The Discovery of the Netherlands : Four Centuries of Landscape Painting by Dutch Masters

The discovery of the Netherlands

Details about the book :

· Subtitle : Four Centuries of Landscape Painting by Dutch Masters
· Authors : Compiled by: Henk van Os with the collaboration of Jenny Reynaerst, Huigen Leeflang
. Hardcover : 144 pages
· Publisher : Nai Publishers Rotterdam ( September 28, 2008)
· Language : English
· ISBN : 978-90-5662-027-1
· Size : 26 x 20 cm.
· QNL / BNQ (Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec) Reference: 758.1492O811d 2008

Presentation of the editor :

About the author :

Prof. H.W. van Os (b.1938) was appointed University Professor in art and society at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) in 1996. Prof. van Os is an art historian and obtained his doctorate degree at the University of Groningen in 1969 cum laude. He was appointed professor of History of Art and Culture in 1974 at the University of Groningen, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen in 1984. From 1989 to 1996 Van Os was director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and he is presenter of the tv programme Beeldenstorm (Iconoclasm). Van Os was guest curator at the Hermitage in Amsterdam where he composed an exhibition in 2005. He has been giving lectures at the UvA in February/March 2006.

About the book :

Presentation from the Publisher :

In association with CODA Museum, the International Apeldoorn Garden and Landscape Architecture Triennial
Exhibition in CODA Museum, Apeldoorn from 15 May - 28 September 2008
The Discovery of the Netherlands is about the aesthetic 'reclamation' of the Netherlands in the art of painting. The flat countryside with its rivers, marshy farmland alternating with tracts of woodland, and the ever-changing Dutch skies above have been transformed into art. Framing nature unlocks it for aesthetic appreciation. There is no other country in the world where artists were so early to render their own surroundings as a beautiful idyll.
In his selection of a considerable number of masterpieces, Henk van Os shows how practically the whole of the Netherlands has been depicted over the centuries, and thereby made accessible and 'reclaimed' by artists. He contends that it is not the task of landscape painters to paint what the viewer finds attractive, but that the viewer learns to appreciate what they paint thanks to their artistry. Paintings have sometimes even served as the starting point: that is how this landscape ought to look! Whether this has a bearing on the conservation of nature reserves in the Netherlands is investigated in an essay by Louise Fresco. This essay quite literally links this publication to the 'Memory and Transformation' theme of the inaugural Apeldoorn Garden and Landscape Architecture Triennial.
Featuring paintings by Hendrik Chabot, Jacob Maris, Anton Mauve, Charles Rochussen, Jacob van Ruysdael, Jan Toorop, Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch and others.
Since the Dutch landscape has also inspired the literary world, and poetry in particular, a selection by Klaas van der Hoek of ten or so apposite and original 'landscape-related' quotations from Dutch poetry is included in the publication.
Link about the book :

http://www.naipublishers.nl/art/ontdekking_e.html


Pierre’s book review :

Through the paintings of Avercamp, Chabot, Maris, Van Goyen, Mauve, Rochussen, Van Ruysdael, Toorop, Weissenbruch, Tholen, and many others, this book presents an intimate look at the great Dutch landscape painting. Of real or imaginary landscapes dotted with canals, fields, windmills, and trees along the houses and hamlets. The landscape are all reflections of the great soul of Holland. A fun and wonder with comments enlightening your exploration and very well documented.

My appreciation of the book : 9/10.

Pierre