The Small Dort by Aelbert Cuyp (1650-2)

This painting by Aelbert Cuyp is a twin of The Large Dort & also in the National Gallery’s collection.

As with my post on The Large Dort, we see the quintessentials of the Dutch Baroque painter - pastoral landscapes, animals, and a view of Dordrecht. 

The National Gallery though argues that there are some differences which suggest this particular painting depicts the end of the day:

The mood is more soporific than in the larger version, however. The sky seems slightly less luminous, the sun is lower and more of the painting is in shadow. Three of the cows seem to be on the verge of sleep, while the herdsman and the dog have already dropped off. The day’s labour, it seems, is over. But a similar sense of ease and contentment prevails. And Cuyp has used the same subtle sequence of pictorial planes to knit together the composition, from the dark foreground of weeds and brambles to the light-dappled cows, the shadowy cottages and windmills, then Dordrecht itself, bathed in the evening light.

For me, I prefer The Large Dort. 👌

The Large Dort by Aelbert Cuyp (1691)

A beautiful masterpiece by Aelbert Cuyp.

Aelbert Cuyp was part of the Dutch Golden Age and painted these magnificent arcadian landscapes, often with dignified and heroic-looking cattle and cows.

His paintings are important to art history because - as with the Dutch Golden Age more generally - they laid the stylistic foundations which would be v. influential to the British landscape artists of the 18th and 19th-century, and romanticism.

He was also influenced by the “Dutch Italianate” painters. It was an art movement, inspired by their Italian travels, to infuse the painting with  a warm, soft and golden light - that you might see in the early misty morning hours.

I just think you could look at this painting for ages, and enjoy yourself.

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Cattle have so often in art history represented wealth, safety and plenty. The four cows and milkmaid celebrate the Dutch wellbeing and the peace associated with their land - especially after the eighty-years-war. So, the Dutch cow is a hero.

The way the light and shadow interacts with the cow is incredible. 

The “Dort” stands for his hometown Dordrecht, in the background.

The Milkmaid by Paulus Potter (1646)

A charming painting.

My first time seeing Paulus Potter.

He was a minor artist of the Dutch Golden Age struck down by Tuberculosis at a v. young age. He specialised in animal painting and landscapes with the cattle as the principal subject.

In this painting, two cows and a sheep carefree under a tree on a warm summer’s day. The milkmaid is pushed to the background. It feels like the domestic animals are hanging out and relaxing together.

A smiling cow?  😊

Paulus Potter was discussed on the blog bugwomanlondon in the following terms:

“artists who choose to make animals their subject – partly because of what it says about the attitude to animals at the time, and partly because the best painters seem to be able to incorporate the personality of the animal in such a way that it becomes a portrait.”

How apt.

Merrymaking in a Tavern by Jan Steen (1674)

A classic of Jan Steen’s “merrymaking” genre paintings of the Dutch Golden Age.

I saw this at the Wallace Collection in London.

The tavern scene is filled with a variety of funny characters - mother with baby, dancers, violin players (17th century DJ), children, onlookers, branches hanging from wiring at the ceiling, pets on the floor, plates and cutlery around. Jan Steen is putting on a theatrical show. He’s an agent of chaos & anarchy.

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I was reminded of a comment made by Nick (nickhereandnow) recently. According to the Wallace, the key symbol is once again depicted on the wall:

Steen’s Merrymaking in a Tavern combines the Flemish tradition of low-life tavern scenes with the more elegant Dutch merry companies. The lively description of the domestic muddle of mothers, children, dancers, musicians and onlookers creates a boisterous scene. The lack of a central motif reinforces the work’s naturalistic appearance, yet the composition is carefully constructed around a group of selected incidents. A key hangs on the back wall of the tavern, suspended between a dancing girl and an older quarrelsome couple, as a warning of where such mayhem might lead. The variety of human life is depicted, with an old woman praying next to a young boy at a table, an amorous seated couple, a bagpipe player, a group of men drinking on the right and a mother, baby and crouching boy in the foreground. Each of these characters illustrates human conduct at different ages.

While doing some research for this post, I came across an essay by Hailey Byrde. She uses a painting by Metsu to show how a bird depicted can have both a sexual connotation while touching a broader Dutch perception about women’s “place”. I think the key is very clearly sexual (key going into lock) while also referring to the house and home. A clever symbol.

A Musical Party in a Courtyard by Pieter de Hooch (1677)

Love it.

Pieter de Hooch is the master of transforming those quiet domestic interior scenes of everyday Dutch life and transforming them into something so very beautiful. E.g., The Courtyard of a House in Delft by de Hooch - an ordinary scene of a girl holding the hand of her mother. This painting is after he left Delft and settled in Amsterdam. 

