Louise Bourgeois in the Rijksmuseum Gardens

Spider (1996)

If you’re scared of spiders, it’s probably best if you keep away from the Rijksmuseum Gardens at the moment! For the last few years there’s been an exhibition of works by a noted sculptor in the gardens, and this year they have works on display by Louise Bourgeois, who is well known for her bronze sculptures of giant spiders,

When we’d looked around the Tassel Museum we wandered along the canals, grabbed a bite to eat and then made our way to the Rijksmuseum. We expected that there would be an exhibition in the gardens and we knew we’d have time to have a look before we got the train back to Haarlem. And, unlike the main part of the museum, entry is free! We hadn’t checked out what was on but as soon as we spotted the first sculpture, we knew who the artist was! Luckily spiders don’t scare me, as several of the arachnid monsters are on display! !

Crouching spider (2005)

The gardens themselves are very attractive and popular on a sunny day – and the sun kept breaking through the cloud while we were there.

Louise Bourgeois grew up in a suburb of Paris, in a family of antique tapestry dealers and restorers. In 1938, following her marriage to the American art historian Robert Goldwater, she emigrated to the United States. It took a long while before her work was acknowledged, as it was quite different from the type of art popular in America at the time. and she only started to become popular in the 1970s when she was in her 60’s.

Her work often represents aspects of her life. the spiders, for example, are influenced by her protective mother who, although she didn’t spin webs, was a weaver and by the familie’s tapestry repair business.

I came from a family of repairers. The spider is a repairer. If you bask into the web of a spider, she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and repairs it

Spider couple (2003)

This was probably the only one of the 12 sculptures on display I wasn’t so keen on. It rather reminded me of the monsters that used to appear in Doctor Who in the 1970’s – perhaps that’s why!

In and Out #2 (1995-6)

This was the earliest work on display. It’s quite different from the others and rather like the works of Brancusi. It’s apparently meant to be a self portrait of the artist surrounded by her 3 children.

Quarantania (1947-53)

Welcoming Hands (1996)

This rather moving group of bronze sculptures displayed on rough stone pedestals, represent friendship and solidarity. They were originally displayed in New York on a site with a view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where immigrants first arrived in America, although they are now normally sited in the Tuilleries in Paris. Their message has a contemporary resonance with all the movement of people trying to escape war and poverty, looking for a better life. Some people show friendship and solidarity to them. Sadly, in these cruel times, too many don’t.

This sculpture of a child’s hand was particularly touching (emotionally, that is, of course)

Fountain (1999)

Untitled (2004)

These two high-gloss aluminium sculptures of Untitled (2004), hanging from the branches of the great wingnut tree, refer to her father’s habit of storing chairs by hanging them on roof beams in the attic of their home

Inside the museum entrance atrium there were four seats in the form of giant eyes

Source: https://www.azquotes.com/author/18216-Louise_Bourgeois

Eduardo Chillida in the Rijksmuseum Gardens

This year, the sculpture exhibition in the Rijksmuseum gardens features the work of the Spanish Basque artist Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002). He was originally a footballer, playing in goal for Real Sociedad, San Sebastián’s La Liga football team, but serious injury cut his career short.

He studied architecture before becoming a sculptor, and some of his works certainly have an architectural quality.

His work combines modern abstraction with traditional artisanal techniques for working materials, in particular forging iron. He frequently made his numerous and celebrated public works from large-format steel, using the material in a bold and spectacular fashion, with utter disregard for its innate constraints. Chillida believed that ‘To construct is to build in space.’ (Exhibition website)

Penone in the Garden

Tra…Between

Last year, when we were in Amsterdam for a short holiday, we saw an exhibition of sculptures by Joan Miro in the gardens of the Rijksmuseum. This year there was another exhibition of works by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Penone. There were 18 sculptures displayed in the garden, with another 4 inside the main building.

Penone’s work – both his early performances, his sculptures, drawings and numerous writings – from the beginning of his artistic career (in 1968, as the youngest member of the Arte Povera movement), expresses a deep connection with nature and its inexorable forces. He is particularly fascinated by natural growth and processes of change, which are often obscured by people’s frenzied existence. Trees are the most important and recurring motif in his work, and also play a leading role in the Rijksmuseum exhibition.

And the “connection with nature” was clearly evident in the works on display which featured trees and rock

Triplice

Bifurcation

In this piece the marble has been carved in a way to resemble twisted tree roots or blood vessels which appear to be part of the stone. A fusion of animal or vegetable with mineral

Anatomy

This tree, cast in bronze, looks as if it has been struck by lightening revealing an inner golden core

Thunderstruck tree

An upside down tree

The leaves of root

This one was a little creepy

To breathe the shadow

These were my favourites pieces – Vegetal Gestures – anthropomorphic sculptures cast in bronze which made so it looks like they’re formed from bark

Japanese:Modern at the Rijksmuseum

The Riksmuseum has a wing, a relatievly new extension, devoted to Asian art. Currently they’re showing a temporary exhibition of Japanese prints from the first half of the twentieth century, the Elise Wessels Collection.

