|
Indepth Arts News:
"FIRST INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION DEVOTED TO PAINTINGS OF
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY DUTCH MASTER GERRIT DOU"
2000-04-16 until 2000-08-06
National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC,
USA United States of America
The first international loan exhibition devoted to the illusionistic and refined
paintings of Gerrit Dou, one of the most esteemed Dutch artists of his time, will be on view in the Dutch
Cabinet Galleries in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, 16 April-6 August 2000.
Comprising 34 works, Gerrit Dou (1613-1675): Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, covers the
artists career from his early days as Rembrandts first pupil through his service as respected head of an
influential painting school four decades later. After opening in Washington, Gerrit Dou will travel to
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 6 September-19 November 2000, and the Royal Cabinet of Paintings
Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands, 9 December 2000-25 February 2001.
Shell Oil Company Foundation, on behalf of the employees of Shell Oil Company, is proud to make
possible this presentation to the American people.
Greatly admired and highly valued in his day, but less appreciated by late-nineteenth, and
early-twentieth-century critics, Dou has been rightfully restored to prominence in recent decades, said
Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. We are grateful to Shell Oil Company Foundation
for its long history of support of Gallery exhibitions.
We are delighted to help bring this exhibition to the National Gallery of Art, said Steven Miller,
chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Shell Oil Company. This continues a proud tradition of
collaboration between Shell and the National Gallery of Art that spans fifteen years.
Gerrit Dou (1613-1675): Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt is the third in a series of exhibitions
funded by Shell Oil Company Foundation to explore the Gallerys rich collection of Dutch and Flemish
art. Previous exhibitions in this series include, From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art
(1999) and A Collectors Cabinet (1998). Other Shell sponsored exhibitions at the Gallery have included
Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller (1996), Piet Mondrian: 1872-1944 (1995), and the Age of Bruegel:
Netherlandish Drawings in the Sixteenth Century (1986).
Among Dous celebrated views of daily life are depictions of mothers and children, scholars, musicians,
astronomers, schoolmasters, shopkeepers, and painters in their studios. Created with characteristic
attention to detail and interest in illusion, these small, and refined images incorporate symbolic elements
reflecting the complexity of lifes moral and ethical dilemmas. They reflect a level of craftsmanship that
was the measure against which many of Dous contemporaries were judged.
Gerrit Dou, whose last name is pronounced Dow and who is often referred to in art histories as
Gerard, was born in Leiden, a lively cultural and intellectual Dutch city. He studied first with his father, a
glass painter, and then for three years with young Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) in the masters early
Leiden period.
Staying on in his native city, Dou established the Leiden school of fijnschilders (fine painters), whose
style was widely admired and emulated. His small-scale paintings, marked by expert draughtsmanship,
elegant color and finish, skillful use of light and shadow, and careful attention to detailed accuracy,
attracted an international clientele that purchased his work for high prices.
Highlights of the exhibition include Painter with Pipe and Book (c. 1645), a trompe loeil masterpiece
in which a curtain has been drawn aside to reveal the contemplative subject peering out from a window, and
Dous most ambitious work, The Quack (1652), a moralizing image of a charlatan hawking his medicinal
wares to a small group, with the artist himself looking on from a nearby window. Among the most
compelling, intimate paintings of interiors are The Young Mother (1658) and Lady at Her Toilet (1667),
distinguished by brilliant colors, dramatic light, and refined technique.
The candlelit, mysterious The Night School (1665) and the elegant, seductive Woman at the Clavichord
(1665) demonstrate how Dous meticulous style and careful arrangements of light and dark draw
spectators into compelling narrative scenes. The Hermit (1670), from the National Gallerys collection, a
complex composition of a lone figure praying in the wilderness, reflects Dous interest in the virtues of
piety and devotion. Several self-portraits, showing the painter in his studio surrounded by objects and
tools of his trade, invite viewers to ponder the place of artists in society.
Gerrit Dou is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Dulwich Picture Gallery,
London, in association with the Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, The Hague. The curators of the
exhibition are Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings at the National Gallery of
Art, and guest curator Ronni Baer,The Mrs. Russell W. Baker Curator of European Painting at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
A fully illustrated catalogue was written by Baer, with contributions by Annetje Boersma, a Dutch
conservator, and Wheelock, who also served as editor. It is available for $27.50 (softcover) and $55
(hardcover) in the Gallery Shops. To order by phone, call (301) 322-5900 or (800) 697-9350.
The exhibition in Washington is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the
Humanities.
Related Links:
| | 
|
