Book Description

Book Description

Jacob van Ruisdael is the preeminent Dutch landscape painter of theseventeenth century, renowned for the wealth of closely observed naturalistic detail in hisworks. This beautiful book, written by one of the most distinguished scholars of Dutchart, is a catalogue raisonné of Ruisdael's landscapes: almost 700 paintings, more than 130drawings, and 13 rare etchings.

Seymour Slive demonstrates the totality of the artist's vision in all three media, offeringcomprehensive and perceptive entries on all catalogued works. He also presents anddiscusses paintings and drawings that have been wrongly attributed to Ruisdael or whosestatus is uncertain.In addition, Slive provides a documented chronology of Ruisdael'slife based on a fresh examination of published and unpublished archival material; achronological list of his dated works in all media; a topographical index; andconcordances. In two appendices, Slive reviews the proposal that Ruisdael had a secondprofession as a medical doctor and discusses the copies John Constable made ofRuisdael's landscapes during the course of his lifelong passion for the master.

The combination of text and lavish reproductions makes this volume both a major workof scholarship and a vivid testimony to Ruisdael's ongoing legacy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent, very detailed catalogue
This is one detailed overview of Ruisdael's work... :) For those interested in 17th century Dutch landscape painting and/or more specifically Jacob van Ruisdael, this book is a must-have. Beware though that it is a very specific book; so unless you already have some art history under your belt, I wouldn't recommend it.

All in all, a very excellent book for its type, by a VERY knowledgeable writer.

(see also "Dutch Painting. 1600-1800" by the same writer, which is a less detailed, more general book on Dutch 17th century painting) ... Read more

Book Description

The varieties of pleasure and their expression in Dutch rusticlandscapes of the seventeenth century are recurring themes in Walter S. Gibson'sengaging new book. Gibson focuses on Haarlem between 1600 and 1635, in hisinterpretation of Dutch landscapes and emphasizes prints, the medium in whichthe rustic view was first made available to the general art-buying public.

Gibson begins by looking at the origins of the rustic landscape in thesixteenth-century Flanders and its later reformation by Dutch artists, a legacyvery much alive today. He next offers a critical review of "scriptural reading,"a popular mode of interpreting the Dutch rustic landscape that incorporatesCalvinist-influenced moral allegories. Gibson then explores traditional ideasconcerning recreation and suggests that the pleasure of rural landscapes, notpreaching, constituted their chief appeal for seventeenth-century urban viewers.

Using Visscher's Plaisante Plaetsen ("Pleasant Places") as a pointof departure, Gibson examines the ways that townspeople, both the day-trippersand owners of country houses, experienced the Dutch countryside. He alsodiscusses the role of staffage and suggests how the representations of peasantsmight have conditioned the responses of contemporary viewers to rural images.

Finally, Gibson considers how scenes of the dilapidated farm buildings,dead trees, and other evidence of material decay may reflect traditional ideasrustic life as imagined by a townsperson. Or how they may represent another wayfor the artist to engage his urban audience: far removed from the idealizedlandscapes of a Giorgione, the rustic landscape of a Ruisdael conveys acountryside that was beginning to disappear under the relentless pressures ofurbanization.

Gibson's multilayered exploration of the rustic landscape enhances ourunderstanding of the Golden Age in Dutch art. His richly illustrated bookrecalls a countryside now largely gone; at the same time, his evocative languagegracefully articulates the role of the Dutch rustic landscape in the history oflandscape painting. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Pleasant Book
Walter Gibson's "Pleasant Places" will help you enjoy the quiet and unassuming genre of 17th Century northern European landscape art. The author accepts the works at face value: pleasant images of places the Dutch in particular liked to visit. Gibson does not read religious allegory into them as some art historians do, but he instead shows you how to appreciate the quality of light, the sense of place, and the Dutch character that emerges from Dutch landscape art. He perhaps inadvertently offers some examples where religious interpretations may be more important than he allows, and you do not feel that he is forcing all of the works to fit his premise even though he is steadfast. The book is well-written, and I especially appreciate the author's parenthetical definition of Dutch terms and concepts as they are introduced. In addition, he gently reminds you of their meanings when they are reintroduced in subsequent chapters, so you won't have to hunt through the index and text to find them again. Some of the black-white reproductions of prints are too small, and not clear enough to enable detailed study, but this is a common problem with art history books, and this book will motivate you to visit the nearest art museum to study the genre in any case. Walter Gibson communicates a love and respect for 17th Century northern European landscape art that makes me want to visit Holland and experience it first-hand. Walter Gibson has persuaded me that I will find the Dutch countryside a pleasant place laden with history and wonderful light. ... Read more