MASTERS OF THE EVERYDAY:
DUTCH ARTISTS IN THE AGE OF
VERMEER
04 MARCH TO 24 JULY 2016
PLAIN ENGLISH SCRIPT
THE QUEEN'S GALLERY PALACE OF HOLYROODHOUSE
Stop 100: Welcome
Welcome to The Queen’s Gallery, and to this exhibition Masters of the Everyday: Dutch
Artists in the Age of Vermeer. It brings together an outstanding collection of masterpieces
showing everyday life in 17th century Holland. Because of the fantastic skill of the artists
these paintings reveal that world to us in wonderful detail.
These notes contain the same information as the audio-description provided for hearing
visitors. They are adapted from a script produced by Antenna Audio with information from
a number of experts whose names are included at the end of these notes.
We hope you enjoy the exhibition. Make your way up the stairs, and turn right at the
landing.
Stop 200: Introduction to Masters of The Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of
Vermeer
The Dutch artists of the 17th century showed great skill in the way they painted scenes of
everyday life - from the noisy life of village taverns and marketplaces, to the calmness of
townhouse rooms and courtyards. The pictures on display in this exhibition include scenes
from every level of Dutch society with people going about their daily activities. We see
them eating and drinking, playing games, falling in love, having arguments, and making music
together.
The subjects of the paintings may be ordinary, but the skill of the artists is extraordinary.
The way that everyday details are painted almost makes us feel like it is real, and that we
could be part of the picture. In many cases, the pictures have a deeper meaning - a hidden
message. These messages may not be obvious to us now, but they would have been
understood by people seeing them at the time they were painted.
Stop 1: Charles I, Henrietta-Maria and Charles II as a baby, by Hendrick Pot,
painted in 1632, (oil on panel)
Dutch painting had its Golden Age around the same time that Charles I was king. This royal
family portrait by Hendrick Pot shows just how highly people in 17th century British society
respected Dutch artists. The King paid for this painting to be done. It shows him with his
Queen, Henrietta Maria, and their eldest son, Prince Charles, who later became Charles II.
The different elements of the painting are arranged informally. The young prince sits
unsteadily on a cushion on the table and his mother holds his hand to support him. A
crown, sceptre and an olive branch have been placed between the boy and his father. The
crown and the sceptre are symbols of royal power. The olive branch is the symbol of peace.
This is a way of saying that King Charles was using his royal power to promote peace. This
message about peace is reinforced by the informal way in which the royal subjects of the
painting are shown – they may be powerful and important people but their home life is
simple and informal.
Even though the setting is simple and informal, the painting also reveals a common feature of
Dutch art at this time – the use of space. Dutch painters in the 17th century show that they
are aware not only of the figures but also of the space around the figures. So, there are
often large areas of empty space in their paintings. They also paint their subjects in great
detail. In this painting the artist shows the splendour of Henrietta Maria’s dress, almost as if
he were painting a portrait in miniature. The Dutch artists were much admired because of
this highly technical way of painting minute detail, which was very different from Italian art.
Stop 2: A laughing Bravo with Bass Viol and a Glass, by Hendrick Ter Brugghen,
painted in 1625, (oil on canvas)
This painting was recorded in an inventory drawn up for Charles I as a ‘laughing, swaggering
fellow.’
It depicts a subject that was very common, particularly amongst artists who had studied in
Rome, as the artist Ter Brugghen had. In Italian he is called a 'bravo' – a boastful, loud,
slightly menacing fellow, prone to drinking, swearing and fighting. In this picture he is shown
as a musician – the instrument he is holding is a bass viol.
His bravado is matched by the application of the paint.The rough and ready way the paint
has been applied to the canvas matches the character of the subject. Artists at this time
seemed particularly to enjoy leaving areas of their painting looking like they are not quite
finished.
But in this painting there is one detail which Ter Brugghen particularly wanted the viewers
of then painting to admire – and that was the way he has painted the light in the glass. He
gives the glass a strange lens-like effect on the right-hand side, with a green hue, probably
partly from his sleeve, and partly from the imperfection of colour in the glass coming
through in a flash of light.
