Gerrit Dou | Podcast "Otulina o sztuce" s02 e13

Hi, my name is Aleksandra Inżyska-Kardone and I am a professional art historian. In this podcast, I share my knowledge of old art, especially the one that was created in the Netherlands, which is today's Belgium and the Netherlands. Otulina o sztuce is also an opportunity to stop in everyday life and listen to a story that gives you inspiration. And if you like this podcast, you can support it through the patronite service by writing there otulina o sztuce. Today I will take you into the world a little bit parallel to the one we have already met, that is, the one from the works of Jan Vermeer or Jacob Vrel, because at the same time he also created another artist, Herit Dau, who, despite the fact that he dealt with similar topics, it may seem so to those two artists I have already mentioned, but he realized his compositions in a completely different way and also, it seems to me, he came across a different recipient. And that's what I'm going to tell you about today. Herit Dau's life and work are related to Leiden, a city that may be associated with us today only in the form of Rembrandt, and here, in conjunction with Dau, this is the most appropriate connection. But at that time it was an important academic center, because the first Protestant university was established in Leiden in the Netherlands in 1575. And this, of course, greatly influenced the character of this city, the character of the recipients associated with the university, and it seems that these elements can also be found later in the works of Herit Dau. But starting from the beginning. Dau came from a family of craftsmen. His father was engaged in the production of stained glass, and in a natural way, the first path of thinking about the future of a young Herit was to learn to be a stained glass maker. But after he had an internship in two studios of the creators recognized in this field, according to such a message, such an anecdote, one might say, his father noticed that this young boy was a bit too fast in creating or creating these stained glasses, and working with glass, however, requires a certain focus and such a calm nature. And for the safety of his son, he decided to send him to study at a painter's workshop. So, in this way, later on, he continued his artistic or professional career of his son. And so many legends, the historical truth is that at the age of 14, Herit Dau goes to the workshop of Rembrandt, who is only 7 years older than him. Dau is 14 years old and in this workshop he is to learn all the secrets of the work of a painter. Rembrandt, on the other hand, an artist born in Leid, is already after studies, in Amsterdam, at Peter Lastman, and in 1625 he returns to his hometown. There he establishes a workshop, there he establishes his studio and begins to accept students. And one of them is Herit Dau, who lives, one might say, in the neighborhood. Their families knew each other, so here this connection was as obvious as possible. Plus, let's remember that Rembrandt was still a young 21-year-old artist, about whom no one had heard yet, who returned to his hometown. And she teaches Dau the basics of such a craft technique, as it looked like in the workshop. So, such a young boy starts by learning the basics. He learns how to rub paints, how to prime the canvas, how to clean brushes and palettes, very important in the work of an artist. And when he enters this system, the next stages are that he copies works, works of his master or works that are in the collection or in possession of this master. And here it is about training both attention, observation and hands, that is, in translating what you see into how to create it and paint it and achieve such an effect, which is, one might say, intended. Here, copying is a very important element. Such taking of students is not only some kind of prestigious, what one might expect, classes, that others come to learn my craft, but it is also a way for financial support. Because we know, it is not known how much Dau paid for Rembrandt's teaching, but we know that other artists, for similar principles of this teaching, that is, without accommodation, because here it was also a difference, only the very learning of the craft, it was 100 gulden per year. So, as you can see here, it can also help the budget of such a painter. And also, if these artists really turned out to be talented, and such a master ran a workshop in which he produced a larger number of paintings, then such students could also be copyists of his works. And thanks to this, simply help him sell a larger number of his works. Herit was in Rembrandt's workshop for three years. There he learned this way of painting, which was characteristic for Rembrandt. Although, if you look now at the paintings of Herit Dau, which you can find in numerous collections of museums, whether in America or in Europe, you can really be surprised by this difference immediately visible between works typically Rembrandtian and works by Dau. Because Dau, in fact, took on certain elements from his master. For example, interest in individual figures, the so-called thrones, which are widespread in Rembrandt. It's a kind of a study of figures. It takes its name from the head. However, it is a single figure, usually in the chest and some kind of a necklace. It is an element of interest for the artist. However, it also later spread or turned into such a study of a single figure in general. And we will find in Dau's entire work such individual figures, maybe in some small group, but not some very extensive compositions. This is one thing. The second thing is that Dau later became interested in his entire work with effects, such as shadow light, which, as you probably know, was also an object of interest for Rembrandt. At some point, Dau also introduced such effects of very dramatic shadow light, so we have a candle. This is an important element, because the candle gives artificial point light. And therefore, he creates such sharp shadow light effects throughout the composition. So what is close to this candle is illuminated, and the rest is not in the shadow. And this is also derived, among other things, from Rembrandt, although he was not the only artist who created like this. The third thing that we can compare between Dau and Rembrandt is the fascination with self-portraits. And here, Rembrandt, of course, is very well known for this. However, also in the work of Herita Dau, his works and his self-portraits appear at particular stages of his work. And this is also very important, because it is, you could say, both a need for self-observation, but in the sense that it is the only model he has at hand, because it was often raised like this with Rembrandt, but also the creation of self-portraits