Gerrit Dou 1613-1675 [Hardcover]

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Editor), Ronni Baer (Contributor), Arthur K. Wheelock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000

Gerrit Dou, an early pupil of Rembrandt, was one of the most highly esteemed Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, celebrated for the extraordinarily sensitive images he created with his fine and delicate technique. This beautiful book assembles and discusses thirty-five of his finest paintings. Founder of the Leiden school of fijnschilders, or "fine painters", Dou had an international clientele and was lauded by the theorist Philips Angel in his 1642 treatise Lof der Schilderkonst as an artist worthy of the honour accorded the ancients. The book presents a wide range of subjects painted by Dou over the course of his career. These include portraiture, still life, and religious images as well as scenes of daily life - mothers with their children, painters in their studios, scholars, shopkeepers, schoolmasters, musicians, and astronomers. Many of these works incorporate symbolic elements that Dou used to reflect the complexity of life's moral and ethical dilemmas. This book is the catalogue for an exhibition of Dou's works at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from 16 April to 6 August 2000 and at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, from 6 September to 19 November 2000.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Gerrit Dou was a 17th-century Dutch painter of small, meticulously detailed portraits, paintings of hermits, and scenes of domestic life. He received part of his artistic training in Rembrandt's studio and was very highly regarded for his color and light effects from his lifetime through the mid-19th century. Largely disregarded by art historians and museums from then until about 30 years ago, Dou's work has become the focus of renewed appreciation. This catalog accompanies an exhibit of the artist's painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, which will also travel to London and The Hague. In addition to reproductions and discussions of the exhibited paintings, the catalog provides chapters on Dou's biography, detailed technical analyses of his working methods, and the history of the critical response to the artist's work over time. It would be a good addition to both scholarly and more general art history collections.DKathryn Wekselman, M.Ln., Cincinnati, OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"This volume makes the artist and his work accessible to both specialist and generalists and whets one's appetite for . . . more." -- Choice

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: National Gallery Washington (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300083696
• ISBN-13: 978-0300083699
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite painter brought back into limelight, August 29, 2000

By 

cjl8 (State College, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gerrit Dou, 1613-1675: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt (Paperback)

This exhibition catalogue contains enlightening and thoughtful essays on seventeenth-century Dutch painter, Gerrit Dou. Dou, one of Rembrandt's students, was highly esteemed during his lifetime for his exquisite technique in painting, but as Arthur Wheelock explains in one of the catalogue essays, his work began to lose favor in the middle of the nineteenth century. This catalogue is a wonderful account of Dou's rise and fall from fame, as well as a study of his masterful painting technique. In addition to the informative text, the color illustrations are beautifully rich, and they do justice to Dou's incredible paintings.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful collection from an overlooked genius., May 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Gerrit Dou 1613-1675 (Hardcover)

Although Rembrandt and Vermeer are the two most discussed and honored of the Dutch Masters, and deservedly so, Gerrit (or Gerard) Dou had a far more dramatic influence on 17th century art in the Netherlands than either of his better known countrymen. It is Rembrandt's later work, with an individuality so far ahead of its time, and Vermeer's penetrating psychological touches that make them fascinating to us in light of modern movements in art. But the paintings of Dou, by the laborious nature of their creation if not always their actual subject matter, give a much deeper insight into the culture and times in which he lived, and the growing taste for luxury from the then newly-emerged Dutch middle class. His images were themselves like jewels, with beauty almost impossible to imagine coming from a human hand, and the artistic perfection that began with Van Eyck found a worthy successor. When such virtuosity became less appreciated in the late 19th century, however, Dou then suffered the fate that Vermeer had known all along, and his name was all but forgotten. It is to the world's benefit that recent showings at the National Gallery in Washington, as well as this flawless book, are begining to change that. As with all of the other volumes that Arthur Wheelock has compiled and edited, this book provides a thoroughly detailed examination of Dou's work, with the kind of objective insight that can re-emphasize his importance to all those just learning about this amazing painter.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long-awaited show and catalogue of precious Dou paintings, May 13, 2000

By 

Lloyd DeWitt (Philadelphia PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gerrit Dou 1613-1675 (Hardcover)

This catalogue to the current Dou exhibition in Washington (NGA - 4/16-10/6,2000) is as splendid and intimate as the show itself - 35 small, exquisitely crafted paintings by the Leiden master who was Rembrandt's pupil while that master was himself still a teenager. Wheelock reviews the critical history around Dou's work - the minutely detailed paintings, with their startlingly accurate and refined light effects were highly valued and admired until Thore-Burger and the early modern critics heralded the taste for broad, expressive brushwork. They labelled his work as superficial and heartless, but more recent work has rediscovered sophisiticated and thoughtful themes in such works as the Quack (included) and the Braamcamp triptych (two closely related works are included). Baer's essay outlines the career, working method and subject matter of Dou, exploring some aspects of his extraordinary "reality effect" as well, while Boersema explores his extraordinary, painstaking technique, reviewing such technical evidence as paint samples and reflectograms from the Lady at her Toilet and the Young Mother, both part of the show. There's not a lot of new work on Dou, so this catalogue is especially welcome to those of us who love Dutch Art of the Golden Age. This NGA cabinet gallery show moves to the London National Gallery for Sept and Nov, and the Hague's Mauritshuis from Dec to next Feb. This catalogue's gorgeous reproductions and substantial bibliography make it a solid, up-to-date reference on Dou too.