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DEATH:
1678 DUJARDIN
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BIRTH:
1635 POTTER
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Died on 20 November 1678: Karel
Dujardin (or Du Jardin), Dutch Romanist painter and etcher
born in 1622. — Dujardin is best known for his spirited representations of Italian peasants and shepherds with their animals. Dujardin was a son of the painter Guilliam Dujardin. After a trip to Italy, he worked in Amsterdam and The Hague from 1652 until 1674; after that he returned to Rome, where he stayed until shortly before his death. He also painted religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects; genre scenes; and a number of excellent likenesses, notably a large group portrait (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). When and where he acquired his nickname 'Bokkebaart' (Goat's Beard or Goatee) is unknown. Certain is our knowledge that he was more than able to make ends meet. In Amsterdam he lived in a house on the fashionable Herengracht, and in an inventory made of his chattels and movables indicates that in his maturity he enjoyed considerable wealth. — LINKS — St Paul Healing the Cripple at Lystra (1663) — Young Shepherd (1662) _ In many ways Karel Dujardin is the most Dutch of the Italianate painters. His bucolic landscapes are done on a small scale, and have an intimacy lacking in pictures made by Italianates who used a larger format and more ambitious motifs. Dujardin was apprenticed to Berchem and probably travelled to Italy in the late 1640s or early 1650s, but like so many other Dutch Italianate artists of his generation this early trip south cannot be substantiated. In 1652 he was in Amsterdam and during the next few years his art took an unexpected turn. Instead of settling down in Holland to paint views of the Campagna and the vita popolare of Rome, as most Italianate Dutch painters did after their documented or putative trips to Italy, he made pictures of the Dutch countryside which are closely related to Paulus Potter's carefully executed small paintings of cattle in sunny meadows and woods. During this phase it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the hand of Potter from Dujardin's. By the end of the 1650s he began once again to paint bambocciate and modest Italian pastoral scenes. His Young Shepherd, datable to the early 1660s, shows him at his best. The theme is simple. A young boy lies on his back playing with his dog. The sheep, the old grazing horse, and the basket and keg appear to lie about in a haphazard fashion. In a black and white reproduction, only the mountains tell us that this is not a Dutch scene, but when the original or even a good colour reproduction is viewed, warm Italian air and the strong shimmering light of the south permeate it. — Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness (1662) _ Dujardin was a Dutch Italianate painter. Additionally, he painted handsome portraits of famous citizens in the style of Bartholomeus van der Helst, and he also painted elegant, highly finished religious and allegorical paintings, like the picture shown here. Hagar, the Egyptian hand maiden of Sarah was the mother of Ishmael, Abraham's first son. When Isaac, Sarah's son, was born Ishmel mocked his younger brother so that Sarah asked Abraham to banish him, together with his mother. Abraham provided them with bread and a botle of water and sent them of into the desert of Beersheba. When the water was spent Hagar put Ismael under a bush to die and then sat some way off, weeping. But an angel appearred, by tradition the archangel Michael, and disclosed a well of water near by, so they were both saved. Two scenes, the banishment, and the appearence of the angel are common in 17th century Italian and Dutch painting. — Landscape in the Roman Campagna (1675, 85x107cm) _ In 1675 Dujardin is securely documented in Rome. His Landscape in the Roman Campagna indicates that during this last phase he found inspiration from the classicizing landscapes painted in Rome by Poussin's follower Gaspar Dughet. |
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Born on 20 November 1625: Paulus
Potter, Dutch painter, specialized in animals, who died on
