Selected Writings On Dutch Painting: Rembrandt, Van Beke, Vermeer, And Others

by Albert Blankert

Albert Blankert is best known to general readers for his standard book on the life and art of Johannes Vermeer, which has appeared in many editions and languages all over the world. Insiders are equally appreciative of his achievements in devising and mounting numerous large-scale exhibitions and the catalogues to accompany them, not only those of Rembrandt and his pupils, but also, and perhaps most notably, his epoch-making shows of outstanding artists who had hitherto suffered unjust neglect -- Italianate landscapists, history painters and classicists. True connoisseurs relish most of all Blankert's concise, insightful essays suggesting apt solutions to fundamental art historical questions. Twenty-three of his best pieces of writing have been carefully selected for this book, representing a career that spans four decades. They stand the test of time astonishingly well; where needed, the author has fully updated them for this book. Blankert's work has profoundly influenced the thinking of scholars of Dutch art. Nonetheless, his lucid, jargon-free style of writing is always addressed and attuned to the common sense of the "ordinary" reader.

"For nearly forty years Albert Blankert has been among the most original, versatile, and productive writers on Dutch painting; indeed he has a good claim to being the most important of his generation. . . For specialists in Dutch painting, re-reading these essays . . . will be a reminder of Blankert's incisive originality as well as the cumulative value of his work. They can admire once more his un-dogmatic use of the whole kit of art historical tools, his pragmatic neutrality in methodological struggles, and his sharp skewer for pretentiousness of any kind. For non-specialists, many of these pieces will be new, especially those that appeared in Dutch; they supply a healthy corrective to the late-romantic views of painting in the Netherlands that still linger in some quarters and administers an antidote to postmodern despair over interpretation. Blankert writes not just for scholars but also for the sort of curious general readers -- the proverbial "intelligent laypeople" that museums claim as their target audience. They are likely to be delighted by his lucid, unpretentious approach to complex questions. May these essays, so courageous in their direction and so exact in their means, prove heartening for another generation of writers on Dutch art".--From the Foreword by John Walsh

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2004