The Nursery (Dutch : De Kraamkamer) was a triptych of the 1660s in oils on canvas by Gerard Dou, depicting an allegory on the education of art. In the 17th and 18th century, it was considered Dou's masterwork, and one of the best Dutch Golden Age paintings. The work was lost when the merchant ship Vrouw Maria sank in the Finnish outer archipelago on 9 October 1771. A copy by Willem Joseph Laquy (1738–1798) in the Rijksmuseum collection gives an impression of how the painting may have looked.
Gerrit Dou (7 April 1613 – 9 February 1675), was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre scenes and is noted for his trompe-l'œil "niche" paintings and candlelit night-scenes with strong chiaroscuro. He was a student of Rembrandt.
Dou painted the Nursery in the 1660s. A collector acquired it for the price of 4,024 Guilders. [1] It hung on his wall next to Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid, which he had acquired for only 330 Guilders. [1]
The merchant Gerrit Braamcamp acquired the painting in the 18th century. [1] His collection was auctioned on 31 July 1771. [1] After a fierce bidding war with the representatives of the kings Frederick the Great, Louis XV of France and Stanislaus Augustus of Poland, it was the representative of tsarina Catherine the Great, prince Golitsyn who acquired the painting together with other artworks. [1] He had them packed and sent them on the merchant ship Vrouw Maria to Sankt Petersburg. [1] However, the ship did not arrive as it sank on 9 October 1771 in the outer archipelago of the municipality of Nagu, Finland, 11 kilometers south-east of the island of Jurmo.
Thanks to a copy of the Nursery by Willem Joseph Laquy from around 1770, it is possible to make an impression how the Nursery looked like. [2] This painting is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. [2]
The Nursery is a triptych with an allegory on art education. [3] That Gerard Dou chose the form of a triptych for a profane subject is considered very exceptional. [2] The allegory is based on a statement originating from Aristotle, which mentions that three things are needed for a successful education, namely nature, education and practice. [2]
The centre panel depicted a nursery. [3] Seated at a table, a mother breastfeeds her baby. [3] A cradle and a basket stand in front of her on the floor. [3] A chandelier hangs from the ceiling, and the mounted head of a deer hangs on the wall. [3] A dentist is at work in the background. [3] The nursery symbolizes nature. [3]
The left side panel showed an evening school where writing is taught by the light of candles and a lantern. [3] The school symbolizes education. [3]
On the right side panel there was a scholar who cuts a pen in his office by the light of the candle. [3] The pen cutter symbolizes practice. [3]
There are no copies of the outsides of the original side panels. [2] However, they depicted representations of the so-called liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. [2]
Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western Europe underscores its widespread popularity.
Gerrit Dou, also known as GerardDouw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre scenes and is noted for his trompe-l'œil "niche" paintings and candlelit night-scenes with strong chiaroscuro. He was a student of Rembrandt.
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Willem van Mieris was an 18th-century painter from the Dutch Republic.
Geertgen tot Sint Jans, also known as Geertgen van Haarlem, Gerrit van Haarlem, Gerrit Gerritsz, Gheertgen, Geerrit, Gheerrit, or any other diminutive form of Gerald, was an Early Netherlandish painter from the northern Low Countries in the Holy Roman Empire. No contemporary documentation of his life has been traced, and the earliest published account of his life and work is from 1604, in Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck.
Nursery may refer to:
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Vrouw Maria was a Dutch wooden two-masted merchant ship carrying a valuable cargo of art objects, captained by Raymund Lourens, that sank on 9 October 1771 in the outer archipelago of the municipality of Nagu, Finland, 11 kilometers south-east of the island of Jurmo. In 1999, the ship was discovered by the members of Pro Vrouw Maria, led by Rauno Koivusaari. A dispute between the discoverers and the authorities was later resolved. The ship was in good condition when it was discovered, but only six objects from the deck of the ship have been salvaged. The cargo holds have not been disturbed, so the condition of any art on board remains unknown. The Finnish National Board of Antiquities is responsible for the ship and all recovery efforts.
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Willem van Ruytenburch, lord of Vlaardingen and Vlaardingen-Ambacht (1600–1652) was a member of the Dutch gentry and Amsterdam patriciate of the Dutch Golden Age. He became an alderman of Amsterdam and joined the Schutterij of Frans Banninck Cocq. Willem was featured, as a lieutenant, in Rembrandt's 1642 painting The Night Watch for which he is now probably most famous.
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