During the seventeenth century, Dutch artists were unparalleled in their dedication to depicting ordinary people doing everyday things. Genre painting was the preeminent expression of this dedication, offering candid glimpses into the peasant cottages and village courtyards of the Dutch Golden Age, each painting lit with the period's vibrant color palette and rich with radiant natural light. This superb collection by the curators of an accompanying exhibition focuses on a selection of works of Dutch genre painting from the Royal Collection's holdings. Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu, and Pieter de Hooch are among the masters whose works are finely reproduced here. While the subject matter may be ordinary--the preparation of food, the bustle of a busy market, the enjoyment of taverns and town festivities--the meticulously documented details often allude to a work's deeper meaning or to moral messages that would have been familiar to the contemporary viewer. The book explores these hidden moral messages, as well as the artists' penchant for clever visual puns. Readers interested in the Dutch Golden Age or seventeenth-century art will welcome this volume. Individual essays on each painting, close-up photography showing important details, and a selection of comparative images add to the book's richness and provide valuable context.

A landmark exploration of the engaging network of relationships among genre painters of the Dutch Golden Age The genre painting of the Dutch Golden Age between 1650 and 1675 ranks among the highest pinnacles of Western European art. The virtuosity of these works, as this book demonstrates, was achieved in part thanks to a vibrant artistic rivalry among numerous first-rate genre painters working in different cities across the Dutch Republic. They drew inspiration from each other's painting, and then tried to surpass each other in technical prowess and aesthetic appeal. The Delft master Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is now the most renowned of these painters of everyday life. Though he is frequently portrayed as an enigmatic figure who worked largely in isolation, the essays here reveal that Vermeer's subjects, compositions, and figure types in fact owe much to works by artists from other Dutch cities. Enlivened with 180 superb illustrations, Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting highlights the relationships - comparative and competitive - among Vermeer and his contemporaries, including Gerrit Dou, Gerard ter Borch, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch, Gabriel Metsu, and Frans van Mieris. Published in association with the National Gallery of Ireland Exhibition Schedule: Musee du Louvre 02/20/17--05/22/17 National Gallery of Ireland 06/17/17--09/17/17 National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (10/22/17--01/21/18)

"A must-have book for anyone interested in Dutch masters and the Dutch Golden Age." – Timeless Travel Magazine Today we marvel at the shimmering light, the detail and hidden significances within the subtle techniques of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Van Eyck, Frans Hals and their compatriots. The luminescent art of the Dutch Masters grew from the bounding confidence of the newly independent Netherlands in the early 1600s. Shed of religious conflict it encouraged a wealthy mercantile class that sought the oceans of the world in search of riches and influence, and a new sensibility in art that cast light across the actions and objects of daily life. The Dutch Masters are characterized by the abandonment of religious patronage, allowing, for the first time, a relentless focus on everyday subjects: the taverns, breakfast tables and living rooms of the newly wealthy and the places they loved to visit. This wonderful new book, also highlighting the work of the pioneering Rachel Ruysch, is the latest addition to Flame Tree’s highly successful Masterworks series.

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