Irène de Groot

---

Landscape

BOKEN "IRÈNE DE Groots" verk "Landscape: Etchings by the Dutch masters of the seventeenth century" utforskar den holländska grafiska konsten under 1600-talet. Boken erbjuder en djupgående introduktion och beskrivning av etsningar från denna period, vilket ger läsaren en inblick i den konstnärliga utvecklingen och de kulturella strömningarna som präglade tiden.

Boken innehåller ett urval av etsningar som representerar olika aspekter av landskapskonst. Genom att analysera dessa verk framträder både tekniska och stilistiska drag som kännetecknar den holländska skolan. De utvalda konstnärerna, med sina unika perspektiv och tekniker, bidrar till en rik förståelse av landskapets betydelse i konsten under denna tid.

Irène de Groot ger en välstrukturerad kontext kring varje etsning, vilket gör det möjligt för läsaren att uppskatta både den estetiska och historiska dimensionen av verken. Genom att belysa konstnärernas intentioner och de sociala omständigheterna kring skapandet av dessa verk, skapas en djupare förståelse för deras betydelse.

Boken riktar sig till både konsthistoriker och allmänt intresserade av grafisk konst. Den fungerar som en värdefull källa för dem som vill fördjupa sig i holländsk konsthistoria och dess landskapsrepresentationer.

Sammanfattningsvis erbjuder "Landscape: Etchings by the Dutch masters of the seventeenth century" en grundlig insikt i en fascinerande period av konstnärlig produktion. Genom att kombinera estetiska analyser med historisk kontext, bidrar boken till en ökad förståelse för den holländska grafiska traditionen.

Published in cooperation with the printroom of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

245 PLATES REPRODUCED IN TRUE SIZE

The fact that the works are etchings (with a few woodcuts and engravings as well) is extremely significant. Unlike paintings, good etchings are never retouched by restorers. Because they are kept away from the light, they barely age. For all the damage or decay the 250 prints in this book have suffered in the last three centuries, they could have been made yesterday. Every care has been taken to transmit these precious images as freshly and authentically as possible. Virtually all the prints are reproduced in true size, and directly from the originals rather than from photographs.

Few art books, including very expensive ones, have ever conveyed the impression of a large group of major works as directly as Landscapes. This is one of the rare books to introduce a beautiful and important area of art for the first time and to do it authoritatively and comprehensively.

Irene de Groot Landscape

Etchings by the Dutch masters

of the seventeenth century

WITH 250 PLATES, INCLUDING 17 IN COLOR

‘It is landscape first and foremost that captivates and satisfies the art-lover.’ Max J. Friedländer

None of the attainments of art has done more to enhance our enjoyment of life than the evocation of landscape. An acquaintance with the work of the great landscape artists influences one’s view of the world in subtle ways. One finds oneself seeing trees, fields, villages, vistas through the eyes of Rembrandt or Ruisdael. What greater gift can art convey?

As in so many other areas, an improbably large number of the greatest landscape artists were seventeenth-century Dutchmen. Heading the list is of course Rembrandt, whose landscape etchings are among the legendary masterpieces of world art. Jacob van Ruisdael, known primarily for his landscape paintings, also produced unexpectedly daring etchings. Besides these great names there are more than forty other lesser-known artists, each with an unmistakable style, a personal outlook that becomes part of the observer’s own way of seeing. Most extraordinary of all is the eccentric Hercules Segers, whose visionary color etchings defeat all the clichés about Dutch art.

Dutch landscape art has never before been captured as flawlessly as in the pages of this book. Drawing on the riches of the greatest collection of Dutch prints ever assembled, the printroom of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Irene de Groot has selected 250 works covering the entire range of landscape prints in the Golden Age of Dutch art. Her book is the first in more than fifty years devoted to the subject; most of the works reproduced here are unknown except to specialists.