So, what kind of music might we expect to find in a 17th-century Dutch Tavern? It would
not be a refined sound – nothing like the music played in the royal court. And the viol isn’t a
very strong sounding instrument. It has a low sound, quiteclose to the human voiceIf there
was a lot of noise in a tavern, it would have been very difficult to make out. So it is unlikely
that he is playing alone – there was probably another instrument player there, with some
percussion and some singing too.
Stop 3: A Village Fair with a Church behind, by Isack van Ostade, painted in 1643,
(oil on panel)
Ostade’s scenes of peasant life appealed greatly to his Dutch urban clientele. Here,
ramshackle market stalls nestle in the shadow of a church, surrounded by bustling activity.
At the centre, a crowd listens intently to a performance by two ballad singers. They would
make a modest income by selling broadsheet copies of their songs about affairs of the day.
Just to the right of them, a woman sells apples from beneath her upturned sleigh. In the
centre foreground, three children play dice in the dirt.On the right, others buy freshly baked
bread.
George IV loved rustic pictures like this, but at some point it appears to have been
considered slightly too low life for the Royal Collection. This may be because of what is
happening to the right of the market stall, where a dog is sniffing a man, crouching down
doing his business. He represents the lowest of the low life going on here. This little scene
has only recently been discovered, because for at least 100 years the man had been covered
up as a bush. He was only rediscovered when the painting was cleaned and restored earlier
this year. It’s not quite clear when the cover-up took place, but the picture was last
restored in 1903, so he had certainly been concealed for over a century.
Stop 4: The Listening Housewife, by Nicolaes Maes, painted in 1655, (oil on panel)
This is an unusual painting. In the centre a woman is coming down a staircase. She is wearing
an apron so might be a servant. But the other clothes she is wearing - a luxurious fur coat
and a beautiful hat – suggest that she is not a maid but is the lady of the house. The
furnishings and decor in the house show that she is quite a wealthy woman.
To the left of the stairs there are three figures in an intimate space. A maid is taking a break
from her chores - she is abandoning her broom to embrace her lover. A male onlooker
lights up the scene with a lantern.
She looks like a lazy maid. The theme of laziness is also shown by including a cat in the
picture. For Dutch people at that time, cats were a symbol of laziness. The cat in this
picture is not doing his job, catching mice, but is just sitting on a chair.
But the lady of the house looks like an understanding employer. Her little smile and the
finger pressed to her chin suggest that she finds the situation funny. But this work by
Nicolaes Maes is not only a beautifully painted comic scene. It is also an important
development in the way that Dutch artists painted indoor scenes. Maes was one of the most
important students of the great artist Rembrandt. He was famous for arranging the scenes
shown in his painting in new ways.
For example, in this painting he shows us more than one space where things are happening
– he is one of the first Dutch artists to do that. This painting has a foreground, a middle
ground and a background and so has a lovely feeling of depth. Artists working in Delft (like
Vermeer and De Hooch) became very interested in creating this sense of depth. They
developed very particular ways of showing perspective, with effects to draw the viewer’s
eye, and so create an impression of real space and depth. This is what makes the scene so
real, as if we were looking at a real Dutch scene from the 17th century.
Stop 5: The Young Mother, by Gerrit Dou, painted in1658, (oil on panel)
Gerrit Dou’s jewel-like painting allows us to glimpse the interior of an affluent 17th century
Dutch home. The woman of the house is looking directly at us. She is working on a piece of
cloth. There is a maid and a child in a cradle. The artist Gerrit Dou was one of Rembrandt’s
first pupils. He liked to show off his skills so has included a large amount of content in this
picture. He is showing us that he was able to paint any materials you could think of – the
wicker of the cradle, the copper – we see a lamp in front – and also vegetables, such as
these carrots. He makes it look almost like a photograph. Of course there was no
photography at the time, so people loved his work for all the details included in his
paintings.
This picture now belongs to the Mauritshuis in The Hague, but it was once part of the Royal
Collection. In 1660 the Dutch government bought it from the artist to present to the new
English King, Charles II, to mark his Restoration to the throne. We know that Charles II
especially liked this picture, and even tried to persuade Dou to move to London. But the
painting only remained in England for about 30 years. William III became King of England in
1689. He liked this painting very much, so took it to his hunting lodge in The Netherlands,
which is how it ended up in the Mauritshuis collection.
