Johannes Vermeer, A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (‘The Music Lesson’), c.1662-5. Royal Collection Trust.
Dutch painting of the so-called Golden Age is so good and plentiful that it can be many things to many people. This dynamic Study Evening with Desmond Shawe-Taylor, former director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, and Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures at the Royal Collection Trust until 2020, will contrast the ‘modern’ presentation of Dutch art in national museums, with the great collections of an earlier period.
Study evening - includes two lectures, Q&A and a short break. Tickets £20
Part One:
The first lecture will present the heroic story of the founding of the Dutch Republic and its exceptional protestant, middle-class society as told by the painting displays in the Rijksmuseum and National Gallery. The Dutch struggle for liberty became a model for Britain’s constitutional monarchy and an inspiration for liberals throughout Europe. For them Dutch art taught mercantile confidence, a functioning Civil Society and domestic virtue.
Part Two:
Today we can enjoy many great Dutch paintings in aristocratic collections formed before the 1830s in the Wallace, Dulwich and the British and Dutch Royal Collections (the latter now at the Mauritshuis). For these earlier collectors, the art of the Dutch Republic was not especially distinct from that of the Royalist Southern Netherlands: both were admired for their technical skill and vivid realism. It was often regretted that their subjects were so low and their taste so poor, but then again, they offered something that Raphael never could – a good laugh.
Proceeds from ARTscapades ticket sales benefit museums, galleries and other arts-based organisations and projects.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for one month afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.