Nearly seventy paintings from the internationally acclaimed collection of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo illuminate one of the greatest artistic and cultural chapters in history. The Van Otterloo collection is virtually unrivaled for its masterworks by the leading Dutch and Flemish artists of the 1600s: Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Aelbert Cuyp and many others.
Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo began collecting horse carriages, until they completely filled their New Hampshire barn. So they switched to horse and sporting prints, until about two decades ago, when Peter Sutton, then curator of European painting at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, encouraged them to get into Dutch and Flemish art. It seemed a natural fit for the Marblehead couple -- she a native of Belgium, he a Dutch-born investor and developer who had co-founded the Boston investment firm Grantham, Mayo & Van Otterloo in 1977.
The result is the current exhibit at the Legion of Honor, a jaw dropping, awe inspiring, and mesmerizing display of art and craftsmanship.
The show comes to SF from the Peabody Museum in Salem where it was originally organized in conjunction with the Mauritshuis. Dr. Frederik J. Duparc was the guest curator, and Karina Corrigan, the H. A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art at Peabody Essex, was the coordinating curator. The Legion's curator of European art has followed in their footsteps, hanging a show where every painting is in superb condition.
What made this art possible was a radical change in government. In 1555, the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries came under the control of Philip II of Spain. After a long period of protest against Spanish religious bigotry and intolerance, including the Inquisition's attacks on Protestants, inept governmental dictates from the Spanish court combined with high taxes, the largely Protestant seven northern provinces, rebelled against Spanish rule. Two years later, they declared their independence from Spain and after a long and brutal war, the Dutch finally drove the Spanish out of what is now Holland.
For the new United Provinces, as Holland was then called, the following century would be marked by enormous economic growth fuelled by trade, and by the unprecedented prosperity and cultural flowering known as the Dutch Golden Age.
To be continued
http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/
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