Dutch winter landscapes painting paintings. Dutch landscapes by Andreas Schelfhout

On the walls of one of the halls of the Art Gallery in Berlin there are several winter landscapes of the “Little Dutchmen”. Maybe in the summer or spring I would not have lingered near these works, but after the piercing January wind with drizzling rain, from which the gallery walls protected so well, it was the winter scenes that naturally fell on my soul. Artists of the 17th century knew how to see beauty even where it was damp, chilly, and the snow only lightly dusted the road dirt and withered grass. In Art Van der Neer's painting, the focus shifts to the sunset sky. The golden glow competes with the leaden clouds, its reflections enliven the ice, and following the skating people our gaze slides to the horizon:

Hanging nearby is a small canvas by Isaac van Ostade. There is also a wonderful pink sky here. But the bad weather is in earnest, people are ducking under the wind. The boats were frozen in the ice. Both of these landscapes appeared in the mid-17th century, as did the next two works by Jan van Goyen.

One of them depicts winter activities near a tavern, the other depicts ice skating on a frozen canal or lake. The artist is true to himself: he depicts the most ordinary things: a flat landscape, old gnarled trees, an ordinary tavern. People are dressed simply, most often with their backs turned to us. The first landscape is enlivened only by the blue sky peeking through the clouds.

And on the second one there is not even this - everything is in a foggy haze. It was about such canvases that Johan Huizinga wrote: “Naive devotion to the craft allows the landscape painter to discover unexpected possibilities, within which he simply follows the irresistible dexterity of his brush. The rendering of the breadth of space and diffused light did not come from any school. Individual objects are either sharply outlined or immersed in the atmosphere of the picture as a whole. Artists reach the top when they, without any thought of any great style, show only their unheard-of dexterity in depicting the everyday, in which they find treasures of beauty, hardly realizing it all.” / J. Huizinga. Dutch culture in the 17th century. Erasmus. Selected letters. Drawings. SPb., 2009, p.112/

Ice skating is an extremely common motif in 17th century Dutch painting. True, there were no paintings in Berlin by the artist who specialized in this topic - Hendrik Averkamp. Here is his painting from the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. People at the skating rink are dressed smartly. A waving flag is visible on the left. Perhaps some kind of holiday is depicted.

http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/images/aria/sk/z/sk-a-3247.z

On this canvas, as well as on the painting from the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin, people of different classes gathered on the ice, having fun or going about their usual business. In the Moscow painting, in the foreground is a lady in a mask. How can you not think about the hidden meaning? “In the depiction of crowded scenes against the backdrop of a winter landscape, in which people of different ages and social backgrounds participate, moralistic and emblematic interpretations are already a priori assumed, in particular as the “skating rink of life”, as the gliding of people full of surprises and dangers after the ghostly and deceptive luck" / Visible image and hidden meaning. Allegories and emblems in the painting of Flanders and Holland in the second half of the 16th and 17th centuries. M., 2004, p.2/

http://files.smallbay.ru/images9/avercamp_07.jpg

Among the ice skaters, H. Averkamp portrays a dandy balancing on one leg. I came across this image at an exhibition at the Queen's Gallery in London. The exhibition was dedicated to the “Little Dutchmen”. It featured not only paintings, but also drawings. One of the best was a sketch by H. Averkamp:

But let's return to Berlin. At the end of the day, two more winter landscapes, without any entertainment. This is a canvas by Philips Wauwerman with fishermen, peasants carrying brushwood, and a shaky wooden bridge.

After seeing the Dutch winter landscape, you can’t help but think that we are luckier with winter. And in Russian art there is not only an image of winter slush by Vasiliev or Savrasov, but also sunny frosty days by Kustodiev.

The biography of Geisbrecht Leytens was partially restored only in the 20th century.
Came from the city of Antwerp. At first he was an apprentice and studied artistic skills under the guidance of the artist Jacques Vrolik, whose paintings have not been found.
In 1611 he became a painter and member of the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp. From that time on, he had the right to open his own workshop in the city and take on students for training.
The last years of his life are poorly documented. According to various sources, he died either in 1643 or before 1656.

