‘Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings From the Dutch Golden Age’ Review: The Sea’s Significance

Washington Say “Holland” and we immediately see urine : canals threading through the countryside, the North Sea lap at the coast, and ships crossing the ocean. We think of how naval battles won the Dutch their independence from Spain in 1648 and subdued their english trade rivals some years later. We think of the audacious voyages of the Dutch East and West India companies that established the bantam state as a big mercantile sea power. small curiosity that 17th-century Netherlandish collectors were fond of marine subjects .

Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings From the Dutch Golden Age National Gallery of Art
Through Nov. 25

merely how adoring is demonstrated by “ Water, Wind, and Waves : Marine Paintings From the Dutch Golden Age, ” at the National Gallery of Art. This delectable show of more than 20 paintings ; a boastfully group of drawings, etchings and engravings ; and five irresistible very large, compulsively detail ship models from the time period, as elaborately embellished as the richest galleon, celebrates Dutch art in naval war, merchant shipping, fishing and even skating. Plus there ’ s a charm portrayal of a lavishly dressed boy playing with a deluxe miniature transport. There are “ portraits ” of ships, bucolic waterfront scenes, and reminders of the capriciousness of the ocean. We discover the dangers of water travel and the pride of a well-armed fleet, the calm of domestic waters and the crowd of boats and ships in Dutch river ports, presented against infinite variables of reflective water and across-the-board skies .
I suspect that if any of the works on scene were set among dutch Golden Age genre scenes and portraits, we ’ five hundred plainly acknowledge them without in full registering their particular qualities. But in “ Water, Wind, and Waves, ” concentrating on a individual aspect of 17th-century paint in Holland alerts us to nuance and pas seul so we both spot and appreciate the different ways marine themes were interpreted .

Willem van de Velde the Younger’s ‘Ships in a Stormy Sea’ (1671-72)

Photo:

Toledo Museum of Art
For gamey drama, there are scenes of ships in distress, most impressively the huge “ Ships in a Stormy Sea ” ( 1671-72 ) by Willem van de Velde the Younger, about six feet of baleful grey clouds and frothing waves, with the tawny plane of a taut sail, merely off center, anchoring the unharmed writing. A benighted tracery of ship ’ south lines punctuates the polish sail, emphasizing the photograph ’ s subdued pallette and spatial complexity ; next stop, Cubism. For peace and poetry, there ’ s Abraham de Verwer ’ s “ View of Hoorn ” ( c. 1650 ), all crystalline water system and blushful clouds, with the township a specialize ring at the horizon and the masts of countless ships stitching ocean and flip together. An early 1650s “ pen painting ” by Willem van de Velde the Elder, a fine black-and-white draw in oil on panel, presents a crowd of elegant merchant ships and everyday vessels, amid lively dolphins .

Rembrandt van Rijn’s ‘The Bathers’ (1651)

Photo:

National Gallery of Art, Rosenwa
A serial of prints by Reinier Nooms, called “ Zeeman ” —seaman—and made in 1652/54, catalogs the many types of ships to be seen in Amsterdam, while a group of works on newspaper by Rembrandt avant-garde Rijn, including a 1651 etch, “ The Bathers, ” and a vigorous write, ink and wash draw of a view across the Amstel River ( c. 1646/50 ). remind us that waterways served for both transportation system and refreshment. The function of water in its winter state is announced by scenes of skaters and other revelers, including a fantastic Hendrick Avercamp watercolor, “ Winter Games on the Frozen River Ijssel ” ( c. 1626 ), with well-groomed gentlemen playing kolf, a classify of fusion of golf and ice ice hockey .

Abraham de Verwer’s ‘View of Hoorn’ (c. 1650)

Photo:

National Gallery of Art
Marine themes are so entrenched in our concept of Dutch Golden Age art that it ’ second surprise to learn that such subjects became park alone at the begin of the seventeenth hundred. The instigator was the well-traveled Hendrick Vroom, who used his first-hand cognition of naval architecture to paint scenes such as the exhibition ’ south “ Fleet at Sea ” ( c. 1614 ) with its warship, fishing boats and cargo vessels tossing on bluish green, translucent waves against a distant harbor. As the exhibition makes clear, by and by marine painters approached these motifs with more exemption and inventiveness, but normally remained congregation to Vroom ’ south quest for accuracy .

about all the works in “ Water, Wind, and Waves ” are from the National Gallery ’ s own solicitation. only five paintings and those amazing embark models are borrowed. The width and depth of the National Gallery ’ randomness holdings are so impressive that it ’ randomness surprising—once again—to detect that until 1985 the museum had only one marine paint, Aelbert Cuyp ’ s brilliant “ The Maas at Dordrecht ” ( c. 1650 ), with its multitude of assorted vessels carrying 30,000 dutch soldiers, assembled to impress the spanish before the borrowing of the treaty granting independence to the Netherlands. The present wide-ranging solicitation is a tribute to the initiatives, over his long tenure, of the National Gallery ’ s fabled, recently retired curator of Northern Baroque painting, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr .

‘Amsterdam Harbor Scene’ (c. 1658), by Reinier Nooms (called Zeeman)

Photo:

National Gallery of Art

Caveats ? “ Water, Wind, and Waves ” lacks a catalog—there ’ s an enlightening release brochure—and we ’ rhenium not allowed to play with those extraordinary 17th-century ship models. Otherwise a joy !
—Ms. Wilkin is an independent curator and critic .

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Category : Maritime