking to an invisible interlocutor or are addressing the viewer.

Representatives of the folk environment in the portraits of Hals are distinguished by vivid expressiveness and immediacy. In the images of street boys, fishermen, musicians, and visitors to taverns, one can feel the sympathy and respect of the author. His "Gypsy" is remarkable. A smiling young woman seems surprisingly alive, whose sly look is directed at an interlocutor invisible to the audience. Hals does not idealize his model, but the image of a cheerful, disheveled gypsy delights with her perky charm.

Very often Hals' portraits include elements of the genre scene. These are the images of children singing or playing musical instruments (“Singing Boys”, 1624-1625). In the same spirit, the famous “Malle Babbe” (early 1630s) was performed, presenting the well-known owner of the tavern in Haarlem, whom visitors called the Haarlem witch behind her back. The artist almost grotesquely depicted a woman with a huge beer mug and an owl on her shoulder.

In the 1640s The country is showing signs of a turning point. Only a few decades have passed since the victory of the revolution, and the bourgeoisie has already ceased to be a progressive class based on democratic traditions. The veracity of Hals' painting no longer attracts rich clients who want to see themselves in portraits better than they really are. But Hals did not abandon realism, and his popularity plummeted. Notes of sadness and disappointment appear in the painting of this period (“Portrait of a man in a wide-brimmed hat”). His palette becomes stricter and calmer.

At the age of 84, Hals creates two of his masterpieces: group portraits of regents (trustees) and regents of a nursing home (1664). These last works of the Dutch master are distinguished by emotionality and bright individuality of images. From the images of the regents - old men and women - it breathes sadness and death. This feeling is also emphasized by the coloring, sustained in black, gray and white tones.

Hals died in 1666 in deep poverty. His truthful, life-affirming art had a great influence on many Dutch artists.

Rembrandt

In the 1640-1660s. Dutch painting flourished. The most significant artist of this time was Rembrandt.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in 1606 in Leiden. His father was a wealthy miller. Parents dreamed of a good education for their son and assigned him to a Latin school, after which Rembrandt entered the University of Leiden. But the young man was attracted by art. He left the university and began to study with the painter Jacob Swannenburgh. Three years later, the young artist went to Amsterdam, where he began to take lessons from Peter Lastman.

In 1624 Rembrandt returned to Leiden. Here, together with the painter Jan Lievens, he rented a workshop. The artist works a lot from life, paints not only in the workshop, but also on the street and in the city bazaar.

At the end of the 1620s. Rembrandt gained popularity among the inhabitants of Leiden. He had many orders and the first student - Gerard Dow, who later became a fairly well-known painter.

Rembrandt's early paintings are characterized by meticulous composition and conscientious execution. At the same time, they are characterized by some stiffness (“Torment of St. Sebastian”, 1625).

In 1631 Rembrandt settled in Amsterdam. The fame of him very quickly spread throughout the city, and orders fell on the painter. Rembrandt's personal life was also successful: in 1634 he married Saskia van Uylenburg, a girl from a well-known bourgeois family. The marriage brought the artist a significant fortune, which provided him with creative independence and allowed him to engage in collecting works of art and antiques.

Rembrandt enjoyed happiness in the company of his beloved wife, whom he portrayed many times in portraits. Often, Saskia also served as a model for paintings with a wide variety of subjects (Flora, 1634; Self-portrait with Saskia on her knees, c. 1639).

Rembrandt's work during this period is diverse, he paints historical, mythological and religious compositions, portraits, everyday scenes, landscapes, still lifes, paintings with images of animals. But the main object of his attention is a person. Not only in portraits, but also in his other works, the artist seeks to convey the character and inner world of his characters.

A remarkable master of the portrait genre, only in the 1630s. Rembrandt performed over sixty commissioned portraits. The main thing for the painter is not the external resemblance to the model, but the depth of the inner world, the strength of spiritual movements and experiences. The group portrait "Anatomy of Dr. Tulp" (1632) was greeted with enthusiasm by his contemporaries. The artist made changes to the traditional composition of the classical group portrait, arranging the figures not in a row, as was customary, but freely. This construction gave the image liveliness and naturalness.

At the end of the 1630s. Rembrandt became the most famous master in Holland. His masterpiece belongs to this period - the famous "Danae" (1636), the skill of execution of which surpasses everything that was created by contemporaries.
artist. The perfection of its composition and the richness of the color range, sustained in golden hues, are striking. It seems that there is nothing superfluous in this work, each of its details is carefully thought out by the author. With the help of a free and lively stroke, the master conveys the lightness of the bedspread, the folds of heavy curtains and draperies. The flexible plasticity of a young woman lying on the bed is striking, the soft golden hues of her body illuminated by soft light. Although Danae does not shine with ideal beauty, her image delights the viewer with lively charm and freshness.

