About —
This exhibition brings together works from the exceptional collection of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, which has the largest holdings of 17th century Dutch painting in Canada. Featuring 26 carefully selected works by world-renowned artists, it demonstrates the influence of what is known as the Dutch Golden Age on many French artists of the 19th century.
At the dawn of the Renaissance, France formed part of a cultural and political continuum with Holland and Flanders. But by the 16th century the French looked increasingly to Italy for artistic inspiration. Yet the achievements of Dutch and Flemish painters did not disappear from the French horizon. They continued to draw the occasional attention of French artists, acquiring renewed lustre in the 19th century for such painters as Édouard Manet, Jean-François Millet, François Bonvin et Henri Fantin-Latour, who found in the direct and unadorned approach of Rembrandt’s engravings an alternative to the French Academy’s theoretical prescriptions of high subject matter and idealization.
Organized and toured by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the exhibition is curated by David de Witt, the Centre’s Curator of European Art, as part of its continuing exploration of the artistic legacy of Rembrandt. This exhibition is presented with the support of the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Kingston and the Kingston Arts Council.