Stop 6: The Cello Player, by Gabriel Metsu, painted around 1658, (oil on canvas)
A young woman descends the staircase, a sheet of music in her hand, poised between two
men. She looks like she is ready to sing a song. One of the young men looks up at her
adoringly, as he adjusts the tuning of his cello. His eye-catching red stockings and the
matching red feather in his hat suggest that he has dressed specially for the occasion. In art
and literature of the period, a cello often symbolised domestic harmony. And the little dog,
waiting eagerly for his mistress at the foot of the stairs, symbolises faithfulness.
But above, another young man leans with a sad expression on the window ledge, in the
traditional pose of sorrow. Perhaps this is kind a love triangleand the man in the window has
been rejected. The cellist might be luckier. Behind him, the lid of the virginals is raised, and
the front cover lowered, ready to play. It is not clear where the word virginalscomes from.
The instrument may be called a virginals because it was usually played by young women. The
discord between this trio suggests that it is unlikely that they will ever be performing
together, but the Dutch middle-classes often engaged in music-making at home.
Stop 7: A gentleman pressing a lady to drink, by Gerard ter Borch, painted about
1658–9, (oil on canvas)
An immoral man giving a woman alcoholic drinks was a common scene in 17th century
Dutch painting. In this painting by Gerard ter Borch, the man – whose sash identifies him as
a soldier – stands over the girl with his hand on her shoulder. His eyes are in shadow from
the brim of his hat. People in the 17th century would have thought about this scene in a very
different way from us today. For them this was a common comic situation which they were
used to seeing in Dutch art. The seducer is trying to get a girl drunk. He offers her a drink
and holds the bottle so that he can fill her glass as soon as she has finished it. The viewer of
the painting knows exactly what he is trying to do. These scenes must have been popular,
and people must have thought they were funny, because they are so common in Dutch art
at this time.
Although the scene may have been familiar, this painting by Gerard Ter Borch is remarkable
because of his expertise in showing the texture of materials, as only he could. Ter Borch
gives us another strand of fine painting alongside the work of Gerrit Dou. He specialises in
the richness of surfaces. No other artist can capture the shiny surface of silk, the softness
of fur, or the crispness of linen better than Ter Borch. The fine surfaces in this painting go
very well with the meaning of the painting, which is about lust and sensual desire. For
example the soldier’s hand is touching the fur of the woman’s collar, but at the same time is
also just touching a little bit of the skin of her neck. The painting hints that this kind of
immorality is only found in rich people - the painting shows both the luxury and also the
temptations of high living.
Stop 8: A Twelfth Night Feast: 'The King drinks', by Jan Steen, painted around
1661, (oil on panel)
This picture shows the traditional celebrations held in Holland to mark Twelfth Night, the
Feast of Epiphany, when the Wise Men visited the infant Jesus. One striking detail in the
right foreground of the painting is the little girl who’s holding up her skirt. She is jumping
over three lighted candles. They refer to the Three Kings of the story.
Behind her is an old man, enthroned in a chair,wearing an improvised crown: he has been
designated King for the evening. He is drinking – according the tradition when he took his
first sip people shouted out ‘The King drinks! Hooray!’
The boy with the red hat is holding a kolf club. Kolf was played outdoors on ice, rather like
ice hockeyThis is a detail included by the artist to show that this feast was taking place in
the winter season.
Once again, Jan Steen has included his own self portrait: standing in the background in the
centre of the painting. He seems to belaughing at the viewer, with pipes in his hand. And on
the stairs at the back, is a young boy holding a rommelpot, a kind of percussion instrument.
Just outside are his companions, one carrying a large paper star, representing the Star that
led the Wise Men to Bethlehem. These traditions are still followed by children in some
villages in The Netherlands – they walk through the streets singing, playing musical
instruments, just as depicted here.
Stop 9: A Village Revel, by Jan Steen, painted in 1673, (oil on canvas)
There is a lot going on in this picture! One clue about what is happening is the sign on the
inn which is written in Dutch: it says 'Het Misverstand' which means 'The Misunderstanding'.
The other sign, next to the inn door, says 'Dit Huis is te Huur' which means 'This House is
for Hire'. But actually it is not the house that is for hire, but rather the women who work in
it. The reason why people are fighting is because one of these women is taking a man
inside. The angry woman is probably his wife trying to prevent her husband from entering
this inn.
