annipainting: Research Point 4 Dutch Realist Genre Painters and Interiors

Paintings of the Dutch Golden Age sprang up in the new Dutch Republic in the northern Netherlands during and after the eighty years war for Dutch independance.

During this time there was an expansion of work produced in distinct genres. Most of it reflected the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting, such as Vermeer's paintings, many of which had similar traits to Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfi Portrait, 1434 with the use of compositional devices to draw the viewer in.

Genre painting was used as an umbrella term with various types being popular. Whereas genre works, which are the focus here, were of everyday scenes ie. markets, domestic settings, interiors and street scenes ranging from realistic to imaginary.
The images and texts of Emblem books were often the inspiration behind the subject, intended to prompt their reader to reflect on a moral lesson contained within.

Johannes Vermeer

Greatly admired for his sensitive rendering of light and colour. Although relatively unknown in his lifetime he is today generally regarded as a class above other Dutch Genre Painters.

In certain paintings he thought to have made use of a 'camera obscura' promoting an exaggerated perspective such as the large size of foreground figure and slightly out of focus highlights. He was exceptional among his artist contemporaries in his use of expensive pigments for example lapis lazuli or ultramarine.

Most of his paintings were of contemporary life scenes set in domestic interiors.

Vermeer used many tricks to help him portray the light, stillness and sense of a place:

To fool the eye of the viewer into believing the image was three dimensional giving one the urge to touch or move such as with a very realistic curtain - to pull it back and see what is behind.

Employing techniques such as impasto in the foreground and on the lightest areas, making them very noticeable and advancing, as in Vermeer's 'Maid Asleep the texture of the foreground carpet.

In contrast, areas of shadow would be much less defined, being painted very thinly with transparent or semi-transparent layers (or glazes) so as to make them appear to recede.

The use of Imprimatura - or covering the ground with an initial stain of colour (usually mid-tone) transparent and semi-transparent glazes would be applied over this so that light will reflect through the glazes to the initial ground. Importantly though, if the ground is too dark and grey it will have an adverse effect on the luminosity of the colours applied over it. If too light, the shadows are more time consuming.

I've only been able to mention but a few techniques here, as there so many I have included just the ones I think are the most notable. A vast amount of further information can be found on the website essentialvermeer.com

Soldier and a Laughing Girl:

The main subject of his paintings were usually a woman alone engaged in an activity, such as playing cards or pouring milk. It is believed they were all painted in the same room - his studio. In most of them the light emanates from the window on the left - the northwest. The map and the chair also appear in other paintings. The receding lines in the perspective of the open window help to create depth and the partly visible upper window panes create height. The natural light from this window also opens up the space inside the room, illuminating it and the girl.

The officer's figure is a dark silhouette, enhancing the brightly illuminated figure of the girl. Although bright, the light is not hard but more diffuse. It seems all the more dramatic due to its large size in relation to the figure of the girl, adding to the look of depth. It is easy to believe that a camera obscura could have been used here.

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/johannes-vermeer/officer-and-laughing-girl

Pieter de Hooch was a contemporary and principal rival of Vermeer's. His works became very similar in style to Vermeer's when he began to focus on domestic scenes after starting a family the mid-1650s . Common traits of Hooch's works were views through an open doorway or window to a room or yard beyond. After 1661 his style became more extravagant and, many would say, the quality of his work deteriorated thereafter.
His treatment of light was very sophisticated and delicate. His observations of everyday life were very skilfull containing a lesson in morality.
Unlike Vermeer, children played an important role in many of Hooch's paintings. One of Hooch's main strengths was in his depictions of family scenes containing two or three figures, and they are thought to be his best works. This mundane scene is typical of his style at the time. depicting a scene of a mother delousing her child's hair.

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/pieter-de-hooch/interior-with-a-mother-delousing-her-child-1660

Description
Natural light floods into the room from the window on the right and through a door visible in the room beyond, the top of which is wide open. Attention is drawn to the suggestion of something of interest outside the door, as the small dog seems to be preoccupied with whatever it is. It also creates a strong illusion of depth. Again, as in Vermeer's paintings, light places the figure/s in focus, softer and more diffuse on the surroundings, creating strong contrasts. The arrangement of fitments and furniture looks well ordered and balanced. Hooch was fascinated with the way light affects different surfaces and how enclosed spaces affect light, the arrangement of components within and linear perspective. He liked to open up the view from one room to another using what was referred to as the 'doorkijkje' . He felt that the effect of connecting indoors and outdoors enriched the life and atmosphere of the interior giving the viewer a welcome relief.

