Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and French Prints of the ‘Golden Age’ ~ The Brink Collection

January 19 to July 9, 2006

The works in the exhibition Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and French Prints of the ‘Golden Age’ were selected from a collection of over 600 prints, a promised gift to the University of Guelph collection from Andrew and Helen Brink, in memory of R. Alexander Brink, OAC 1919 and Edith Margaret Whitelaw Brink, Mac DHE 1921.   This was the second exhibition of works from The Brink Collection presented by the Art Centre; the Brinks generous donation was announced in spring 2004 with the exhibition The English Picturesque and Dutch Landscape Prints of the Seventeenth Century.

The exhibition Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and French Prints of the ‘Golden Age’ featured some of the most accomplished etchings, engravings, and mezzotints made at the height of the northern Renaissance, including extraordinary graphics by Jan “Velvet” Brueghel (1568-1628), Jan Van de Velde (1593-1641), Herman Van Swanevelt (1600-1655), Antoni Waterloo (1609-1690), and even Titian (1495-1576) who supplied the motif for an engraving by Dominque Barriere (1622-1678).  In the ‘Golden Age,’ hundreds (perhaps thousands) of copies of such prints circulated; a separate ‘taste’ was engendered for prints that intensified the human experience in nature, but retained the immediacy of drawing and the finish of painting. Prints were intended for private study and contemplation, while paintings were more often displayed publicly; the print was a more democratic medium.  The efflorescence of prints in the Dutch Golden Age arose from the newly won freedom from Spanish domination and the dislocation felt by many people who had become mobile after generations of rural life.  In Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and French Prints of the ‘Golden Age,’ the development from early Flemish printmaking towards the Dutch and French landscape and pastoral achievements of the later 17th century was documented in a presentation of more than 30 exquisite graphic works.

On Tuesday, March 14 at 1:00 p.m., the Art Centre hosted a Dessert Reception and launched the exhibition catalogue for Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and French Prints of the ‘Golden Age’ with art collectors Andrew and Helen Brink in attendance and remarks by Art Centre Director Judith Nasby.  The exhibition catalogue includes an essay by Andrew Brink.  Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and French Prints of the ‘Golden Age’ and the accompanying catalogue were supported by the Ontario Arts Council.

Image:
Karel Dujardin (c 1622-1678) Landscape with a Herdsman Behind a Tree, 1656
(engraving on light wove paper in leather bound album, 1st. state)

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