This is the third part of a continuing series on the current show of Dutch masterpieces at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. One of the world's best private collections of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, including masterworks by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Gerrit Dou, Jan Steen and others, is currently be on view, a show is so complex and intriguing that it's well worth an in-depth report.
Frederik Duparc, former director of the Mauritshuis museum in Holland, who put the original show together with some help in Salem from the Peabody Essex's Karina Corrigan, calls it, with good reason, "the most important and most beautiful collections of Dutch and Flemish art in the world brought together after World War II."
Prosperous Dutch Burghers: As the Dutch merchant class became ever more powerful and prosperous, they demanded art that reflected their social status. Portraiture became a genre a genre that ranked only below history painting in the traditional hierarchy of subject matter. The most famous painting in this section is Rembrandt's 1632 portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh. (The Van Otterloos bought a half-share of the painting at a 2000 London auction for $28.7 million and completed full acquisition of it in 2005.)
Only twenty-six years old when he made it, Rembrandt had just moved from his native Leiden to Amsterdam, where he quickly emerged as the city's premier portrait painter. Rembrandt knew the sitter; he was living in her cousin’s house, and two years later, another one of her cousins would become his wife. In this early work, we see the empathy combined with attention to detail that made him, for a while, the most popular portrait painter in Amsterdam.
Another attention grabbing standout is from his one-time partner Jan Lievens who is represented by his luminous portrait of a girl in profile. Her skin has a pearly sheen and her spun gold hair floats across the dark background.
The Art of Daily Life: A room full of genre paintings shows how charming and fresh they were before the theme became overworked. The daily lives of the rich and poor became a new subject for painting during the Dutch Golden Age. Themes of love, family and home were often represented in comical well as serious mode. In Sleeping Man Having His Pockets Picked by Nicolaes Maes, one of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils, a woman deftly picks the pockets of a sleeping man while coyly inviting the viewer's silence. Metsu's Old Woman Eating Porridge evokes frugality, modesty and simple Dutch piety. Gerrit Dou's elderly woman eats a bowl of porridge while her cat keeps her company at her feet. Painted with careful attention to detail, the simple interior speaks of virtue and modesty.
Allegories of Myth and Morality: Intrigued by new translations of ancient Greek myths, many Dutch artists incorporated classical imagery in their work. In Aelbert Cuyp’s monumental canvas Orpheus Charming the Animals, one of the glories of the Van Otterloo collection, a very blond Dutch Orpheus plays the violin for an enchanted menagerie of animals. Enticed by his music, an assembly of animals and surrounding trees listens to the Greek god Orpheus, whose mother, Calliope, was the muse of epic poetry. The presence of an elephant, an ostrich, two tigers and a camel – animals that would have been considered exotic – reminds us that the seventeenth century also saw the rise of cabinets de curiosités, or curiosity cabinets, which housed collections of objects ranging from natural history to antiquities, and which served as forerunners to museums. The two charmingly overstuffed tigers at the forefront of the painting look like they've eaten a bit too much Dutch cheese for two more plump and innocuous specimens would never be found in the real world.
to be continued tomorrow.. Still life, land and water.
Visiting the Legion of Honor
Address: Lincoln Park, 34th Avenue and Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94121
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 9:30 am–5:15 pm; closed on Monday
Admission: $10 adults; $7 seniors; $6 youths 13–17 and students with college I.D; Members and children 12 and under are free; General admission is free the first Tuesday of every month
There is a surcharge for some special exhibitions
Information: legionofhonor.org; 415.750.3600
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