At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, an anonymous artist worked in the Netherlands, conventionally called today the Master of Winter Landscapes, since most of his paintings depict winter. There were attempts to identify him with Denis Alslot , a little-known Dutch landscape painter. But another hypothesis is much more plausible. One of the paintings by the Master of Winter Landscapes has a monogram and the sign of the Antwerp Artists' Guild burned into the back. This monogram made it possible to consider the Antwerp master Geisbrecht Leytens (about 1586 - about 1656) as the author of the painting.

“Winter Landscape” from the Hermitage collection depicts a corner of Dutch nature: squalid huts under spreading trees, ice-covered ground and figures of people engaged in daily labor. The artist was able to see the beauty of an ordinary cloudy evening, when the last rays of the setting sun turn pink on the horizon, the trees cast long shadows, and coldness blows from the frozen surface of the earth. The painter saw the beauty of frost-covered branches, intertwined into an intricate pattern and shrouded in frosty air.
Without dividing the landscape into plans, as previous artists did, the Master of Winter Landscapes builds the space of the picture naturally and holistically, which is facilitated by skillfully used aerial perspective: objects lose their clear outlines and seem to dissolve in the humid air as they move away from the foreground.
The problem of atmosphere, the interaction of space, light and air - everything worried the artist. The sky occupies more than half of the picture - the painter sought to emphasize its relationship with the earth.
Human figures inhabiting the landscape are inextricably linked with nature and constitute its organic part. The bright spots of their clothes add life to the monotonous tone of the picture. Building the color scheme on a combination of delicate bluish-gray and pink tones, the artist showed great pictorial skill. He painted with a thin liquid layer of paint, using either light and transparent glazes or thick strokes when emphasizing individual objects. Sometimes light soil shines through the painting layer.

Gijsbrecht Leytens anticipated in many ways the achievements of Dutch artists of the 17th century, and he was not alone. Without the foundation laid in the 16th century, the brilliant flowering of the art of the subsequent era would not have been possible. Dutch artists began developing realistic genres - portraiture, everyday life, landscape and still life - which were finally formed in the 17th century. They created the first group portraits, anticipating the flourishing of this genre in the works of Hals and Rembrandt, and achieved great success in drawing, composition, construction of space, and improved painting techniques. And most importantly, they decisively turned to reality.

In the exhibition of the Kyiv museum, until recently, this painting was designated as the work of an unknown artist from the circle of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Due to the complete inaccessibility of foreign professional literature, museum workers could not know about the article by the Dutch art expert Petrus Reelik, who published an exquisite winter landscape from his collection back in 1942. On the reverse side of this piece was a monogram of the letters "G" and "L". In the lists of masters of the guild of Antwerp painters - the guild of St. Luke, the researcher found information about the artist, the initial letters of whose name coincided with the monogram. This name is Geisbrecht Leutens. Considering the presence of paintings of similar style in European museums and private collections and the characteristic details of the author’s handwriting indicated by V. Schavinsky, P. Reelik suggested that the Master of Winter Landscapes and Geisbrecht Leytens are the same artist. The researcher expanded the list of authentic works by the master from three indicated by Shchavinsky to eighteen.

In 1973, persistent archival searches and comparative stylistic analysis allowed the German researcher Edith Greindl to name forty-four reliable paintings by the mysterious Master of winter landscapes. However, the facts from the biography of Geisbrecht Leuthens, which the researcher had managed to establish by that time, were extremely scarce. The artist was born in 1586 in Antwerp, studied and was an apprentice with the painter Jacques Vrolik, known only by his first name. In 1611, Geisbrecht Leytens qualified as an independent master in the guild of St. Luke and from 1617 to 1627 had several students in his own atelier. In addition, in the archives of the guild the artist is mentioned as a captain of the civil watch. For final confidence in the identity of the monogrammer “G.L.” and these documented facts were not enough for the Antwerp Master of Winter Landscapes.

