A WEA adult education class, with art history tutor Michaela Cranmer

Painting in the Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century

10 sessions with a break for half term on 24th October.

The start of the seventeenth century witnessed a rapid expansion of the art market in the Dutch Republic, with an increase in both the number and diversity of paintings produced. This expansion was driven by a number of factors, both economic and cultural.

The Reformation, which had begun in the previous century, meant that church commissions had all but dried up and painters had to find both new things to paint, and new markets for their work. The newly wealthy middle classes helped to provide that market, purchasing large numbers of paintings to display in their homes.

This course will focus on a number of painters from the ‘Golden Age’ including: Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, Carel Fabritius, Willem Kalf, Judith Leyster, Nicolaes Maes, Rachel Ruysch, Pieter de Hooch and more.