There is a long tradition of woodblock print making in Japan, known as ukiyo-e, which translates as “pictures of the floating world”, it flourished from the 17th century. Japanese prints had a strong influence on the Impressionists as well as Post-Impressionists including van Gogh. This exhibition featured prints from the 20th Century when there was a revival in print making with the established techniques applied to both contemporary and traditional subjects.

The exhibition website tells us

early twentieth century saw the emergence of two new artistic currents known as Shin hanga (‘new prints’) and Sōsaku hanga (‘creative prints’). Artists within these two movements each applied traditional woodcutting techniques in their own specific ways. Shin hanga artists used time-honoured methods and pictorial content that dovetailed with Japan’s centuries-old printmaking tradition, choosing subjects such as idealized female portraits and evocative landscape prints. Sōsaku hanga artists, by contrast, were avant-gardists with innovative ideas about the role of the artist and the creative process, whose subject matter revolved around the modern world, city life and industry.

One popular subject for traditional prints was the landscape. There were examples of the techniques used to depict modern scenes

One important strand in tradional ukiyo-e were prints of idealised, beautiful women. This was continued in the 20th Century – no doubt because they continued to be popular subjects for collectors. There were many examples in the exhibition

with some more contemporary approaches

and this one clearly influenced by European Art Nouveau

with some traditional style prints in more contemporary poses

and a modern take on the erotic pictures that were popular with a particular type of collector

Besides the prints, the exhibition features kimonos

lacquerware and posters, on loan from the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.

The Dutch Golden Age at the Rijksmuseum

Not surprisingly, the Rijksmuseum has an extensive collection of works of art from the Dutch Golden Age, that period during the the 17th century, when the Netherlands were a world power and this was reflected Dutch trade, prosperity and achievements in science and art. Besides the paintings displayed in the “Gallery of Honour”, the second floor of the museum has many examples of paintings, sculpture, ceramics, furniture and other objects from the period.

I was particularly interested in the collection of genre paintings, especially those by two of my favourite Golden Age artists, Gabriel Metsu and Gerard ter Borch.

Metsu lived in Leiden until 1657, when he moved to Amsterdam, living in an alley on Prinsengracht. Most of his pictures are genre scenes but he also painted religious subjects portraits and still lives.  There were several works by him on display, including this domestic scene where a hunter is offering a bird he has shot to a young woman distracting her from her sewing.

The Hunter’s Present (c1658-61) Gabriel Metsu

According to the Rijksmuseum website, during the 17th century ‘vogelen’ (literally ‘to bird’) had a particular meaning so his intentions may not be entirely honourable!

I particularly liked this painting of an elderly woman

Old Woman Meditating (c1661-63) Gabriel Metsu

It has something of a photographic quality. Her face and hands are skilfully rendered and her expression suggests she is concentrating on the devotional text – or is she nodding off?

Gerard ter Borch was born in Zwolle and lived in Amsterdam and Haarlem later settling in in Deventer. His genre paintings often showed figures in domestic interiors making music, reading or writing letters, and drinking. I’d first come across his work at the “Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and Silence” exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in January 2012.  I think he is particularly skilled at painting silks and satin, bringing out the sheen very effectively. His sister Gesina often modelled for him and I think she appears in both of these two paintings displayed at the Rijksmuseum.

Gallant Conversation, known as “The Parental Admonition” (c1654) Gerard ter Borch

Seated Girl in Peasant Costume (c1650-60) Gerard ter Borch

Finally, I’d seen the following picture before.

Woman at her Toilet (c 1655 – 60) Jan Havicksz Steen

It had featured in the “Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and Silence” exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Besides the paintings there was a variety of other objects from the “Golden Age” which painted a picture of life during that prosperous period – at least for the wealthier classes.

The collection included three dolls’ houses that provide a detailed view of how affluent houses were once furnished. The most famous was one that was owned by Petronella Oortman of Amsterdam. It was seeing this very house that had inspired Jessie Burton to write her novel The Minituarist which is set in Golden Age Amsterdam.

The picture (from the Rijksmuseum website) doesn’t give a proper impression of the house which was at least 2 metres high. The website tells us that

In the 17th century, dolls’ houses were not toys; they were a hobby, the equivalent for women of the collection cabinets kept by men.

The wealth of the Golden Age was mainly accumulated through trade. The Netherlands was a major sea power (and rival to the emerging British Empire) with colonies overseas, particularly the Far East. There was a Gallery devoted to Dutch sea power on the second floor which included this magnificent model of a 17th Century warship, the William Rex

There was also a gallery full of models of ships on the ground floor of the museum

None as large as the William Rex, however.

Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum

There are only 34 paintings attributed to Vermeer. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has 4 of them – more than 10% of the total. They’re displayed in the “Gallery of Honour”, just a few metres from Rembrandt’s works. My early start to my visit meant I was able to see the paintings without being obstructed by too many people, but there was already a cluster of people, such is Vermeer’s popularity. This wasn’t always the case – he was largely unknown until the 1860s when French art critic and left-wing politician Théophile Thoré-Bürger published a series of articles eulogizing the painter’s forgotten works.