17 January 1654. — [ancestor of Harry?] — Dutch painter and etcher, celebrated chiefly for his paintings of animals. Animals appear prominently in all of Potter's works, sometimes singly but usually in small groups silhouetted against the sky, or in greater numbers with peasant figures and rustic buildings in an extensive landscape. Potter is one of the minor Dutch masters. Potter entered the Guild of St. Luke at Delft in 1646. In 1649 he moved to The Hague, where in the following year he married Adriana, daughter of the architect Claes van Balkeneynde. In 1652 Potter settled in Amsterdam. He probably received his early training from his father, the painter Pieter Potter (c. 1597-1652), but his style shows little dependence upon that of earlier masters. In so short a career there was little development in style between the earlier and the later works, but 1647 seems to mark a peak in his achievement, for many of the finest paintings bear this date. Among works that depart from his normal scale or style, the huge Young Bull (1647), which is life-size, is his most celebrated, though not necessarily his finest work, while Orpheus Charming the Beasts (1650; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) is an excursion into a poetic world. Potter's etchings of animals show all the skill and sympathy of his paintings. — LINKS — Four Cows in a Meadow (1651) _ The bulk of Potter's work is devoted to horses and to scenes of cows, goats, sheep, and pigs, which show an extraordinary sensitivity to the various ways in which farmyard animals behave at different times of the day as well as to the different quality of light in the morning or at dusk in landscapes that almost invariably make country life appear idyllic. Notable too are are his portraits of dogs. — Orpheus Charming the Beasts (1650) — Diederik Tulp (1653) _ Potter worked for the court in The Hague, in nearby Delft, and in 1652 he settled in Amsterdam. According to Houbraken Nicolaes Tulp persuaded him to move to the metropolis where the famous doctor became his mentor. If true, once again Tulp showed he had an eye for young talent. Two decades earlier he had asked the twenty-six-year-old Rembrandt to paint the Anatomy Lesson which established Rembrandt's reputation in the city. In 1653 Potter painted a life-size equestrian portrait which has been traditionally identified as his likeness of Tulp's son Dirck (Diederik); however, the tradition may very well be apocryphal. The portrait proves that Potter was no exception to the rule that seventeenth-century Dutch painters never match the life-size equestrian portraits of royalty and their ministers by Velázquez, Rubens, or Van Dyck — Landscape with Shepherdess and Shepherd Playing Flute (1644, 67x114cm) _ The painting reflects the influence of Elsheimer, or the Dutch followers of Elsheimer. — The Farm (1649, 81x116cm) _ Potter's career was short. He died a few months after his twenty-eighth birthday. His early works show the influence of his father, the painter Pieter Symonsz Potter (c. 1595/1601-1652) and Moeyaert who painted cattle in his biblical and mythological pictures. He is documented as a pupil of Jacob de Wet, a Rembrandt follower, and probably also knew the innovative prints done in the thirties by Moeyaert, Gerrit Bleker (active 1625-56), and Pieter van Laer, which prominently feature cattle, horses, and other livestock; he himself made etchings of animals. Potter tried his hand at a few subject paintings, but the bulk of his work is devoted to horses and to scenes of cows, goats, sheep, and pigs, which show an extraordinary sensitivity to the various ways in which farmyard animals behave at different times of the day as well as to the different quality of light in the morning or at dusk in landscapes that almost invariably make country life appear idyllic. — Young Bull (1647, 236x339cm) _ In the work of Paulus Potter views of nature and animals are seen for their own sake, and not as a backdrop for human action. Potter can paint equally well the bright sunlight and the cool air, but his real fame lies with his penetrating portraits of animals. His best-known work is the life-size Young Bull, an unusual heroization of a single animal, a counterpart to the monumental trend of Ruisdael and Cuyp. Although at first blush it appears to be a portrait of a prize young bull Potter most probably composed his famous beast from studies of more than one animal since its dewlap, horns, and teeth belong to bulls of different ages. The ancient Greek painter Zeuxis used a similar method; when he painted his portrait of Helen in the city of Croton he chose five beautiful virgins, in order to copy the finest features of each, for in one woman he felt he could not find perfect beauty. During the nineteenth century the Young Bull by the 22-year-old Potter ranked close in fame to the Night Watch of Rembrandt. Later generations have been less captivated by Potter's fidelity to nature when he worked life-size. Although the shapes of the farmer, the tree, and the bull against the light sky are impressive and the textures of the animals have been convincingly represented by the use of an original impasto which approaches relief, the entire foreground of this huge canvas seems airless. Atmosphere enters the picture only in the lovely distant view on the right, where a sunny light plays upon the cattle in the meadows and on the woods, making this passage one of his loveliest landscapes. Potter is more consistent on a small scale, and his cabinet pieces show him at his best. — 16 etchings at Fine Arts Museums of SF |
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