Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Plates bright and vivid. Note this is a softcover book. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> While de Hooch has been featured in surveys of Dutch art and genre paintings as well as in shows devoted to Delft painting this is the first exhibition to offer an overview of representative highlights of his career. The paintings selected trace his development from beginnings in his native Rotterdam when he specialized in tavern and guardroom scenes to his innovative contributions to Delft painting with sun-filled interiors and courtyards of an unprecedented naturalism. De Hooch’s art explored expressive new uses of space and perspective and featured a heightened sensitivity to aerated light. Although his merry company subjects addressed time-honored genre themes his representations of domestic life were new and radiate an unprecedented spirit of solicitude tranquility and virtuous diligence. The exhibition also examines the more elegant genre scenes that de Hooch produced later in his career following his move to the great trading and commercial center of Amsterdam. Finally de Hooch also painted a handful of family portraits; these attest to his successful receipt of commissions and provide convenient milestones in his development. The show and its catalogue address questions of historical context tradition and influence. They note the importance of Flemish and local genre painters in Rotterdam for de Hooch’s first manner and investigate the extraordinary confluence of talent in Delft around 1650 immediately prior to his arrival. How the indigenous Delft School style was formed is debated but it undoubtedly benefited from the architectural painters Gerard Houckgeest and Emanuel de Witte the short lived but highly regarded master of perspective Carel Fabritius and possibly also artists from nearby Dordrecht notably Samuel van Hoogstraten. and Nicolaes Maes. In the course of discussing de Hooch’s contribution to Delft painting this volume also addresses his relationship to his more famous colleague Johannes Vermeer. (MP)