And in 1988, in the magazine Die Kunst, the German researcher Ursula Herting published a painting typical in style, “Winter Landscape with a Falconer and a Frozen Stream.” The work was no longer signed with a monogram, but with the full name of the artist - Geisbrecht Leuthens! Meanwhile, in the Kiev museum, where exactly the artist’s painting is kept, with which the return of the name of Geisbrecht Leuthens from oblivion began, nothing was known about the art historical investigation. In 2006, thanks to the international organization of Dutch art researchers (CODART), I was lucky enough to work in one of the most famous art archives in Europe in The Hague. Here I became acquainted with the materials of this long investigation. It turned out, however, that none of the foreign colleagues saw or analyzed the Kiev work. The ownership of this painting - not only without a signature, but also without a monogram - by Geisbrecht Leytens still had to be proven.

Let's take a closer look at our “Winter Landscape”: bare trees of bizarre shape, powdered with the first snow, frozen in icy luxury; gnarled branches tangled into a labyrinth with thousands of bends... There are many birds on the branches. Here you can see jays, hoopoes, and several magpies. A pair of kingfishers on the lower branch seem to be waiting for the moment when the peasant standing nearby on the ice will make an ice hole with a pole and it will be possible to begin underwater fishing.

In most Dutch paintings, such marks have now already been lost due to numerous planing of the base. In this way, the restorers prevented the destruction of the painting by wood-boring beetles. We managed to decipher all the marks of the “Winter Landscape”.

The first - “two palms” - is burned with a red-hot iron mark, belongs to the Antwerp Guild of St. Bows and certifies the quality of the board prepared for painting. The sign itself - “two palms”, which is part of the coat of arms of Antwerp, is associated with a long-standing legend about a giant who cut off the hands of those who did not want to pay taxes while driving past the city along the Scheldt River. According to folk etymology, this is where the name of the city supposedly comes from: Antwerp (in Dutch “hand vrepen”) - “cut off hand”.

The second mark - “castle” - at the next stage of guild control served as confirmation of the quality of the artist’s work. By “quality” in this case, the inspectors understood only the technological properties of the painting and did not concern themselves with assessing the artistic level of the work. The guild also borrowed the “castle” motif from the coat of arms of Antwerp.

The last, third, mark - “stylized plant motif” - is made on the board using a cold method - embossing. This sign belongs personally to the master who made the board, and is almost equivalent to a signature. In addition to the ornamental elements, the stamp contains the initials of the artisan. It is also important that the Kyiv painting has a complete set of hallmarks, which is quite rare and can serve as a standard when compared with other works by Geisbrecht Leutens.

Consequently, it took almost a hundred years to finally solve the mystery of the “Winter Landscape” from the Shchavinsky collection! Finally, the old label in the Khanenko Museum can be changed. Instead of “Unknown artist of the circle of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Beginning of the 17th century." it will soon read: "Geisbrecht Leuthens (1586-1646/56)."

Our article will focus on two artists: Jan van Goyen And Jacob van Ruisdael.

They both lived during the era of the liberation of Holland from foreign yoke, and this was the Golden Age of Dutch painting. It was in the art of Holland that the following genres began to develop: portrait, landscape, everyday life, still life. This was not observed then even in the outstanding centers of art - in Italy or France. Dutch art of the 17th century. became a unique phenomenon in the artistic world of Europe in the 17th century. Dutch masters paved the way for artists from other national European art schools.

Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)

Terborch "Portrait of van Goyen" (c. 1560)

Jan van Goyen is one of the first artists to depict nature naturally, simply, without embellishment. He is the creator of the national Dutch landscape. The nature of his country gave him enough subjects to last his entire life.
Jan van Goyen was born in 1596 in the city of Leiden into the family of a shoemaker.
Although Jan van Goyen spent some time in Paris in his youth, the love of simple landscape was unknown in France, so it is hardly worth talking about any influence of representatives of French painting on his work.
In his homeland he had several painting teachers, but he spent a year only in the workshop of Isaiah van de Velde, and he communicated even less with the other mentors.

