THE QUEEN’S GALLERY

UNTIL JANUARY 9, 2011

Dutch Landscapes

Johannes Lingelbach, Figures before a Locanda, c.1645-50

This exhibition brings together 42 remarkable works from the ‘Golden Age’ of Dutch painting. By the 17th century, landscape painting was well established as a distinct art form and one in which Netherlandish artists excelled. The fine detail and meticulous finish of Dutch landscapes appealed to British taste, and 34 of the works in the exhibition were acquired by George IV when Prince Regent between 1809 and 1820. The ability of Netherlandish artists to depict mood and emotion through the landscape of their homeland or the Italian countryside influenced the great British painters John Constable and JMW Turner. On seeing a seascape by Willem van de Velde the Younger, Turner remarked, “Ah! That made me a painter”.

At the conclusion of the Eighty Years War’ with Spain, the newly formed United Provinces of the north gained independence from the Spanish-controlled south. With a sense of national optimism came the rapid expansion of Dutch cities and towns. Civic pride manifested itself in the building of town halls and churches, and in the commissioning of paintings, such as Jan van der Heyden’s minutely observed The Town of Veere with the Groote Kerk.

Between 1610 and 1630 a ‘tonal’ school of landscape painting emerged in Haarlem. It created a style which sought to convey through subtle transitions of colour the atmospheric effects of water, land and sky. In A River Landscape with Sailing Boats, Salomon van Ruysdael skilfully evokes the mood of dawn over the estuary through the blending of colour and texture.

Meyndert Hobbema, A Watermill beside a Woody Lane, 1665 or 1668

As the foundation of trade and empire, the sea was the most important force in Dutch life. Ships were built in unprecedented quantities during the 17th century. The ‘Great Fishery’, as the herring trade was called, directly or indirectly employed one fifth of the population. The importance of the sea is reflected in the large number of marine artists active at this time. In A Calm: A States Yacht under sail Close to the Shore, Willem van de Velde the Younger skilfully depicts the changing effects of light and air, the direction of the sun and wind and the behaviour of boats under different weather conditions.

While many Dutch painters found inspiration in their immediate surroundings, others travelled to Italy in pursuit of the mountainous vistas and golden light. Since the early 16th century there had been a colony of northern artists in a small quarter of Rome immediately inside the Porta del Popolo, the setting of Figures before a Locanda by Johannes Lingelbach. Karel du Jardin’s A Herdsman with an Ox, an Ass and Sheep in the Campagna places its subject against the backdrop of the Roman countryside suffused with southern light, but the painting’s muted palette and careful observation remain typically Dutch.

The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue Dutch Landscapes by Desmond Shawe-Taylor, with contributions by Jennifer Scott, price £14.95.

The Queen’s Gallery
Palace of Holyroodhouse
Edinburgh
Edinburgh
0131 556 5100
Daily 9.30a-6p
www.theroyalcollection.org.uk