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Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer
The Dutch Republic in the 17th century was home to one of the greatest flowerings of painting in the history of Western art. Freed from the constraints of royal and church patronage, artists created a rich outpouring of works that circulated through an open market to patrons and customers at every level of Dutch society. The closely observed details of daily life captured in portraits, genre scenes and landscapes offer a wealth of information about the possessions, activities and circumstances that distinguished members of the social classes, from the nobility to the urban poor.
The dazzling array of paintings gathered here--by artists such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch and Gerard ter Borch, as well as Rembrandt and Vermeer--illuminated by essays from leading scholars, invites us to explore a vibrant early modern society and its reflection in a golden age of brilliant painting.
The dazzling array of paintings gathered here--by artists such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch and Gerard ter Borch, as well as Rembrandt and Vermeer--illuminated by essays from leading scholars, invites us to explore a vibrant early modern society and its reflection in a golden age of brilliant painting.
- GenresArtArt History
344 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 23, 2015
For me, this was a rather overly conceptual exhibit. Most certainly, the highlights made the show more than worthwhile, but there were many works which I found quite uninteresting that I think were included just to make a point, and the curator's thesis is not ultimately all that well fleshed out.
The society that gave rise to the Golden era of Dutch painting was one of nascent capitalism, with one of the first large "middle classes"- workers with enough extra money to afford some nonessential possessions, such as a commissioned artwork- usually one that celebrated their profession, and thus themselves and their place in society. Ronni Baer, the curator, presents the paintings in four groups- one depicting the new rich of the emerging capitalist world, the middle class, the poor, and finally a section of works depicting the public sphere in which these groups interacted. Baer's thesis is that the different, emerging classes depict their reality, their sense of themselves and aspirations for themselves within the social order, through the works they commissioned.
For a time, Baer's exhibit is reasonably convincing, if not consistently artistically satisfying. The first section, about the wealthy, is filled with commissioned portraits of big capitalists and their underlings, usually with the wealthy comparing themselves to royalty. While the paintings in this section have some sociological interest provided by the accompanying texts written by Baer, these works are mostly repetitive and, for me, uninspiring. Admittedly, there were a few major exceptions, such as Vermeer's great The Astronomer.
The next section, works commissioned by, and about, the middle class of merchants and skilled laborers, are much more interesting. Isaac Koedijk's The Barber Surgeon depicts a, from a contemporary perspective, gruesome and frightening profession from a neutral, even somewhat celebratory perspective, with magnificent depictions of depth up a staircase in the composition's upper right. My favorite painting in the whole exhibit was Jacob Backer's Half Naked Woman With a Coin. A depiction of a prostitute bearing her breasts and fingering money with a confrontationally unapologetic expression, the work, intentionally or not, seems like a proto-feminist, pro-sex statement. Prostitutes were technically considered part of the lower classes, but they had more money than most merchants and skilled-workers.
The room devoted to the depiction of the lower classes is when the exhibit's concept starts to seem problematic. None of the depictions of low-paid laborers, still less of the destitute, were commissioned by the subject-classes, and either depict the subjects simply as tools for the enrichment of the capitalist-commissioners, such as images celebrating the work of a company where the workers are barely visibly doing the actual work, or as semi-rediculous, semi-menacing drunks and hoboes. Thus, we get no sense of how such people imagined themselves, or any real image of these classes as they actually existed but simplistic, condescending characatures. (And the works are, artistically speaking, simplistic and unsatisfying.) This demonstrates that the least powerful have no way of controlling how they are depicted under capitalism, but that is a rather obvious point to anyone who has ever thought about the social order with any critical distance. It also goes against Baer's assertion that each class had its own aesthetic sub-genre within Dutch painting.
The last group, of different social orders intermingling, had some of the greatest works, such as Jacob Ochtervelt's Street Musicians at the Door, in which a poor family sings in the doorway of a well to do family's home for handouts. The light of the time shines very differently on the homeowners than on their entertainers.
The society that gave rise to the Golden era of Dutch painting was one of nascent capitalism, with one of the first large "middle classes"- workers with enough extra money to afford some nonessential possessions, such as a commissioned artwork- usually one that celebrated their profession, and thus themselves and their place in society. Ronni Baer, the curator, presents the paintings in four groups- one depicting the new rich of the emerging capitalist world, the middle class, the poor, and finally a section of works depicting the public sphere in which these groups interacted. Baer's thesis is that the different, emerging classes depict their reality, their sense of themselves and aspirations for themselves within the social order, through the works they commissioned.
For a time, Baer's exhibit is reasonably convincing, if not consistently artistically satisfying. The first section, about the wealthy, is filled with commissioned portraits of big capitalists and their underlings, usually with the wealthy comparing themselves to royalty. While the paintings in this section have some sociological interest provided by the accompanying texts written by Baer, these works are mostly repetitive and, for me, uninspiring. Admittedly, there were a few major exceptions, such as Vermeer's great The Astronomer.
The next section, works commissioned by, and about, the middle class of merchants and skilled laborers, are much more interesting. Isaac Koedijk's The Barber Surgeon depicts a, from a contemporary perspective, gruesome and frightening profession from a neutral, even somewhat celebratory perspective, with magnificent depictions of depth up a staircase in the composition's upper right. My favorite painting in the whole exhibit was Jacob Backer's Half Naked Woman With a Coin. A depiction of a prostitute bearing her breasts and fingering money with a confrontationally unapologetic expression, the work, intentionally or not, seems like a proto-feminist, pro-sex statement. Prostitutes were technically considered part of the lower classes, but they had more money than most merchants and skilled-workers.
The room devoted to the depiction of the lower classes is when the exhibit's concept starts to seem problematic. None of the depictions of low-paid laborers, still less of the destitute, were commissioned by the subject-classes, and either depict the subjects simply as tools for the enrichment of the capitalist-commissioners, such as images celebrating the work of a company where the workers are barely visibly doing the actual work, or as semi-rediculous, semi-menacing drunks and hoboes. Thus, we get no sense of how such people imagined themselves, or any real image of these classes as they actually existed but simplistic, condescending characatures. (And the works are, artistically speaking, simplistic and unsatisfying.) This demonstrates that the least powerful have no way of controlling how they are depicted under capitalism, but that is a rather obvious point to anyone who has ever thought about the social order with any critical distance. It also goes against Baer's assertion that each class had its own aesthetic sub-genre within Dutch painting.
The last group, of different social orders intermingling, had some of the greatest works, such as Jacob Ochtervelt's Street Musicians at the Door, in which a poor family sings in the doorway of a well to do family's home for handouts. The light of the time shines very differently on the homeowners than on their entertainers.
December 27, 2018
Apart from a terrific collection of XVII century Dutch paintings this book offers a fantastic opportunity to learn about the lives of people of the day. Class is only a part of it though it affects everything greatly. The fact that the Dutch managed to separate the Church and state relatively early compared to other countries, makes them a fascinating bunch. Daily interactions, anecdotes, etiquette and superstitions, choice of clothing and life partner - so much to enjoy here!
August 22, 2022
17th century Dutch paintings are like color photographs from a distant past. So much detail, such realistic depictions of life. I loved the paintings in the book, and the accompanying text was informative too. One complaint is the strange sprinkling of details from paintings among the full paintings which made it harder to find what's what. Still highly recommended.
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February 28, 2016I didn't actually read the whole text. I looked at all the images very carefully. This was the catalogue of an exhibition, plus more analysis and more images. My main quibbles are the fact that identifying information about the images isn't right next to them, and the quality (not always high) of some of the images. It turned out to be possible to see a better (enlargeable) version of some of the paintings online, which helped.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews