Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Van Gogh and the Golden Age of Dutch Landscape

Vincent van Gogh. The Swamp, 1881. Purchased 1968. Collection National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo © NGC.

National Gallery of Canada 18 May 2012 - 03 Sep 2012

This installation showcases a major work of the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, the celebrated drawing The Swamp by Vincent van Gogh produced during the artist’s Dutch period. It bridges Van Gogh’s profound appreciation of landscape with the Dutch tradition of landscape drawing and painting which emerged in the 17th century as a new and prevailing pictorial genre. Van Gogh’s early depiction of a landscape with a swamp drawn from nature in the province of North Brabant in 1881 is shown alongside representations of the Dutch landscape by artists such as Jan Lievens and Jan van Goyen working in the Netherlands during the 17th century, a period known as the Dutch Golden Age.