New Book | Woodland Imagery in Northern Art, c.1500–1800
From Lund Humphries:
Leopoldine van Hogendorp Prosperetti, Woodland Imagery in Northern Art, c.1500–1800: Poetry and Ecology (London: Lund Humphries, 2022), 160 pages, ISBN: 978-1848224940, £45 / $80.
Woodland Imagery in Northern Art reconnects us with the woodland scenery that abounds in Western painting, from Albrecht Dürer’s intense studies of verdant trees, to the works of many other Northern European artists who captured ‘the truth of vegetation’ in their work. These incidents of remarkable scenery in the visual arts have received little attention in the history of art, until now. Prosperetti brings together a set of essays which are devoted to the poetics of the woodlands in the work of the great masters, including Claude Lorrain, Jan van Eyck, Jacob van Ruisdael, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci, amongst others. Through an examination of aesthetics and eco-poetics, this book draws attention to the idea of lyrical naturalism as a conceptual bridge that unites the power of poetry with the allurement of the natural world. Engagingly written and beautifully illustrated throughout, Woodland Imagery in Northern Art strives to stimulate the return of the woodlands to the places where they belong—in people’s minds and close to home.
Leopoldine Prosperetti is a writer and academic. She is Instructional Professor in the School of Art at the University of Houston, and has written and edited a number of books including Green Worlds in Early Modern Italy: Art and the Verdant Earth (Amsterdam University Press, 2019) and Landscape and Philosophy in the Art of Jan Brueghel (Ashgate, 2009).
C O N T E N T S
Preface
Introduction
Kindle’s Promise
Dürer’s Linden
Jan van Eyck’s Adoration of the Lamb
The Poet’s Catalogue
The Copse
Survivor Sole
Sights of Tivoli
Love in a Ducal Forest
In the Heart of the Forest
Down by the Riverside
Epilogue
Bibliography
Illustrations
Exhibition | Dutch and Flemish Paintings from Woburn Abbey
Aelbert Cuyp, A Landscape near Calcar with the Artist Sketching, ca. 1652
(Woburn Abbey Collection)
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The collection of Netherlandish works at Woburn Abbey was assembled primarily in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. From the press release for the exhibition:
Mastering the Market: Dutch and Flemish Paintings from Woburn Abbey
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, 17 June — 24 September 2023
Curated by University of Birmingham MA students alongside experts from the Barber and Woburn Abbey
This summer, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, presents a dazzling selection of Dutch and Flemish 17th-century masterpieces from Woburn Abbey, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Bedford. Featuring a dozen Old Master paintings, the exhibition Mastering the Market: Dutch and Flemish Paintings from Woburn Abbey is one of the largest and most significant group of such works from this important ducal collection to be exhibited in a public gallery since the 1950s.
Focused on the themes of patronage and collecting, Mastering the Market is curated by four Art History and Curating MA students from the University of Birmingham, with guidance and supervision from experts at both the Barber Institute and Woburn Abbey. Other aspects of the innovative and dynamic 17th-century Dutch art market will also be explored—from the unique character of artistic culture in the newly independent Dutch Republic, through art dealership and attribution, to the demand for and development of new genres. The burgeoning wealth and rise of the merchant classes in the Netherlands in the 17th century sparked huge demand for portrait commissions, also examined here through fresh interpretations of the works from Woburn Abbey.
Assembled principally by the 4th, 5th, and 6th Dukes of Bedford between the 1730s and 1830s, the Woburn Abbey collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings is one of the finest in private hands in the UK. Works include superb portraits and head studies by Rembrandt Van Rijn, Frans Hals, and Anthony Van Dyck, exquisite landscapes and seascapes by Aelbert Cuyp and Jan van de Cappelle, and lively subject pictures by Jan Steen and David Teniers. The exceptional opportunity to see these paintings together in a public gallery has arisen due to the extensive and ongoing refurbishment of the Abbey.
Key loans include Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Bearded Old Man, 1643, Hals’s Portrait of a Man, c. 1635–38, Van Dyck’s Portrait of a Married Couple, identified as Daniel Mytens and his Wife, c. 1632–34, Cuyp’s A Landscape near Calcar with the Artist Sketching, c. 1652, Steen’s Twelfth Night or ‘Le Roi Boit’, 1670–71, and Van de Cappelle’s A Dutch Harbour with Numerous Fishing Boats, c. 1652–54.
Complementing the Woburn masterpieces is a small selection of the outstanding Dutch and Flemish paintings in the Barber’s own permanent collection, notably Jan Steen’s The Wrath of Ahasuerus, c. 1668–70, Van Dyck’s Ecce Homo, c.1625–26, and Portrait of François Langlois, early 1630s (jointly owned with the National Gallery, London), plus Hals’s Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull, c. 1611–12.
Robert Wenley, Barber Institute Deputy Director, Research and Collections, says: “The exhibition will present the public with the rare opportunity to view these works up close in a gallery setting and facilitate an appreciation of the ways in which patronage and collecting reflected and contributed to a dynamic period of European history. Our talented young team of student curators will also explore the tastes and achievements of the successive Dukes of Bedford as collectors of Dutch and Flemish paintings in the decades following their first purchases on the art market of works from these schools in the early 18th century.”
Professor Jennifer Powell, Director of the Barber Institute, says: “We are delighted to present works from this important collection in Birmingham. The Barber is proud to support this unique opportunity for students of the University of Birmingham to co-curate an exhibition of such exceptional quality in its main gallery programme.”
Matthew Hirst, Curator of the Woburn Abbey Collection, says: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to present these masterpieces from Woburn Abbey alongside other works by the same masters from the Barber’s own choice collection. This opportunity to compare these works and consider the phenomenon of the Dutch and Flemish market is only possible due to the input of the students at this unique time whilst Woburn Abbey is closed to undergo a generational refurbishment project.”
Woburn Abbey houses an outstanding collection of works of art brought together by the family over nearly 500 years. During the closure, there is an active loans programme to share some of these treasures so they can be enjoyed in different contexts. Woburn has partnered with a number of prestigious venues since 2020, including Royal Museums Greenwich, the Holburne Museum, Worcester City Art Gallery, and Gainsborough’s House. Many of the important works of art from the collection have been exhibited in new ways due to these partnerships. Full restoration and renewal of the roof at Woburn Abbey has led to a prolonged closure period. This has enabled these partnerships to continue and expand offering more opportunities to share Woburn’s impressive art collection with a wider audience.
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