Anton Mauve (1838-1888), Fishing Boat on the Beach, 1882, oil on canvas, collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch (1824-1903), View of Haarlem, 1845-1848, oil on panel, collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Willem Maris (1844-1910), Donkeys on the Beach, ca. 1865-1866, oil on canvas, collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Matthijs Maris (1839-1917), Getting Acquainted (The Goat), ca. 1865-1866, oil on panel, collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Anton Mauve (1838-1888), The Haywain, 1878-1888, oil on canvas, collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. |
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Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
Stadhouderslaan 41
31-(0)70-3381111
Den Haag
New Light. The Hague School Revealed
June 13-September 27, 2009
Hague School oil paintings and works on paper yield a wealth of information about Dutch life in the latter half of the 19th century. All stages of the human life cycle are represented, from earliy childhood, with parents introducing children to the world, to lonely and melancholy old age. Shifting the focus from style to content immediately reveals the importance of symbolism in the work of the Hague School: an old man taking a walk is also approaching the end of life and a young shepherdess with a newborn lamb becomes a modern Madonna. The use of symbolism by a celebrated contemporary, Vincent van Gogh, is well-known but the fact that the Hague School was an important source of inspiration and guidance in this regard has hitherto been overlooked.
New Light – The Hague School Revealed focuses on the symbolic meaning of the work, revolving around the working and private lives of the subjects. The Hague School is famous for atmospheric landscapes but the fact that these form the setting for human activity of many different kinds has been largely ignored. New Light tells the stories behind the works and the result is a revelation: a new Hague School, rich in significance. The exhibition is curated by Benno Tempel, Gemeentemuseum Director.
The Hague School artists were fascinated by the lives of the labouring class. Anton Mauve’s 1882 painting Fishing Boat on the Beach shows fishermen using horses to drag their boat up the beach in the absence of a proper harbour. The sea plays an important but ambiguous role as both a friendly and a hostile force, taking life, at the same time saving it, providing an income for the impoverished fishing community.
The Hague School flourished at a time when people in Europe were, for the first time, seeking images of national unity. Previously, people in the Netherlands had thought mainly in terms of their own locality. Now that the concept of the nation was being emphasised, there was a need for a unifying idea of national character. Dutch people saw themselves as indomitable, down-to-earth and hard-working — like the figures shown in the art of the period.
This exhibition comprises over 100 oil paintings and works on paper drawn from public and private collections. The Gemeentemuseum possesses one of the leading collections of Hague School works and sees it as part of its mission to hold regular exhibitions drawing attention to this milestone in Dutch art history.
Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915), Return of the Fishing Boats, 1895, oil on canvas, collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Jozef Israëls (1824-1911), Shrimper, ca. 1900, oil on panel, collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
David Artz (1837-1890), Return of the Flock, 1865, oil on canvas, collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. |