Vermeer’s works are very different from Rembrandt’s. They are much smaller for a start – which makes it difficult to get a look in when the gallery is busy. His brushwork is fine and meticulous, unlike Rembrandt whose brushwork in his later paintings was much coarser. His paintings are full of light and bright colours (with extensive use of the expensive lapis lazuli ultramarine blue) unlike the works by many of his contemporaries which are often rather dark and gloomy. And Vermeer didn’t go in for grandiose historical and biblical subjects, he concentrated on middle class domestic scenes.

Two of the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeers, like the one in the Irish National Gallery,  depict women reading letters

Woman Reading a Letter (c 1663)

The Love Letter (c. 1669 – c. 1670)

He even painted domestic servants going about their work. This painting of a milk maid is probably one of his best known works.

The Milkmaid (c. 1660)

The Rijkmuseum’s fourth work by Vermeer is a street scene

View of Houses in Delft, Known as The Little Street (c. 1658)

This is an unusual painting in Vermeer’s oeuvre, and remarkable for its time as a portrait of ordinary houses. The composition is as exciting as it is balanced. The old walls with their bricks, whitewash, and cracks are almost tangible. The location is Vlamingstraat 40–42 in Delft. Vermeer’s aunt Ariaentgen Claes lived in the house at the right, with her children, from around 1645 until her death in 1670. (Rijksmuseum website)

Four marvellous paintings.

Sunday Morning at the Rijksmuseum

After having visited Rembrandt’s house I thought I should go and have a look at some of his better known paintings, so a visit to the Rijksmuseum was in order. I was up early and after breakfast and checking out of my hotel, I took the tram into the city centre. The tram stopped directly outside the Rijksmuseum so I was there at about 9:30, half an hour after it opened. There were quite a few people around even at that early hour on a Sunday, but I didn’t have to queue for a ticket so I decided to make my way up to the “Gallery of Honour” on the second floor where the most well known paintings from the museum’s collection are on show before the hordes arrived.

The early start was definitely the right idea as I was able to get a good view of the paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer and spend some time contemplating. Only half an hour later that was much more difficult, particularly when the tour groups started arriving resulting in large groups gathering round the most well known works while the tour guide proceeded to discuss the paining. This made it very difficult to get a look in.

Everyone wanted to see the Night Watch, or The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenhurch, to give it it’s original name,  which is the centrepiece of the Nightwatch Room. My favourite of the Rembrandt paintings on display, however, was The Jewish Bride

Vincent Van Gogh is reported to have said

‘I should be happy to give ten years of my life if I could go on sitting here in front of this picture for a fortnight, with only a crust of dry bread for food.’

Well, I don’t think I’d go quite that far but I certainly spent quite a few minutes contemplating it, returning a couple of times for another look before it became obscured by the tour groups.

The Rijksmuseum website describes the painting

Two contemporaries had themselves portrayed by Rembrandt in historicizing costumes as characters from the Bible. The couple’s tender embrace is at the centre of this poignant painting: the man’s loving gesture is returned with a gentle caress. The figures and their poses agree with the study (No 67), only the figure of King Abimelech spying on them is missing. We, the viewers, assume his role as witnesses of their clandestine love.

However, not everyone agrees

most art historians believe that the couple represent Isaac and Rebecca. Another, more neutral explanation is that the man is declaring his love to his wife. In that case the subject of the painting would be the virtue of marriage. (Rembrandt House website)

Yet another interpretation is that the painting depicts

a Jewish father hanging a necklace around his daughter’s neck on her wedding day (Jewish Press Website)

I thought tht Rembrandt had certainly captured the man’s affection for his bride (if that is what she is) I also liked the way he had applied the paint. Looking close up it was possible to see that Rembrandt had applied the paint very roughly. The paint on the man’s sleeve is so thick that it seems as though Rembrandt used a palette knife to put it on. (Rembrandt House website)

Rembrandt produced more than 300 paintings. The Rijksmuseum, not surprisingly, have a number of them. I can’t say that I like them all. Sometimes the subject matter doesn’t appeal and sometimes they’re just too dark. Of the other of his works on display I liked three paintings that were hung in the same corner as The Jewish Bride.

One of these was The Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild, known as ‘The Syndics’,

The individuals portrayed (all but the servant at the back would have paid to be included in the painting) have a real, lived in look about them. They’re not idealised. The older men have wrinkles. And I like the way they look out – it seems that they are looking directly out at the viewer, making you feel part of the scene.

The other two works hanging nearby were portraits. One of his son Titus dressed as a Franciscan Friar

His downcast eyes lend him an air of quiet introspection. His serene, pale face stands out clearly against a backdrop of green and brown vegetation.Solitary retreat into nature for prayer and reflection was of great importance to Saint Francis and his order. (Rijksmuseum website)

Finally  the only self-portrait where Rembrandt portrays himself as a biblical figure – in this case Saint Paul

Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul

There was a lot more to see in the museum, including 4 paintings by Vermeer in the Gallery of Honour, a few yards from the Rembrandts. I think I’ll save them for another post.