in a specific convention, either with a palette, i.e. showing yourself at work, or with a palette, but, for example, in a very elegant outfit, or showing your own social position, was a way of building one's own identity as an artist, no longer as a craftsman, i.e. not the one who is just fooling around in these paints, creates on order and is on par with other craftsmen, but a creator, an artist who claims to have a higher social status. And the 17th century is, of course, the century in the Netherlands, which shows us such a change in this artistic consciousness. And the last element that Dau combines with his master, with Rembrandt, is a passion for such bright, saturated colors, something that you probably don't associate with Rembrandt at all, and I'm not surprised, because he is mainly known for his creativity, as I said, this shadow light, but he studied at Peter Lastman's Amsterdam, who was an artist who operated with color, especially in his compositions. And these early works by Rembrandt are completely different from the style that he later shaped as his own, as his own representative, author's style. These are works where there is a lot of color, where there are such multi-character compositions, often some historical or biblical, different from what was later, but it was during this period when he was still creating these works that Dau was at his school. But here the similarities end, because Herit Dau was the creator of such a new, one might say, painting style. He was not groundbreaking, he was just a style that was refined to perfection, the so-called feinschilder, that is, such a precise painter, and his work characterizes a very detailed, precise finish. They are like glass panels, painted extremely precisely, probably also with very thin brushes, so that the duct of the brush is not visible at all. And he also created, therefore, a school around him, a group of artists who were his students and who created like him. And it was also a group in Leiden, these artists. Dau practically did not leave Leiden at all, that is, due to his painting activity here, and young artists came to him later for studies. I have not mentioned yet that Herit Dau was greatly appreciated when he was creating. His works were very expensive, because artists were paid for hours of work, and as I mentioned, his works are extremely precisely finished, so he also spent many hours creating them. However, Dau was so lucky that his work was recognized by the eyes of rich collectors associated with various courtyards. Interestingly, the Stadthauder's Courtyard, that is, the tenement house of such a tenement house, you can say the ruler, who was stationed in Hadza, among others, was generally not interested in collecting his works at all. We will not find such a correlation here. But his works were very eagerly bought by foreign aristocrats, and here we have such different characters that were important for Dau's work. Collectors of his works, and one of them was Peter Spiering, who, in fact, came from Delft, but he worked at the Swedish court, and mainly as a representative of the Swedish Queen Christine, he collected works of art for her, and he paid Dau 500 gulden a year for the very fact of the possibility of pre-purchasing the works that Dau created. He was a great lover of Dau's work. Funnily enough, Queen Christine was not. She was more of a lover of Italian art. And we know that in 1652 she sent Spiering 11 paintings of Dau, because she could no longer like them. Another collector, a more familiar one, was Johann de Bay, who, as we know, collected as many as 27 paintings of Dau in his collection until 1665. However, among the less familiar lovers of this painter's work, it is undoubtedly necessary to mention Cosimo III of Medeceus, who first visited the painter's house in 1669, in Dau's house, and probably bought two paintings there. But later, after the artist's death, he sent his emissary to look for a self-portrait, any self-portrait of Dau, because he wanted to have a self-portrait in his collection. He managed to do it and now this work is also in the Uffizi collection. Apart from him, Leopold Wilhelm collected the works of Dau, who in the years 1646-1656 was the deputy of Habsburg in the Southern Netherlands. And there, he also built his own collection. He was one of the most important collectors. I told you about him on the occasion of Jacobus Vrel. And he also had a work of Herita Dau in his collection. So we can imagine this situation here, that Dau basically does not work under the pressure of financial shortcomings. He would have been ensured that he had a steady income in the form of these 500 gulden, but not only. His works were very highly valued. And here, to give you specifics, for Dau's works from 600 gulden to 1000, and even more. Here, depending on how much the buyer also valued this work, although the artist himself valued it, as I said, hourly for this contribution. To give you an idea, for 1000 gulden you could buy a house in Leiden. For 2000 gulden, it's really a big house. It seems that Dau himself bought such a house, which he had in his workshop in Leiden. So these were really the amounts that gave such a sense of financial stability and also helped to build the artist's wealth. Harry Dau himself never got married. He took care of his family, his sister and his natural sister. And here, among others, he later gave part of his wealth in his will. And when Dau died, his wealth was really impressive, which also shows us that his financial situation was stable. For his life, Dau was also praised by many art theorists or Leiden city chroniclers, for example, as one of the most prominent artists in this city. One of the most important events that undoubtedly contributed to the construction of Dau's huge fame was the so-called Dutch gift. And it was a collection of various objects that were offered to Charles II of England by the United States of Holland and West Frisia on the occasion of his choosing him as the King of England. And this very rich gift was sent to England in 1660. And these were mainly works of art that were collected from Holland. They were not created for Charles II. They were rather bought from collectors who lived in Holland. And among this rich collection were 24 Italian paintings, 12 antique sculptures. In addition, there was one painting by Pieter van Reddam, an artist who created beautiful views of church interior and city architecture. And in addition, there were three paintings by Rita Dau. And as you can imagine, it was very prestigious because there were no other Dutch artists in the exhibition. And these works, when they arrived in England, were exhibited in Whitehall in London. The Whitehall Palace no longer exists today, but it was the seat