A Creative Streak

The Castle Of IJsselstein is an oil painting from 1648, by the Dutch painter Jan van Goyen, depicting the castle along the IJssel River near Utrecht. Yes, the double capital at the beginning of both the village name and the river is accurate- the Dutch alphabet has an extra letter composed of the two letters, with a Y sound when it's used in words. I know, it's confusing.

Here we have an early oil painting from Rembrandt van Rijn, The Tribute Money, painted in 1629. Rembrandt depicts the passage from Matthew 22 in which Christ deftly deals with a trap set out for him by telling those who are challenging him "to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's." The painting is an early example of Rembrandt's long fascination with the use of shadow and light in his work.

This oil painting is by another Dutch artist, Meindert Hobbema, done circa 1670. Two Water-mills captures a favourite subject for the artist, whose career was relatively short, with most of his work done by this period. He preferred the natural landscape, and while this has the look at first of an English countryside, it's a Dutch location. The two watermills in the painting appear to have two different purposes, as a flour mill and sawmill, and when you start to really look at it, you start noticing people in the scene. One of the docents in the galleries was by this painting, and we chatted at length about this one, and the others nearby. 

The Return Of The Prodigal Son is an oil painting done sometime between 1665-69 by the Dutch artist Jan Weenix. It presents the New Testament parable in a theatrical way, with the artist's familiarity with Italian landscapes incorporated into the work.

This portrait is by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, titled simply Head Of An Old Woman. It is a study painting done in one sitting around 1615; Rubens meant for it to be source material for incorporating into other paintings, usually as part of a group.

A Dutch artist, Peter Lely, painted this, The Countess Of Meath, around 1674. Lely was active in Britain, serving as a court artist for Charles II. This painting captures Elizabeth Lennard, wife of the Earl of Meath, in a formal portrait, one that also incorporates Roman imagery- the arrow alludes to Diana, goddess of the hunt.

A Midsummer's Afternoon With A Methodist Preacher is a 1777 oil painting by Philip James de Loutherberg, a French artist in the court of Louis XV, who settled in London in the early 1770s. This painting is a mixture of influences- the French and Dutch fondness for landscape art with English moralizing and caricature.