Jan van Goyen "Landscape with Dunes" (1630-1635). Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)

Creation

At first, Goyen painted Dutch villages or surrounding areas with their vegetation, then coastal views began to predominate in his paintings, where the sky and water occupied most of the paintings.

Jan van Goyen "View of the River" (1655). Mauritshuis (The Hague)

Trees, huts or city buildings play a secondary role in his paintings, but have a very picturesque appearance, as well as small sailing and rowing ships with figures of fishermen, helmsmen and passengers.
Goyen's paintings are mostly monotonous. The artist loved the simplicity of color, but at the same time his colors were harmonious. He applied the paint in a light layer.

Jan van Goyen "View of the Merwede near Dordrecht (c. 1645). Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)

The artist’s later works are distinguished by an almost monochrome palette, and the translucent soil gives them special depth and unique charm.

Jan van Goyen, Landscape with Two Oaks (1641). Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)

His paintings are pleasant precisely because of their simplicity and realism. The artist created quite a lot of artistic canvases, but his work was not always rewarded in a worthy manner. Therefore, Goyen had to earn money in other ways: he traded tulips, was involved in the assessment and sale of works of art, real estate, and land. But attempts at entrepreneurship usually did not lead to success.

Jan van Goyen "Winter Scene on Ice"

Now his work is appreciated, and any museum considers his paintings to be valuable exhibits.
Several paintings by Jan van Goyen are also in the Hermitage: “View of the river. Maas, near Dortrecht", "Scheveningen shore, near The Hague", "Winter landscape", "View of the river. Maas”, “Village view”, “Landscape with oak tree”, etc.

Jan van Goyen "Landscape with an Oak Tree"

In addition to painting, Goyen was engaged in etching (a type of engraving on metal) and drawing.

In 1632, Goyen and his family moved to The Hague, where he lived until the end of his life - until 1656.

Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/1629-1682)

Jacob Isaacs van Ruisdael was born and died in Haarlem (Netherlands). No exact portraits of him have survived. This portrait is only speculative.
Currently, Ruisdael is considered the most significant Dutch landscape artist, but during his lifetime his talent was not adequately appreciated. His teacher could have been his uncle, the artist Solomon van Ruisdael.
Ruisdael was also a practicing surgeon, working in Amsterdam.

Creation

The artist skillfully conveyed human emotions through the landscape. And for him, any component of the landscape was important: a tree branch bent by a gust of wind, a crushed blade of grass, a thundercloud, a trodden path... And all these components were harmoniously combined in his paintings into a single NATURE.
He wrote in small strokes. He loved to paint forest thickets, swamps, waterfalls, small Dutch towns or villages, and above all this - a triumphant sky. Ruisdael's landscapes are understandable to any person of any nationality, because they express the unity with nature common to all people.
Ruisdael created about 450 paintings. Other sources indicate the number 600. Most of his landscapes are dedicated to the nature of his native Netherlands, but he also painted oak forests in Germany and waterfalls in Norway.

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 have gone their own way. And Catholic Flanders (present-day Belgium) under the wing of Spain is its own.

In independent Holland, almost no one needed religious painting. The Protestant Church did not approve of luxury decoration. But this circumstance “played into the hands” of secular painting.

Literally every resident of the new country awoke to love this type of art. The Dutch wanted to see their own lives in the paintings. And the artists willingly met them halfway.

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 academicism 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. Thus, almost all paintings by Jan Vermeer are no more than half a meter in height.

But I like the other version better. In the Netherlands in the 17th century, a great master, the “big” Dutchman, lived and worked. And everyone else was “small” in comparison with him.

We are talking, of course, about Rembrandt. Let's start with him.

1. Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Rembrandt experienced a wide range of emotions during his life. That's why there's so much fun and bravado in his early work. And there are so many complex feelings - in the later ones.

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

But all this will disappear in about 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 who will remain for centuries. The bare feelings of the heroes. Their deepest thoughts.

