RL Update + New York Comes to Home Town
Aug. 6th, 2014 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
therealsnapeFor the past few weeks I've been very busy preparing course material for next year, and the next few weeks I'll do the same for the second syllabus.
But this week is a little holiday in our own town, full of fun events, the most impressive of which was an exhibition of paintings by Gerrit Dou, the most famous of the Leiden fine painters from The Leiden Collection from New York. The paintings are not normally on public display, but they returned to their home town on occasion of the 400th anniversary of Dou's birth.
On the downside, Rolanda has her annual holiday. Well-deserved, and we're all glad she's having such lovely weather, but the Saturday Coffee Club members feel like little, lost ducklings, wandering over the market. We've made do with one of the terrace boats, and it was perfectly nice. But we suddenly had to order again, instead of seeing our preferred beverages appear as soon as we've parked our behinds. Just one more Saturday and Rolanda will be back, thank heavens.
On the plus side, we've had the lovely weather, too. Weeks and weeks of daily sunshine, with a little heat wave thrown in. Today is the first day it's clouded.
Lord S and I therefore had two dinners out on terraces. One on the terrace boat of a rather decent Thai restaurant, where I had Kiwi with a spoon. (No darling, not you.) A kiwi parfait, and very good it was.
And the other on a the terrace (a solid stone one this time) of the restaurant where we have the women entrepreneurs dinners. The owner had asked me to translate the menu, and we were treated to this dinner in return. We were spoilt rotten (fabulous sweetbread, delicious pancakes with orange syrup) and we tottered home in a state of bliss.
And today we went to the Gerrit Dou exhibition, so here's everything you never wanted to know about him in the first place.
His father was a glazer who made painted glass. Dou's skills in rendering light may well have been influenced by his upbringing - watching light and it's effects from an early age. He started an apprenticeship as glazer himself, but after a few years he transferred to that other famous citizen of our town, Rembrandt van Rijn. (I know Amsterdam claims they're the big Rembrandt town, but hey, he's called van Rijn, not van Amstel. He's ours.)
For an early co-production, scroll down this page. The painting is by Rembrandt, but Gerrit Dou was allowed to do what he already did so well: paint the shields and copper vat, with his customary detail for realistically rendering various materials.
Here are two paintings from the exhibition, and I can't link to those (hence the image-heaviness) because the Leiden Collection is truly private. There just aren't internet images of the paintings - this is all I found. And there's one on the museum website (click Leiden Collection link and scroll down).
Those of you who have read Mary Mapes Dodge's book Hans Brinker, or, The Silver Skates", in the book Hans and his sister Gretel visit an exhibition of Dou's paintings, "enabling them to observe its exquisite finish and the wonderful way in which the picture seemed to be lit through its own windows."
And one other link: here. The original painting is about the same size as this image - most of Dou's paintings aren't much larger than a sheet of writing paper, and many are much smaller.
He got very rich from them, though, and even during his lifetime his customers mainly consisted of royalty. Cosimo de Medici came to visit him in his Leiden home, and paid a fortune for one of his self-portraits, and the Swedish ambassador offered him an annuity of 500 guilders for first refusal of his works (for comparison: Dou bought his large house for 2000 guilders) and ended up buying twelve paintings. It must be said that Christina of Sweden returned eleven of them; she didn't like them after all.
But even in those days time was money, and it took Dou up to five days to paint as much as one hand.
If you want to see some more images of Life in the Lowlands, for a Dou painting is as close to photographic evidence as one can get, you'll find here's a picture gallery. Click on the images to see them better.
If you get the chance to see some of his works in RL version, do so. The details are amazing - standing in front of a real one, you can see that things like the fur on the old man's sleeve and the fur on the cat are finished with brushes of just one or two hairs - he was famous for that.
It really was an extraordinary chance to see so much of his work.
But this week is a little holiday in our own town, full of fun events, the most impressive of which was an exhibition of paintings by Gerrit Dou, the most famous of the Leiden fine painters from The Leiden Collection from New York. The paintings are not normally on public display, but they returned to their home town on occasion of the 400th anniversary of Dou's birth.
On the downside, Rolanda has her annual holiday. Well-deserved, and we're all glad she's having such lovely weather, but the Saturday Coffee Club members feel like little, lost ducklings, wandering over the market. We've made do with one of the terrace boats, and it was perfectly nice. But we suddenly had to order again, instead of seeing our preferred beverages appear as soon as we've parked our behinds. Just one more Saturday and Rolanda will be back, thank heavens.
