Curator
Daiga Upeniece*
Organization
The project has been organized in co-operation with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Latvia.
Museum press release, 31 March 2005
The Golden Age of Dutch art: series of exhibitions
The exhibition Landscape in 2005 concludes the series of exhibitions The Golden Age of Dutch art. The project was started in 2002 with the graphic arts exhibition Adriaen van Ostade, because the graphic works by this artist are fully represented in the museum collection.
In 2003 the exhibition with a stable publicity and attendance In Rembrandt’s name was held in the museum in which 12 original museum etchings were presented and numerous imitations, copies and forgeries of Rembrandt’s works, the exhibition displayed 44 works representing the period from 17 – 19 century.
In 2004 the exhibition Animatismus was organized whose theme – animals in Dutch graphic art and painting – was determined by the character of the graphic collection because it contains many works combined into series by the master of this genre Claes Berchem. The exhibition was supplemented by many works characterizing this theme in painting, for instance, paintings by Melchior d`Hondecoeter, Aelbert Janszoon Klomp, Hendrik Verschuring, Philip Wouwerman and etchings by Karel Dujardin, Paulus Potter, Dirck Stoop and Cornelis Visscher.
Landscape
This year’s exhibition Landscape will slightly change accents. The exhibition will have graphic works only as additional accent and supplement in order to better understand the character of the theme and tendencies in Dutch 17th century painting. The amount and character of the collection provides an opportunity to the viewers to get an insight into many of the most famous masters of the genre, the major trends in the Dutch landscape painting and peculiarities of the national school during the whole century.
The exhibition shows Flemish influences at the beginning of the century, formation of the solid national school and its flourishing during the century and the tendencies of the landscape painting at the end of the 17th century, including Italianized landscape. The core of the exhibition consists of the local Dutch painting rich in colour, which is famous for its capacity to see the beauty in the simple things. The local painting will be represented by many artists of the guilds of Harlem, Amsterdam and other Dutch cities.
The exhibition will give an opportunity to see the works by Esias van der Velde, Pieter de Molijn, Claes Berchem, Jacob Salamonszoon van Ruysdael, Salamon van Ruysdael, Judolf Backhuysen, Jan Porcellis, Frederik and Isaac de Moucheron, Klaes Molenaer and the works by many other painters from the Dutch Golden age.
The graphic arts collection of the museum will be represented by etchings by Boetius Adam Bolswert, Jan van de Velde, Anton Waterlo, Cornelis Visscher, Herman van Swanevelt, Jan van Both, Allart van Everdingen.