2. Frans Hals (1583-1666)

Frans Hals is one of the greatest portrait painters of all time. Therefore, I would also classify him as a “big” Dutchman.

In Holland at that time it was customary to order group portraits. This is how many similar works appeared depicting people working together: marksmen of one guild, doctors of one town, managers of 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 facial expression and just watch. With Hals it was different.

Look at his group portrait “Arrows of the Guild of St. George."

Here you will not find a single repetition in pose or facial expression. At the same time, there is no chaos here. There are a lot of characters, but no one seems superfluous. Thanks to the amazingly correct arrangement of figures.

And even in a single portrait, Hals was superior to many artists. His patterns are natural. People from high society in his paintings are devoid of contrived grandeur, and models from the lower classes do not look humiliated.

And his characters are also very emotional: they smile, laugh, and gesticulate. Like, for example, this “Gypsy” with a sly look.

Hals, like Rembrandt, ended his life in poverty. For the same reason. His realism ran counter to the tastes of his customers. Who wanted their appearance to be embellished. Hals did not accept outright flattery, and thereby signed his own sentence - “Oblivion.”

3. Gerard Terborch (1617-1681)

Terborkh was a master of the everyday genre. Rich and not-so-rich burghers talk leisurely, ladies read letters, and a procuress watches the courtship. Two or three closely spaced figures.

It was this master who developed the canons of the everyday genre. Which would later be borrowed by Jan Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch and many other “small” Dutchmen.

"A Glass of Lemonade" is one of Terborch's famous works. It shows another advantage of the artist. Incredibly realistic image of the dress fabric.

Terborch also has unusual works. Which speaks volumes about his desire to go beyond customer requirements.

His "The Grinder" shows the life of the poorest people in Holland. We are used to seeing cozy courtyards and clean rooms in the paintings of the “small” Dutch. But Terborch dared to show unsightly Holland.

As you understand, such work was not in demand. And they are a rare occurrence even among Terborch.

4. Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)

It is not known for certain what Jan Vermeer looked like. It is only obvious that in the painting “The Artist’s Workshop” he depicted himself. The truth from the back.

It is therefore surprising that a new fact from the master’s life has recently become known. It is connected with his masterpiece “Delft Street”.

It turned out that Vermeer spent his childhood on this street. The house pictured belonged to his aunt. She raised her five children there. Perhaps she is sitting on the doorstep sewing while her two children play 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 operation of her scales.

Why did Vermeer stand out among thousands of other “small” Dutchmen?

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

And the compositions of Vermeer’s paintings are carefully verified. You won't find a single unnecessary detail. It is enough to remove one of them, the picture will “fall apart”, 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 (1629-1884)

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 - everyday. 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 layered and entertaining. And the figures fit into this space very harmoniously. As, for example, in his painting “Maid with a Girl in the Courtyard.”

Pieter de Hooch. A maid with a girl in the courtyard. 1658 London National Gallery

Until the 20th century, Hoch was highly valued. But few people noticed the small 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 so competently combine the environment and people.

Please note that in a modest house on the canvas “Card Players” there is a painting hanging in an expensive frame.

This once again shows how popular painting was among ordinary Dutch people. Paintings decorated every home: the house of a rich burgher, a modest city dweller, and even a peasant.

6. Jan Steen (1626-1679)

Jan Steen is perhaps the most cheerful “little” Dutchman. But loving moral teaching. He often depicted taverns or poor houses in which vice existed.

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

Sten also has quieter works. Like, for example, “Morning Toilet.” But here too the artist surprises the viewer with too revealing details. There are traces of stocking elastic, and not an empty chamber pot. And somehow it’s not at all appropriate for the dog to be lying right on the pillow.

But despite all the frivolity, Sten’s color schemes are very professional. In this he was superior to many “little Dutchmen”. Look how perfectly the red stocking goes with the blue jacket and bright beige rug.

7. Jacobs Van Ruisdael (1629-1882)