This is part four of a series on the current show of Dutch masterpieces at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The show is complex and intriguing, presenting the viewer with work that represents a wide range of important 17th century themes.
Still Life: A Tabletop World: Balancing composition with moral symbolism, the Dutch artists filled their canvases with meticulous observations of the natural world, while combining bouquets of blossoms that never bloomed in the same season. They also gloried in presenting, in exquisite detail, representations of the new luxuries brought by prosperity and their widening mercantile empire - Dutch cheese, French wine, Baltic grain, South American tobacco and Asian porcelain and pepper, exotic art, jewels, sea shells and even exotic animals.
Painters and viewers of still life presented their compositions as microcosms reflective of the macrocosms made by God. A close look at the flower paintings and other still lifes shows their moral message, a memento morti in the spine of the sea shells painted by Coorte, a warming against vanity in the wilting leaves and flowers tucked among the glossy bouquets painted by Bosschaert and Rachel Ruysch
Land and Water; Water and the sea were of crucial importance in Dutch life. The sea has historically been both adversary and ally. The Dutch used to repel foreign invaders by deliberately piercing river dikes. However, if not for the extensive waterworks, 65 percent of the Netherlands would be flooded permanently. The Dutch take great pride in their struggle against the sea and reclaiming of land, which they view as mastery over nature.
Dutch artists were the first to paint the sea in its own right—a reflection of the importance of water to the nation's psyche. Precise depictions of ships and atmospheric rendering of the weather often characterize maritime views. The fertile landscape was similarly a favorite new subject. Cloud-filled skies billowing over a narrow stretch of earth or sea emphasize the flat horizons for which the Netherlands is known.
Also on display in this gallery is the painting that launched the van Otterloos’ Dutch and Flemish collection: Jan van Goyen’s River Landscape with Peasants in a Ferryboat.
But even the Protestant Dutch could not resist the pull of Italy. The final large landscape in the exhibit is Jan Both’s Italianate Landscape with Travelers on a Path. Owing to its size, this fantasy landscape has never hung in the van Otterloos’ home. It shows the influence of Both’s visit to Italy, as well as his fondness for the light-infused work of French artist Claude Lorrain, a Both contemporary. Travelers pause on a path in an Arcadian idyllic landscape, illuminated by a Mediterranean sun whose golden warmth is far from the luminous silvery grey light of Holland.
How to pick the standout pieces? There are so many. Each room is painted a deep rich color from a golden tan at the beginning of the exhibit to a glossy Venetian red in the last gallery. The paintings are not only well hung but also superbly lit which is always a challenge with dealing with works of this nature, some of which are under glass and all are highly varnished. The Van Otterloo's have also kept the original (mostly black) frames of the period. This might come as a visual shock for those more accustomed to contemporary white walls and unobtrusive frames but the eye soon gets used to it and it feels "right." The wall texts are informative and the exhibit is accompanied by a comprehensive cataloge.
As exemplars of an unsurpassed period of artistic, cultural, scientific and commercial accomplishment, the paintings in the Van Otterloo collection provide an impecably oganized and beautifully presented overview of one of the high points of Western European art.
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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