of power, you could say, before Versailles, but a London Versailles, so a very prestigious place. And there, these works by Dau were also admired, mainly for their extraordinary precision. It can be said that after that, there was a real fashion for Rita Dau, appreciated for imitation of reality, which at that time was also a very important aspect of art, that art is supposed to be in a degree of imitation. In addition, art is also divided into different areas, and there was a so-called paragon, that is, a competition between different areas of art, including sculpture, painting and poetry, which can best reflect the essence of nature, which is also the most important element, which most stimulates the recipient to receive something like nature. And the researchers, also analyzing these works by Rita Dau, raise the issue that his works give various objects, their structure, their texture to create, you can say, something in the form of truth in painting, but such a dazzling, very illusionary. And I think that here I can share with you my very own, very private reflection that Rita Dau's works have never been particularly interesting to me. But I took this artist to the workshop, on the one hand, and I was asked by my patron, Mrs. Edyta, who I thank very much for this inspiration, because I took this challenge to understand something from this work of Rita Dau. Because when I came across his works in museums, hanging on the walls, it was very easy for me to pass by them, because they are of different sizes. This is more or less his rule, that these works very rarely have some impressive or even larger proportions. Most often, these are characters shown in such an arranged arcade, where they are standing alone, doing some activities. Generally, there is not much narration there. Rita Dau did not create, generally did not create, because I do not know if there are any of his early works, let's say, preserved somewhere, which are works of some kind, historical, literary, i.e. these stories. But he is not known for them. His works, above all, are kind works, where this kindness is also undertaken by these individual characters standing somewhere in the arcade, doing something, whether it is music, or a girl, a cook, who, I do not know, is peeling vegetables. They are really beautifully painted and when you look at them, you can immerse yourself in them. So much so that, in my opinion, we do not have enough time to see various other paintings that hang around. And this focus is so difficult that we are aware that there is still so much ahead of us, so much is waiting for us. And maybe this is my problem with the reception of Rita Dau. The second thing is also that I do not see there too many elements that allow me to delve into the story in this painting, because for me Rita Dau's paintings are emotionally inaccessible in most cases. Except for a few scenes, which now, for the purposes of this podcast, I have just refreshed and reminded myself, which have more space, but are not these arcades with characters. There is more human aspect in them, and all of them are beautifully painted. And this is probably the thing that I missed earlier, before I focused more on the essence of what Rita Dau really is. And Rita Dau is, above all, her technique. And only in the second order it is a story. But let's face it, the technique can also be very narrative, it can also draw us in, because the way he gives the texture of individual objects is really fascinating. And I think that if we don't arouse any sensor in the museum, because it often happens, it is worth putting our nose as close as possible into these paintings. And we also come to the essence of why Dau was collected. He belongs to such a group of paintings, which belongs... I mean, his work belongs to a group of office paintings, that is, those that were to be seen in silence and peace, in loneliness, where the owner of such a painting could just sit with him, look at him and enjoy every element. It was something, I think, like meditation, such a contact with this painting. Not everyone has such a luxury in museums today, because often if we are somewhere in a foreign museum, we just have one, two, maybe three days to watch, maybe go back to that place. So this is a bit of a sign of our times, and also of our journey now. I think that Dau's works are still interesting, because he introduced many topics for the first time, or he developed them to such an extent that he changed their perception. As I mentioned, several of these topics are still derived from the times of Rembrandt, and these are undoubtedly all such representations of hermits or elderly people here in this assumption, but hermits who are somewhere in isolation with various vanitative objects, i.e. those who talk about the fleetingness of everything that is temporary. But also in his work there are such topics as an employee scientist, and here they are correctly connected with this climate of Leiden University, this scientific climate. There are also the characters of an astronomer, here as a celestial observer, and not some satirically conceived seeker of the truth in the stars, because in this way this character was also presented in Dutch art. There is also the character of a teacher, or even more the situation of a school, and here it must be emphasized that these representations are not satirical either, there is no chaos in the school, but rather, on the other hand, there is a demonstration of acquiring knowledge. And this teacher is really such a figure bringing knowledge into the lives of his students here. There is often also such a presentation, that it is a night lesson, it is already an evening school, so there is a candle, where the children read, the teacher corrects them, maybe sometimes I will pronounce them, and the candle becomes a sign of knowledge, enlightenment, which illuminates the darkness, not only literally, but also those mental darkness. Among the characters of the work by Herita Dau we will find various doctors. He promoted such scenes with a doctor studying urine in such a bottle. This is a diagnosis, you can call it that. It appears very often in his works, but there are also such experts who have different connotations here, often it was these scenes showing these diagnoses about such a deception. It means that this diagnostic presents something there, has some specifics that should help in treatment, but in fact it is only, today we would call it placebo, but these are also topics in his work. In addition, as I mentioned, there are also scenes shown inside houses, shown in these window arcades, always surrounded by some objects, which were also such a descriptive element of Herita Dau's virtuoseria. 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