There are many details in this picture which refer to lust and its consequences. In the centre
foreground, an old man with a crutch carries a basket of eggs. At the time people believed
that eggs were an aphrodisiac. Perhaps the old man needs some help in this department?
Meanwhile, in the lower left, a woman defends herself against a man trying to steal her
cockerel, which is another obvious reference to sexual activity.
The disorderly behaviour outside the inn has degenerated into a free-for-all. But one figure
stands apart. Just to the right of centre is a soldier, with a stern expression on his face, and
a lantern in his hand. He makes the viewer think of the ancient philosopher, Diogenes. The
story goes that Diogenes took a lantern into Athens on a sunny day, to look for an honest
man.
But Steen’s picture is not too disapproving. The artist completed the painting in 1673, a year
after he himself opened a tavern in Leiden to bring in some extra income. Jan Steen was
telling a story and in fact we see him on the ladder on the left.He has painted himself
obviously having a very happy time. The message is that we should listen to his lesson about
the dangers of lust, but perhaps we should not take it too seriously.
Stop 10: A Woman at her Toilet, by Jan Steen, painted in 1663, (oil on panel)
One of the striking aspects of this painting is that we see the image through an archway, It
feels like going inside a house and in this case entering the bedchamber of this particular
woman.
This archway has a very striking decoration. At the top is Cupid, the god of love, and the
hanging garlands include sunflowers, symbols of faithfulness. But the room beyond the arch
seems to suggest temptation to be unfaithful. The young woman looks directly at us, as she
removes her stocking She must be rich – the small box on her table contains all kinds of
jewellery which shows that she is quite a well-to-do lady.
At the same time we also see a chamber pot. Of course this is something that people would
use at that time, but in the 17th century promiscuous women were sarcastically referred to
as 'pies kousen', which translates literally as ‘piss stockings’. This gives the scene a
completely different context.
At the threshold to the room, the artist has placed an overturned lute and a book of music.
The lute rests on a skull: together these symbolise the fleeting nature of life and earthly
pleasures.
The lute was celebrated as an instrument which had the power to transport the listener
into a kind of ecstasy – Shakespeare was one of many writers who described it in this way.
The lute’s ravishing tone made it the most admired of all the musical instruments. It also has
a very satisfying shape with anarched back, as can be seen in the painting. It has a seductive
appeal, which seems appropriate for the woman sitting in the background of this painting.
Stop 11: Card Players in a Sunlit Room, by Pieter de Hooch, painted in 1658, (oil
on canvas)
This painting is a good example of one of de Hooch’s particular skills. Instead of painting a
room with a light foreground which moves towards a dark, closed background, he leads the
viewer from a light foreground to an even lighter middle ground and distance. In this way
the painting is like a door into reality: here the viewer passes from the room to the
courtyard, through an arched opening and on to the canal or street beyond.
It is clear that the artist has worked out the perspective of this painting very carefully but it
is not the geometry of perspective which seems to interest him – he is more interested in
the surfaces, like the plaster on the walls and the glass in the windows. The viewer sees
clearly every bit of rubbish on the floor, and all the chips, cracks and imperfections in the
tiles. The colour of the tiles varies according to how much light they reflect: those near the
door reflect a lot of the sky and so are much bluer than those closer to the viewer.
We are looking into the light, which makes it difficult to see the figures. They seem to be
wasting their afternoon drinking and smoking. The barmaid bringing them another jug of
wine and some more pipes is looking very tired and bored, as if she has been doing this all
day. It is hard to tell what card game they are playing but it looks as if the hearts are
trumps.
People at the time would have known exactly what the situation was, but for modern
viewers it is more difficult to read.
Stop 12: A Courtyard in Delft at Evening: a Woman spinning, by Pieter de Hooch,
painted in 1657, (oil on canvas)
De Hooch’s picture shows women engaged in everyday tasks in the open courtyard of a
townhouse. The scene is from his home city of Delft - just to the right of the gabled roof in
the centre of the painting is the octagonal tower of the Nieuwe Kerk, the New Church, and
a little lower down to the right, the square tower of the Town Hall.