In the 1630s the artist also works a lot in etching. He is attracted by everyday motives ("The seller of rat poison", 1632). Elements of genre are also inherent in works with biblical themes (The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1636). One of the best etchings of this period is The Death of Mary (1639), emotional and imbued with a sense of deep sorrow. The remarkable work "Christ Healing the Sick" (the so-called "A sheet of one hundred guilders" - this name indicates the value of the work) is also distinguished by the complexity of the composition and the monumental grandeur of the images.

In the 1640s Rembrandt becomes the most famous and highest paid painter in Amsterdam. He is ordered portraits, compositions for the palace of the Dutch stadtholder in The Hague. Many aspiring artists seek to study in his studio. The fame of Rembrandt's art goes beyond Holland. Several paintings by the famous master are kept in the palace of the English king Charles I.

Rembrandt's talent manifested itself in his realistic and expressive still lifes (The Carcass of a Bull) and landscapes (Landscape with a Mill, c. 1650). Subtle lyricism is inherent in unpretentious Dutch landscapes, striking the viewer with their almost tangible reality.

The death of his beloved wife in 1642 alienated Rembrandt from her noble family. The artist stopped communicating with his acquaintances from aristocratic society. Changes in the life of the master were reflected in his painting, which becomes deeper and more focused. If the early works of Rembrandt are distinguished by a calm and even mood, now notes of anxiety and doubt begin to sound in his paintings. The palette is also changing, dominated by red and golden hues.

The canvas “David and Jonathan” (1642, the Hermitage, St. Petersburg), executed in golden-pink and golden-blue tones, is distinguished by its vivid expressiveness.

All these new features in Rembrandt's painting did not meet with understanding among his contemporaries. Dissatisfaction was caused by a large monumental composition "Night Watch" (1642). This painting received its name in the 19th century. In fact, the action takes place not at night, but during the day, in sunlight, which confirms the nature of the shadows.

Over time, the colors darkened, and only the restoration carried out in 1946-1947 showed that the color scheme of this work was once much lighter.

The painting depicts the riflemen of Captain Banning Cock's company. The customer expected to see a traditional ceremonial portrait (a scene of a feast or a commander presenting his subordinates to the viewer). Rembrandt created the
Roico-historical canvas depicting the performance of the shooters on the orders of the captain. The characters are excited and dynamic; the commander gives orders, the standard-bearer raises the banner, the drummer beats the drum, the arrows load the weapon. Here, it is not clear where the little girl with a rooster at her waist is spinning.

During these years, Hendrikje Stoffels appeared in Rembrandt's life, first a maid, and then his wife, who became his faithful friend and assistant. The artist is still working hard. He creates his famous "Holy Family" (1645), in which the religious theme is treated as a genre. Along with biblical compositions, the painter performs realistic landscapes with images of the village ("Winter View", 1646). His portraits of this period are distinguished by the desire to show the individual features of the models.

In the 1650s the number of orders is significantly reduced. Rembrandt is experiencing great financial difficulties. He is threatened with complete ruin, because the debt associated with the purchase of a house during the life of his first wife Saskia has not yet been paid. In 1656, the artist was declared bankrupt, and his art collection and all his property were sold at auction. The Rembrandt family had to move to the poor Jewish quarter of Amsterdam.

Despite all the hardships, the talent of the great painter does not dry out. But now the criterion of his skill is completely different. In the later works of Rembrandt, colorful strokes appear sharply on the surface of the canvas. Now the colors in his paintings serve not only to convey the external appearance of the characters and the image of the interior - it is the color that takes on the semantic load of the work. Thus, the feeling of intense drama in the painting Assur, Haman and Esther (1660) is created through a complex tonal range and special lighting effects.

Deprived of orders, living in deep poverty, Rembrandt does not stop writing. He creates expressive and spiritual portraits, models for which are relatives and friends (“Portrait of the Artist’s Brother’s Wife”, 1654; “Portrait of an Old Man in Red”, 1652-1654; “Portrait of the Son of Titus Reading”, 1657; “Portrait of Hendrikje Stoffels windows", about 1659).

Son Titus, who finally received the fortune of his deceased mother, is trying to protect his father from material deprivation and create conditions for him to work quietly. But misfortunes continue to haunt the artist: in 1663, Hendrikje dies, and a few years later Titus followed her.

It was at this tragic time that the old lonely artist creates his masterpieces, distinguished by monumental grandeur and spirituality (“David and Uriah”, 1665-1666; “The Return of the Prodigal Son”, ca. 1668-1669).

