Exploring the World of Great Dutch Artists and Their Masterpieces
Well, let me tell you about them Dutch artists, the ones they call “great.” I ain’t no fancy art critic or nothin’, just a plain old woman, but I know what I like, you know?
The Big Shot, that Rem-something guy.
First off, there’s this fella, Rem-brandt, yeah, that’s it, Rembrandt van Rijn. They say he’s the best of the bunch, the real McCoy of them Dutch painters from the Golden Age, whatever that means. Sounds fancy, huh? He painted a bunch of pictures, but the ones everyone talks about are “The Night Watch” and “The Jewish Bride”. You can see ’em in Amsterdam, at some museum, the Rijks-something. I ain’t never been there, but I hear it’s real big and full of old stuff.
Now, this Rembrandt, he wasn’t just paintin’ pretty pictures. He was drawin’ and scratchin’ on metal, too. They call it “etching.” He started out in some town called Ly-den, and then he went off to Amsterdam, big city, I guess, and stayed there paintin’ away. People say he’s the best, the tippy-top of them Dutch artists. That’s what they say.
- He painted a lot.
- He drew a lot.
- He did that scratchin’ thing, etching, they call it.
All them other Dutch Painters
But Rembrandt ain’t the only one, no sirree. There’s a whole mess of ’em. You got this Hals fella, and Gerrit Dou, and Jacob van somethin’-or-other, Ruis-dael, I think. And don’t forget the women, Maria Schall-ken, she was one too. They all painted stuff, you know, pictures of people, places, things. Rich folks back then, they had money to burn, so they’d get these artists to paint stuff for their houses. Kept them artists busy, I reckon, puttin’ food on the table.
Why all the Paintings?
See, back in them days, the Dutch folks were doin’ alright. Lots of tradin’ and sellin’ going on, and some folks got real rich. These rich folks, they wanted nice things, and paintings were one of them nice things. So, the artists got to work, paintin’ pictures for all them rich folks to hang up in their fancy houses. It was good business, this paintin’. Everybody was happy, the artists got paid, the rich folks got their pictures, and now, all these years later, we can go look at them in museums and stuff.
Looking at the Pictures
Now, I ain’t gonna lie, some of them old paintings, I don’t get ‘em. They’re all dark and gloomy, and sometimes I can’t even tell what they’re supposed to be. But some of ‘em, they’re real purdy. You can see the people’s faces, and they look real, like they could just step right out of the picture and talk to you. And the places, they paint them too, the windmills and the canals and the fields. It makes you think about what it was like back then, when they was paintin’ all them pictures.
More than just Paint
And it wasn’t just paintings, mind you. They made prints too, like pictures on paper, and maps, so folks could figure out where they was goin’. And they made pretty things to put in their houses, knick-knacks and whatnots, you know? Them Dutch folks, they liked nice things, and they had the artists to make ‘em.
Dutch art still around today
There’s even a big show comin’ up, a museum show, in Boston, I think. They’re gonna show off all these Dutch paintings, from back then. It’s called “Dutch Art in a Global Age,” somethin’ like that. Sounds fancy, huh? They’ll have all them big names, and maybe some you ain’t heard of. If you like lookin’ at old pictures, you should go. Me, I’ll probably just stick to lookin’ at the pictures in the books. Cheaper that way, you know?
So, that’s what I know about them great Dutch artists. They painted a lot of pictures, for a lot of rich folks, and now we get to look at ‘em. Some good, some bad, some I don’t understand, but it’s all part of history, I guess. And history, well, that’s important, even for an old woman like me. Makes you think about where we come from, and where we might be goin’.
Tags: [Dutch Golden Age, Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch Masters, 17th Century Art, Portrait Painting, Landscape Painting, Etching, Art History, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
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