This courtyard is a typical subject for Dutch art, showing the domestic life of the middle-
class. But what is not typical is the way that the servants are shown. Normally in Dutch art
of this time they are depicted as flirtatious and lazy, but here they are modest and hard-
working.
The woman with her back to the viewer is spinning, with a distaff from which she is taking
threads of wool. The young woman is carrying a bucket and a pitcher of water towards the
house. Her head is modestly bowed and catches the bright sunlight in a way which suggests
that she is being specifically identified as a good servant.
The use of the light in this picture is also worth mentioning for another reason. When Peter
de Hooch was working on the house to the right-hand side of the picture he painted a large
chimney stack which he later decided to paint out. In its place he painted the tree growing
on the terrace. But he seems to have forgotten about that change when painting the
shadow at the bottom left of the painting, because there he has included the shadow of the
chimney stack.
Stop 13: Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman, by Johannes Vermeer, painted in
the early 1660s, (oil on canvas)
Vermeer’s softly lit interior depicts a woman standing at the Virginals. Beside her is a
gentleman, his hand resting on the instrument.His mouth is open, as if he is singing to
accompany her playing. The design on the lid and inside the virginals show that this is an
instrument by the very famous instrument builder, Ruckers, from Antwerp. About a
hundred of these instruments still exist today.
The lettering on the lid reads 'Music is a companion in pleasure and a solace in sorrow'.
The chair, and the viola da gamba – the instrument on the floor beside it – might be a sign
that they are waiting for a third person to enter the room and join them in playing chamber
music together. The virginals accompanying the viola da gamba and the voice was a perfect
trio. The left hand of the virginals player would be playing the same notes as the viola da
gamba, whilst the right hand of the virginals player would then be filling in the harmony The
voice would float above the music with the words of the song.
Vermeer's genius as an artist can be seen in the way he depicts the light falling on objects in
the scene. The way that Vermeer paints light is legendary. In this painting it can be seen the
way in which he has shown the detail on the rug and silver salver underneath the jug. By
painting little droplets or dots of light, it appears that the light is made of particles which
stick to the surfaces of objects. He also depicts light through very strong colour. He
intensifies the colour of the objects - here the viewer knows thatthe tiles must have been a
black or grey colour but Vermeer has painted them in an intense blue. The wooden objects
in the paintingmust have been a buff wood colour, but he paints them in an almost pure
yellow. We also see very clearly the red of the woman’s dress. So there are three primary
colours, very prominently displayed. This gives the painting almost a jewel-like character,
which conveys the idea of light flooding into the room.
Stop 14: Rose Satin Drawing Room (looking North), Carlton House, by Charles
Wild, painted between 1815 and 1819 for Pyne’s Royal Residences,
(watercolour)
This watercolour depicts the interior of the Bow Room at Carlton House, which was
George IV’s London residence. It shows how his outstanding collection of Dutch and
Flemish paintings was hung in these richly decorated interiors, alongside the best French
furniture and decorative arts, particularly Sèvres porcelain.
The paintings are hung as groups of four with one large painting over three small ones. They
are always in gilded frames, which are contemporary and not Dutch – they would have been
added by George IV.
In pride of place, to the left of the mirror, is a self portrait of Rubens. On the right is
Rubens’s portrait of his colleague, the Flemish portrait painter Anthony Van Dyck. These
two artists are presented as the royalty of Dutch painting. Under them we see beautifully
painted works with wonderful detail, but they are not depicting princes or grand
mythological or religious episodes. Rather they are small-scale scenes of everyday life,
depicting the life of peasants in the Netherlands during the 17th century. It seems that
George IV did not consider these humble scenes to be out of place hanging in such a grand
interior.
Stop 15: The interior of a peasant’s cottage, 1668 Ostade, by Adriaen van Ostade,
painted in 1668, (oil on panel)
This scene by Adriaen van Ostade is part of a tradition of painting dark, barn-like interiors,
started by an artist called Adriaen Brouwer in the early years of the 17th century. They are
often thinly painted, using earth colours, with a lot of attention given to the different
textures of wood, dirt floors, or crumbling plaster. The people who live in these places are
usually peasants who will be drinking or smoking and enjoying themselves.
In this painting Adriaen van Ostade has added a completely new element, inspired by the
work of Gerrit Dou. He has painted brilliant daylight which pours over the front of the
painting. It comes from the window on the left-hand side which he has painted in a lot of
detail. The brilliant detail and bright colour make the main figure in the group stand out.