Frans van Mieris the Elder also painted scenes of everyday life, mostly depicting the wealthy. The colours he used were vibrant, paying a lot of attention to detail particularly the fabric of people's clothes, especially dresses, an example of which can be seen in the painting 'Duet' 1658 (right).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_van_Mieris_(I)_-_Duet_-_WGA15629.jpg

Jacobus Vrel was another 'so called' Dutch genre painter, although comparatively little is known about him. There is certainly no doubt about his skills of composition and paint handling. He chose to paint ordinary people in everyday scenes and his outdoor subjects were often of back streets. A plain artist whose technique didn't contain glazes or other refinements, reflecting the subjects he chose to paint.

Here my eye is drawn to the gaze of the sitting girl looking out of the window and beyond to the activity, only partially visible, taking place through the open doorway - it looks to me as if a nurse is dressing a patient.

"The Hospital Orderly" oil on Canvas, location: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium.

http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_4838/Jacobus-Vrel/The-Hospital-Orderly

A page full of very technical information about linear perspective:

http://glasnost.itcarlow.ie/~powerk/GeneralGraphicsNotes/projection/projection_viewing.html

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - The Philosopher in Meditation A dark frame winds it way around this scene by Rembrandt, alternating with areas of natural light from a window, eventually leading up a winding staircase and into the shadows above. This appears to create a sensation of pulling inwards and upwards into the dark void beyond. The seated philosopher is brought into focus by not just light radiating through a window on his left, but also by the receding lines of the window sill and the curve of the lower steps of the staircase. The illumination around, is in sharp contrast with the dark areas and foreground where a crouched figure tends the fire partially lighting his face and hands.

The Philosopher in meditation, 1632, oil on panel, 28cm x 34cm,

Louvre Museum

_The_Philosopher_in_Meditation_(cleaned).jpghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_-

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/barn_interior_with_a_maid_churning_butter_posters-228781050910220058 -

Barn Interior with a Maid Churning Butter | by Govert Dircksz. Camphuysen | Art Location: Private Collection | Dutch Artist | Image Collection Number: BAL121446

18 c Geovanni Pannini, Pantheon:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:'Interior_of_the_Pantheon'_by_Giovanni_Paolo_Panini,_1747.JPG

18 c Martin Drolling, Interior of a Kitchen

http://www.art.com/gallery/id--a32592/martin-drolling-posters.htm

19th - 20th century

William Tom Warrener, The Confession:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Warrener

Edgar Degas, Interior at Menil-Hubert, 1892. Oil on canvas:

http://www.wikiart.org/en/edgar-degas/interior-at-menil-hubert-1892

Lucien Pissarro, In an Interior:
http://uploads0.wikiart.org/images/camille-pissarro/lucien-pissarro-in-an-interior.jpg!Large.jpg

Claude Monet, A corner of the studio:
http://uploads0.wikiart.org/images/claude-monet/a-corner-of-the-studio(1).jpg!Large.jpg

Eduoard Vuillard, After the Meal c. 1900

http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_165624/Edouard-(Jean-Edouard)-Vuillard/After-the-Meal.-c.-1900

American artist Walter Gay (1856–1937) specialized in painting views of opulent residential interiors in late-19th and early-20th-century

America

and Europe.
Walter-Gay, the front parlour after 1909
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walter_Gay_%28American,_1856%E2%80%931937%29,_The_Front_Parlor,_after_1909._Oil_on_canvas.jpg

Cezanne, Afternoon In Naples With A Black Servant http://www.paul-cezanne.org/Afternoon-In-Naples-With-A-Black-Servant.html
Cezanne's painting, although containing a window, looks to me, the flattest of this selection. I think that's partly due to the fact there doesn't appear to be any evidence of linear perspective, whereas all the others contain some element of it.