Rembrandt died in 1669, forgotten by everyone. Only in the XVIII century. his art was finally understood and appreciated.

In the 1640-1660s. the leading genre in Dutch painting was the domestic genre. Pictures depicting the most ordinary moments of reality are surprisingly poetic and lyrical. The main object of attention of painters is a person and the world around him. Most genre compositions are characterized by a calm narrative and lack of drama. They tell about the household chores of the mistress of the house (purchasing provisions, taking care of children, doing needlework), about the entertainment of the Dutch burgher (playing cards, receiving guests, concerts). Artists depict everything that happens in the house of a wealthy city dweller, ignoring the social side of a person's life.

Genre painters were very popular: G. Dow, whose paintings were sold at a very high price, A. van Ostade, who painted scenes of peasant life (“Country Concert”), J. Sten, whose favorite topics were scenes of fun and holidays (“Merry Society” ), G. Terborch, whose elegant painting represented the life of a wealthy burgher family (“A Glass of Lemonade”), G. Metsu with his ingenuous narrative (“Sick Child”), P. de Hooch, who created contemplative-lyrical canvases (“The Mistress and the Servant ").

K. Fabritius, who lived a short life (died in Delft in the explosion of a gunpowder depot), sought to expand the scope of the everyday genre. One of his best works is The Resurrection of Lazarus (c. 1643), which is remarkable for its drama and almost monumental scope. His portraits and self-portraits are also remarkable, putting the artist on a par with F. Hals and Rembrandt.

Tragic is the fate of E. de Fabritius, a talented master of everyday scenes and works depicting church interiors (“Market in the Port”, “Interior with a Woman at the Harpsichord”). The artist did not seek to indulge the tastes of the bourgeois public, so his works, which were not successful with his contemporaries, were sold for pennies. Often Fabritius was forced to give them for debts to homeowners. On a winter night in 1692, the seventy-five-year-old artist, thrown out of his house by his master, hanged himself on the railing of the bridge. A similar fate was characteristic of many Dutch painters who did not want to abandon realistic traditions in favor of the public.

Jan Wermeer of Delft

A prominent representative of Dutch genre painting is Jan Vermeer, nicknamed Delftsky for his place of birth and activity. The painter was born in 1623 in the family of a dealer in paintings and silk. Little is known about Vermeer's life. Perhaps his teacher was K. Fabricius. In 1653, the artist became a member of the Guild of St. Luke and married the daughter of a wealthy citizen, Katherine Bolnes. In Delft, he enjoyed respect and fame, lived in a large house located on the market square.

Vermeer worked on his paintings very slowly and in detail, carefully writing out every detail. Painting could not provide the artist's family with a comfortable existence, although his canvases were very successful. This is probably why Vermeer began to trade in paintings, continuing the work of his father.

Already in the first works of Vermeer, a combination of realism and a certain amount of idealization of images, characteristic of his work, appears (“Diana with the Nymphs”, “Christ with Martha and Mary” - both before 1656). The next work - a large-figure canvas "At the procuress" (1656), written on a plot used by many painters, is distinguished by originality of performance. The artist's ordinary everyday scene acquires an almost monumental significance. The painting stands out among other works with similar themes for its bold coloration, sustained in pure yellow, red, black and white colors, and the bright expressiveness of the images.

Later, Vermeer turned to chamber compositions traditional for Dutch painting. Like other Dutch masters, he depicts events taking place in rich burgher houses. The artist's favorite image is a girl reading a letter or trying on a necklace. His canvases represent ingenuous everyday scenes: a maid gives her mistress a letter, a gentleman brings a glass of wine to a lady. But these paintings, simple in composition, amaze with integrity, harmony and lyricism, their images attract with naturalness and calm poetry.

In the second half of the 1650s. the artist created the most remarkable of his works. Deeply lyrical "Sleeping Girl", "Glass of Wine", "Girl with a Letter" are marked with a warm feeling. Many Dutch painters of this time in their paintings depicted servants busy with work, but only in Vermeer the image of a woman from the people has features of genuine beauty and grandeur (“Servant with a Jug of Milk”).

Vermeer is a real virtuoso in conveying the essence of the world of things with the help of visual means. Still lifes in his paintings are executed with great skill. A dish with apples and plums looks amazingly beautiful and natural, standing on a table covered with a patterned tablecloth in the canvas “Girl with a Letter”.

In the painting “The Servant with a Jug of Milk”, bread and milk, pouring from a jug in a thick stream, delight with its freshness.

Light plays an important role in Vermeer's works. It fills the space of the canvases, creating the impression of extraordinary airiness; models shapes and penetrates paints, making them glow from within. It is thanks to this amount of light and air that a special emotional uplift is created in most of Vermeer's works.