Here, one woman with a violin, a man seated (hat tilted) and smiling towards the third lady (stirring a glass of wine and v. stylishly adorned). But we’re drawn to the man standing silhouetted beneath the archway, looking out toward the street. Why is his back turned away from us?

The things great about his paintings:

1. Brilliant handling of light and space - main courtyard is flooded with soft twilight hues imbuing a calm atmosphere.
2. The doorkijkje device which has the effect of drawing the viewer into the painting, as if we’re “participating”.
3. The subject-matter is very appealing to me - and usually with some mystery to it - I enjoy the genre scenes of merriment (Jan Steen), or the low-lifes (Adriaen van Ostade) etc., but Hooch’s themes - a sense of order, virtue, safeness, cleanliness, with some lustful undertones, etc are things I like.
4. Attention to detail and textures - floor tiles, the vestments, and the opulent Turkish-style table cloth.

   

The sheer detail in the background beyond the archway is amazing - joints on exterior doors to a window, balustrade, stones on the gravel road, etc. What is especially great is how the brighter light “outside” is render in the paint.

:)

A Woman Drinking with Two Men by Pieter de Hooch (1658)

Another one of de Hooch’s quiet domestic genre paintings from the National Gallery at London. See others here.

It has all the hallmarks of the Dutch master - the way light shines through the windows and into the domestic (creating shadows and a warmer pallete on surfaces apropos interaction with light - e.g. plaster on the walls), the high-contrasting tiled floors are masterfully rendered creating a terrific illusion of depth, and finally the Dutch sense of mystery.

For me, the lady in the black-and-red dress seems most enigmatic. Why stand with her back to us? Her fine clothing would suggest a wealthy middle-class lady (i.e. not a maid)? Why hold up a glass of wine like that? Is she mocking? What’s in her right hand? Why is the man opposite her playing with some makeshift musical instrument? Is she toying with them? 

According to the NG:

Scenes left open to different interpretations are characteristic of seventeenth-century Dutch painting, and depictions of musical gatherings were especially ambiguous – they can represent innocent entertainments or something more salacious. Here we can’t even be sure whether this is a musical gathering, let alone whether or not it is an innocent one.

This painting was owned by Sir Robert Peel - former Prime Minister and founder of the Conservative Party.

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Love the clothes, hats etc., and especially how they capture the light.

The painting above the fireplace is “the education of the Virgin Mary, kneeling before her mother, Saint Anne, and so represents the ultimate example of how to instil virtue in a young woman ... Seduction is still potentially in the air, however, hinted at by the intense attention of the men on the woman with the wine glass and by the presence of pipes, including one which has been broken and discarded on the chequerboard floor.”

King Charles III in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican

I enjoyed watching King Charles III at the Sistine Chapel.

This has to do with the English Reformation of the 16th century and King Henry VIII.

Earlier this year, during the summer, I went with my partner on a trip to Rome and visited the Sistine Chapel.

Since I was raised a Catholic, I will never forget how - as we were approaching a small flight of stairs to walk “up” them and “into” the Sistine Chapel - my stomach was in a knot. It was also very moving to realise - and imagine - how many former Popes and Cardinals stood in my very spot throughout history.

And, of course, the fact that it is one of the most consequential repositories of breathtaking frescoes in the history of Western art.

It’s not often we get to see a service in the Sistine Chapel - so I thought this was worth blogging about. 👌

The Wohl Room at the National Gallery

I took this photo on Wednesday afternoon when I popped into the National Gallery for a little walk around.

I love the architectural spaces and visuals when it’s a bit quiet.

Harbour and Room by Paul Nash (1932-1936)

I’ve always been fascinated by this painting at the Tate.

It makes me feel like I’m stepping into a dream where reality & illusion merge and melt.

Like the film Inception.

This painting makes the idea of stepping into another reality totally bewitching.

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Paul Nash was a major British artist of the 20th century.

This painting captures his interwar surrealism. It’s actually cited by Britannica as an example of “compositions became increasingly dreamlike and illogical.”

The Apollo Gallery of the Louvre

Last month, I took this photo at the Louvre.

The Apollo Gallery is the room where the recent major theft took place.

It houses some of the crown jewels of France.

It’s a dazzling room.

The Prince Andrew crisis

It just gets worse and worse.

In the news, he specifically mentioned to a group that V. Giuffre was the “same age as his own daughters”. Christ. He’s irredeemably disgusting. I don’t think I can read this book.

It’s heartbreaking that V. Giuffre got so little time for peace after being robbed of so much.

Thanks to the US House Oversight Committee, Epstein email records have been releasing proving P. Andrew has been plainly lying in his interview with the BBC.

And, more to the point, how could he possibly have been so stupid to support Epstein after his 2008 conviction and then keep visiting him in New York?