On the plus side, we've had the lovely weather, too. Weeks and weeks of daily sunshine, with a little heat wave thrown in. Today is the first day it's clouded.
Lord S and I therefore had two dinners out on terraces. One on the terrace boat of a rather decent Thai restaurant, where I had Kiwi with a spoon. (No darling, not you.) A kiwi parfait, and very good it was.
And the other on a the terrace (a solid stone one this time) of the restaurant where we have the women entrepreneurs dinners. The owner had asked me to translate the menu, and we were treated to this dinner in return. We were spoilt rotten (fabulous sweetbread, delicious pancakes with orange syrup) and we tottered home in a state of bliss.
And today we went to the Gerrit Dou exhibition, so here's everything you never wanted to know about him in the first place.
His father was a glazer who made painted glass. Dou's skills in rendering light may well have been influenced by his upbringing - watching light and it's effects from an early age. He started an apprenticeship as glazer himself, but after a few years he transferred to that other famous citizen of our town, Rembrandt van Rijn. (I know Amsterdam claims they're the big Rembrandt town, but hey, he's called van Rijn, not van Amstel. He's ours.)
For an early co-production, scroll down this page. The painting is by Rembrandt, but Gerrit Dou was allowed to do what he already did so well: paint the shields and copper vat, with his customary detail for realistically rendering various materials.
Here are two paintings from the exhibition, and I can't link to those (hence the image-heaviness) because the Leiden Collection is truly private. There just aren't internet images of the paintings - this is all I found. And there's one on the museum website (click Leiden Collection link and scroll down).
Those of you who have read Mary Mapes Dodge's book Hans Brinker, or, The Silver Skates", in the book Hans and his sister Gretel visit an exhibition of Dou's paintings, "enabling them to observe its exquisite finish and the wonderful way in which the picture seemed to be lit through its own windows."
And one other link: here. The original painting is about the same size as this image - most of Dou's paintings aren't much larger than a sheet of writing paper, and many are much smaller.
He got very rich from them, though, and even during his lifetime his customers mainly consisted of royalty. Cosimo de Medici came to visit him in his Leiden home, and paid a fortune for one of his self-portraits, and the Swedish ambassador offered him an annuity of 500 guilders for first refusal of his works (for comparison: Dou bought his large house for 2000 guilders) and ended up buying twelve paintings. It must be said that Christina of Sweden returned eleven of them; she didn't like them after all.
But even in those days time was money, and it took Dou up to five days to paint as much as one hand.
If you want to see some more images of Life in the Lowlands, for a Dou painting is as close to photographic evidence as one can get, you'll find here's a picture gallery. Click on the images to see them better.
If you get the chance to see some of his works in RL version, do so. The details are amazing - standing in front of a real one, you can see that things like the fur on the old man's sleeve and the fur on the cat are finished with brushes of just one or two hairs - he was famous for that.
It really was an extraordinary chance to see so much of his work.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-06 01:34 pm (UTC)And the picture from your town, the boat restaurant, and Pancakes with orange syrup *OMG* - I do HAVE to visit (how do I bribe the weather to be like this...?).
PS: a bit of consolation to know that somebody else is missing someone due to summer break-time as well and is counting down ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-06 02:16 pm (UTC)And aren't Dou's paintings great?
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-06 08:06 pm (UTC)It must be said that Christina of Sweden returned eleven of them; she didn't like them after all.
Well, one can't be a discerning individual on all accounts, it seems ...
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-06 09:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-07 06:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-07 06:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-08 08:21 am (UTC)where I had Kiwi with a spoon. (No darling, not you.)
Phew, I was going to get a bit worried. I mean, I like spooning as much as the next person, but not quite that intensely! Though at a Thai place I might get over it. Mmm, kiwi parfait. I could go for one of those.
Oooh, love the tabby-cat painting (I wonder why). The other one too, of course, though cats are more my thing than older men--even ones with such brilliant accessories and eye-wear.
Yes, I would love to see some of them in person. I was admiring the details just through the images; I can't imagine what sort of work went into them. I can see the little brush strokes! Makes my hand hurt but my eyes smile.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-08 06:04 pm (UTC)And while I enjoy Kiwi Parfait (viciously green, it was, but utterly delicious), don't worry. Not an O LSB member for nothing.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-10 04:21 am (UTC)Love the culinary boat.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-10 07:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-11 11:57 pm (UTC)