How Dutch Painters Invented Atmosphere

Views on Dutch Painting of the Golden Age, How Dutch Painters Invented Atmosphere: Jan van de Cappelle, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Their Predecessors

Nineteenth-century landscape paintings accustomed viewers to realistic skies and subtle light. That kind of image of an endlessly shifting nature, however, was created by Dutch painters two centuries earlier. Foreshadowed by the Venetians and inspired by innovators in the 1630s, artists such as Jan van de Cappelle and Jacob van Ruisdael broadened the expressive potential of art. John Walsh, B.A. 1961, Director Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum, in Los Angeles, and a specialist in Dutch paintings, shows how landscape and seascape were given new and lasting powers. Followed by a reception. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Fund.