The Royal Family have already cut him off, so he can never be part of Royal life again. The King cannot say anything without the government signing off. 

The British Monarchy has seen many scandals and I hope they will weather this one.

But, I think British society are so upset that something harsh needs to be done - like exile.

Our Ambassador to the US has been finished off, and now a Prince ... 

How is Epstein still haunting us?

How was the Louvre ‘heist of the century’ pulled off?

What a horrible event.

The thieves stole Napoleon’s crown jewels from the Louvre in the 7-minute heist - a symbol of French history and the Republic.

I expect the jewels will be melted down and sold for it’s raw material value. Like Berlin’s Bode Museum theft of 2017, and the bracelet of Pharaoh Amenemope in Egypt just a month ago.

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Unfortunately, I think art museums (esp. the Louvre) will be expected to turn ever more into banks now.

Already so many works of art are behind high-quality museum glass. They’re awful. It’s a dreadful & imposing barrier between the art and the visitor. And it’s going to get worse in the future. 

There will be more need for glass, more need for queues, more document checks, more security scanning, more people walking up-and-down and eyeing you suspiciously.

The trouble is that these are government museums with objects of cultural importance to the society - not hedge funds. It’s not right to charge visitors with high prices for tickets. And the government is already stretched with more pressing concerns. There are always complaints about limits on staff in every museum. Not enough staff. Too many people. Not enough security.

The British Museum has had it own grief back in 2023 with stolen artifacts. And the consequence now entails long queues to go through security checks. The louvres staff has been complaining and going on strike for some years now. But, where are governments supposed to get such resources from?

I paid 22 euros for my ticket in September 2025. If you charge more, then you’ll be excluding the poor.

Everytime something like this happens, I know there’ll be howling for more security from museum directors ... thereby turning these institutions into awful airport-like experiences.

😟 

Angel with Candlestick by Luca della Robbia

I saw this piece in the V&A.

Della Robbia’s angel is a plaster cast of a Renaissance sculpture in Florence’s Cathedral (now: Duomo’s museum).

The angels would have held the sanctified bread used during the Mass.

According to the V&A, “the plaster copies displayed here do not reproduce the colour of the originals”. That is because Della Robbia was known for inventing his “tin-glazed terracotta” sculpture technique. This glazing created a lustrous & water-resistant surface which exists to the present. Thus, they retain their white, deep cerulean blues and gilding against the deteriorating of the weather.

For art history, Luca Della Robbia holds an important role. He was pivotal in the early Italian Renaissance influencing the latter generation, including Michelangelo. Wikipedia says:

Della Robbia was praised by his compatriot Leon Battista Alberti for genius comparable to that of the sculptors Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti, the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, and the painter Masaccio. By ranking him with contemporary artists of this stature, Alberti noted the interest and strength of Luca’s work in marble and bronze, as well as in the terra-cottas always associated with his name.

The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin by Jan van Eyck (1435)

This post is hat tip to hels. 😎

Spectacular masterpiece at the Louvre.

It shows the Virgin Mary enthroned with the Christ Child and the Chancellor Nicolas Rolin kneeling before her. Jesus raises his right hand to bless Rolin.

For us today, we take these paintings for granted. 

But, the lifelike illusion of this painting must have been truly spellbinding in the 15th century. 

It’s partly due to the striking & vivid richness of the colours (the Louvre celebrated an exhibition recently following the conservation of this painting). The vermillion of the Madonna’s long loose flowing dress, the purples shades of Chancellor’s robes and not to mention the ultramarine of the Chancellor’s table cloth and the angel’s garments. The floor tiles are so ornate and so convincing. The linear and atmospheric perspective are terrific.

The sense of realism is a huge part of the artist’s power. Careful rendering of the tiles is (frankly!) a shocking testament to Van Eyck’s painstakingly laborious and meticulous nature. It’s also his mastery of linear perspective. The tiles have a pattern and he’s very careful to observe it. Van Eyck’s play on light is exceptional. I love the detailed rendering of the folds of the Madonna’s dress and the shadows within.

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Panoramic landscape - and, I think, perhaps van Eyck himself depicted (in the centre).

Amazing details - bridge with people crossing, reflections on the calm meandering river, a balcony stairs, a bustling town with green hills beyond. Atmospheric perspective can be seen in the distance.

Christ is blessing the Chancellor - i.e. glorifying the Chancellor!

Christ’s “adult”-looking face & beer-belly (!!) are part of the Byzantine iconographic tradition of Christ’s divine nature inherent from birth. 

The way the hair is painted spread over her shoulders is very realistic.

And what an enormous heavenly crown! 

 

The Chancellor’s luxurious and richly detailed robes, deep colours.

Hands clasped in prayer, over a bible. The motif of piety and devotion. 

I like his wrinkles on his neck, and blood vessels across his head.

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