The remarkable skill of the painter manifested itself in landscape painting. A small corner of the city, shrouded in the damp atmosphere of a cloudy day, is reproduced by the clear and simple in composition "Street" (c. 1658). The rain-washed city appears clean and fresh in the painting “View of Delft” (between 1658 and 1660). The sun's rays break through the pale silvery clouds, creating a lot of bright reflections on the surface of the water. The sonorous coloring with its subtle color transitions gives the picture expressiveness and harmony.

In the 1660s Vermeer's painting becomes more refined and elegant. The palette is also changing, which is now dominated by cold colorful shades (“Girl with a Pearl”). The main characters of the canvases are rich ladies and gentlemen surrounded by luxurious items (“Love Letter”, ca. 1670).

Jan Wermeer of Delft. Maid with a jug of milk. Between 1657 and 1660
Jan Wermeer of Delft. Painter's workshop. OK. 1665

In the last period of Vermeer's life, his works become superficial and somewhat far-fetched ("Allegory of Faith"), and the palette loses saturation and sonority. But even in these years, individual works of the artist amaze with their former expressive power. Such is his "Painter's Workshop" (1665), in which Vermeer depicted himself at work, and the paintings "Astronomer" and "Geographer", depicting scientists.

The fate of Vermeer, like many other Dutch masters, is tragic. At the end of his life, the sick artist, who had lost most of his former customers, was forced to move his large family from his former home to a cheaper home. Over the past five years, he has not painted a single picture. The painter died in 1675. His art was forgotten for a long time, and only in the middle of the 19th century. Vermeer was appreciated and put on a par with such Dutch masters as Rembrandt and F. Hals.

During this era, a bourgeois revolution takes place in Holland. It led to a change in outlook and social structure. Now the main customers are burghers. The role of Calvinism, one of the Protestant currents, is growing stronger. Its peculiarity is the rejection of the magnificent decoration of church interiors. As a result, religious subjects became unpopular. In Holland, the so-called. picture market. Products are ordered and sold. The success of an artist is determined by the number of paintings sold.

Within the landscape genre, there were also subsections Marinism Plain landscapes Night or "lunar" landscapes Interiors (secular and ecclesiastical) also stood out in the everyday genre. The animal genre stands separately. Portraits were divided into individual and group.

I. Porcellis. Sea breeze Hermitage Small Dutch

Jan van Goyen's world of nature is the world of everyday life, it is the natural life of meadows and fields, expanses of water, charming rural views. The artist was especially successful in depicting dim cloudy days, humid, foggy air, enveloping the outlines of houses and trees. I. van Goyen. "Summer landscape with a river"

Peter de Hooch. Mistress and maid

G. Metsu. Music lesson e.

I. Stan. "Garden of the inn" Household genre. Scenes from the private life of middle and small burghers, the urban poor and the peasantry, festivities and entertainment. Adrian van Ostade. "A room in a peasant's house"

The Dutch entered the history of world painting as unsurpassed masters of still life (French for “dead nature”). Peter Klas. Breakfast with ham Mr. Willem Heda. Still life with golden goblet

Peter Klas. Breakfast Mr. Willem Heda. Breakfast with Blackberry Pie Mr. Pieter Claesz focused on depicting objects that surround a person in real, everyday life. Willem Kheda preferred to write “interrupted breakfasts”, in which everything reminds of the recent presence of a person (crumpled tablecloth, mixed serving items, food that has barely been touched).

F. Hals. Portrait of a young man with a glove.

Vermeer of Delft - "the greatest magician and wizard of painting" Jan Vermeer (1632 - 1675) was awarded such an elevated assessment during his lifetime. Later, in the middle of the 19th century, he was rightfully considered one of the founders of plein air (fr. plain air - open air) painting, reproducing the slightest changes in the air environment due to sunlight and the state of the atmosphere. "Street". Ok Amsterdam "View of Delft" Ok The Hague

Wermeer of Delft. Lacemaker gg.

I. Vermeer. "Girl with a Letter" Ok Mr.

I. Vermeer. "Girl with a Pearl Earring" Everything is accessible to paints - and wisdom covenants, Vices and goodness, alliances and strife Creates a poet's brush, showing our eyes That inner essence, hidden for sight, That since ancient times has been living our world and all creations. Adrian van de Winne (poet contemporary of J. Vermeer)

"Truth is the most beautiful and rare quality" - became the essence of the work of the greatest Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606 - 1669). He left to his descendants a huge artistic heritage: about 800 paintings and works are evidence of the highest skill and artistic truth.