Past Exhibition

Pride of Place

Painted in tones of beige, cream white, and pecan brown with hints of shell pink and faint blue, a few sailboats float in a calm body of water with a harbor and a town deep in the distance along the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up this painting. Rippling gently across the foreground, the water reflects the pale blue sky and blush pink of clouds above. To our left, two masted ships with sails furled have pulled up alongside each other. A smaller boat sails to our right and a few more are spaced sparsely along the waterway leading to the town. Painted as a dense forest of spiky masts, the harbor in the far distance is full of boats along a town that stretches nearly the width of the panel. Tiny in scale, there are a few windmills and slate-gray towers for churches, town halls, and other buildings.
Abraham de Verwer, View of Hoorn, c. 1650, oil on panel, Fund given in honor of Derald Ruttenberg’s Grandchildren, 2008.32.1

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 72 through 77
Painted in tones of beige, cream white, and pecan brown with hints of shell pink and faint blue, a few sailboats float in a calm body of water with a harbor and a town deep in the distance along the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up this painting. Rippling gently across the foreground, the water reflects the pale blue sky and blush pink of clouds above. To our left, two masted ships with sails furled have pulled up alongside each other. A smaller boat sails to our right and a few more are spaced sparsely along the waterway leading to the town. Painted as a dense forest of spiky masts, the harbor in the far distance is full of boats along a town that stretches nearly the width of the panel. Tiny in scale, there are a few windmills and slate-gray towers for churches, town halls, and other buildings.
Abraham de Verwer, View of Hoorn, c. 1650, oil on panel, Fund given in honor of Derald Ruttenberg’s Grandchildren, 2008.32.1

Overview: 49 paintings and 23 maps, prints, and illustrated books by some 40 Dutch artists were shown in this exhibition surveying the tradition of Dutch cityscape painting from its origins in 16th-century maps and city profiles through 17th-century depictions of Dutch cities, including genre paintings of daily life. Jan van Goyen's 15-foot View of The Hague from the Southeast, painted for the town hall of that city, was included in the Washington venue of the exhibition.

Exhibition curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. presented an auditorium lecture, City Views: Pride and Prosperity in the Dutch Golden Age on the opening day of the exhibition. Teacher workshops were held on February 21 and 28. A family weekend, "Weekend in the Dutch Republic," was held on April 25 and 26. A miniature Dutch canal house (conceived by Cookie Ziemba and designed by Peter Mattison), the imagined home of painter Pieter de Hooch, was on display in the Founders Room during the family weekend. A teen studio program, "Painting: Approaches to Perspective," also was held in conjunction with the exhibition. Inspired by the exhibition, concerts of music of the Dutch Golden Age were held during March. The Garden Café served a special menu of Dutch cuisine as Cafè Amsterdam.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Ariane van Suchtelen, curator, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, were exhibition curators.

Sponsor: The exhibition was made possible by Greg and Candy Fazakerley and Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo. It was supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. The exhibition booklet was made possible by Mrs. Henry H. Weldon.

Attendance: 103,046

Catalog: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age by Ariane van Suchtelen et al. The Hague: Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, Washington: National Gallery of Art,and Zwolle: Waanders Publishers, 2008.

Brochure: Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age by Henriette de Bruyn Kops. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2009

Other Venues:

  • Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, 10/11/2008–01/11/2009

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