The scene is meant to be a small and humble cottage, but the scale of the figures and the
slightly exaggerated perspective make it look like a huge barn-like space. The artist probably
painted it like this on purpose, so that he could fill the space with as many objects as
possible. In this way he could show us how skilled he was. It feels like he has set a challenge
for himself and the viewer: how many things can he hide and how many things can we find?
There was a long tradition of painting scenes of peasants, going back to Pieter Bruegel the
Elder. Usually peasants are shown indulging in vices. They may not be the most serious
vices, but include drinking or fighting or chasing women. But the family in this painting are
being very well behaved. The artist’s intention is to amuse the viewer – he does this by
showing us a sentimental view of the family rather than by showing us how badly they
behave. This scene of wholesome, decent folk contains a very positive message – people are
living comfortably in a very homely setting. It is a very reassuring image of Dutch culture
which, the artist seems to be saying, should be celebrated.
Stop 16: A Family Concert, by Godfried Schalcken, painted in the late 1660s, (oil
on panel)
This painting by Godfried Schalcken depicts the three ages of man: youth, on the left; middle
age in the middle and old age on the right-hand side. They are busy in music-making,
following the lead of the woman conducting, and singing at the same time.
The woman is the artist’s sister. Standing at the back, is the artist himself. This group may be
intended to suggest family harmony, but there may be some comedy intended through the
idea that when a beautiful woman conducts, men will sing to her tune, whether they be
young, middle-aged or old.
This is certainly a much more economical version of chamber music making at home,
without the need for a lute or a much more expensive set of virginals. Fiddles, as portrayed
in this painting, were made quite cheaply, and are also much easier to play. Children would
have learned to play the fiddle at home – the skill passed from generation to generation
rather than through the formal apprenticeship associated with a lute or keyboard
instrument.
Stop 17: An Old Man And A Girl At A Vegetable And Fish Stall, by Willem van
Mieris, painted in 1732, (oil on panel)
In this painting Willem van Mieris shows off his skill at capturing the beauty of ordinary
things. A young woman is visiting a shop and her basket is full of purchases. The shopkeeper
points to the lead weights, suggesting she should measure out the quantities. Beneath her, a
set of shiny scales rests in a wicker basket containing nuts. Brushes hang from the wall, side
by side with fish, as dry as paper.
In the bottom right corner, bird-shaped biscuits on sticks poke out from a basket of fruit. A
rat goes about its business. In the opposite corner there is a stack of kolfsticks – kolf was an
early form of ice hockey. Below the shopkeeper is a basket of glistening herring.
Van Miries represents the goods in the shop with the highest degree of accuracy, trying to
make them look real. He has borrowed many ideas for this scene from the artist Gerrit
Dou’s grocer’s shop, but overall the way he paints it is less natural - the curtain makes the
painting look like a scene in a theatre, like a stage set. Van Miries did not intend it to look
like the real window in the actual shop, which is probably on the left of the painting – it
looks like there must be a door there because of the natural light which is coming through.
This is the last painting in the exhibition. It is last because it was painted in 1732, which
makes it actually an 18th century painting. But it looks like a 17th century Dutch Golden Age
painting even though it was painted 60 years after Gerrit Dou produced his own grocer’s
shop painting (which itself was one of Gerrit Dou’s later works). It shows that there was
still a demand for this kind of painting in The Netherlands in the 1730s. Elsewhere in Europe
people were by this time starting to favour artists who had a looser style. The style of the
Dutch Golden Age was being criticised as too fussy and quite cold.
Over time tastes change. But today, hundreds of years later, we can look back and
appreciate this period of Dutch history – a period that produced an outpouring of artists
who truly were Masters of The Everyday.
This script has been compiled from a tour produced by Antenna Audio with information
from the following experts:
Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures
Rosanna de Sancha, Paintings Conservator, Royal Collection Trust
Kathryn Jones, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts, Royal Collection Trust
Lucy Peter, Assistant Curator of Paintings, Royal Collection Trust
Quentin Buvelot, Senior Curator, Mauritshuis
Professor Ashley Solomon, Chair and Head of Historical Performance, Royal College
of Music
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