Gerrit Dou (Dutch 1613–75). Rembrandt’s Pupil and Rival.
Hello to Ladies and Gentlemen!
The golden age of the history of the Netherlands has given the world many talented painters. Gerrit Dou is one of these artists.
The works of the Dou was worth fabulous money. Rembrandt was paid much less for his canvases. With the advent of the era of impressionism and modernism, were Dou’s works were forgotten. However, in the twentieth century, his name returned to the ranks of the great painters.
Gerrit Dou was born in 1613 in the city of Leiden.
His parents were Mariti Yansdotter van Rosenburg and stained glass master Dou Yans. The first lessons in the art of drawing and engraving on glass, he received from his father. In 1628 Gerrit Dou is the first student of 21-year-old Rembrandt.
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Dou’s early works was sometimes attributed to Rembrandt himself. Both artists painted the same models. In 1631, Rembrandt left his hometown for Amsterdam.
And the star of Gerrit Dou soon rose and shone brightly not only in his native city, but throughout Europe.In those days, small-format paintings on everyday chamber themes became popular in Holland.
Gerrit Dou worked very carefully, painstakingly, and therefore for a long time. Numerous and accurately reproduced details have become a characteristic feature of the artist. There is such a legend. The artist was praised for the patience, with which a tiny broom the size of a nail was written. However, the master replied that there was another three days of work.
Most of the Dou paintings are small. Their size is 32 by 44 inches. Gerrit Dou’s works are written in oil on wooden panels. Dou used a magnifying glass for work, as well as hand-made brushes — “thinner than a human nail”, as one of his fellow artists spoke about them.
His paintings could have up to twelve layers of paint. At the same time, the Dou was achieving a perfectly smooth surface. The artworks of the artist often produce the same impression as the dollhouse. We are seeing on them a many of familiar, but only tiny and carefully crafted objects.
The master also painted portraits, for the work, he took six guilders per hour. In one day, a simple worker — as, incidentally, a simple artist — at that time earned about one guilder. The price of Gerrit Dou’s paintings reached a thousand guilders.
The painter personally was doing what students of his colleagues did. For example, the artist himself mixed pigments for paints. Dou himself made brushes and was so afraid of dust that after the session he hid the palette, tools and paints in a dustproof cabinet.
In the forties of the 17th century, Gerrit Dou created his own school called the Leiden Fijnschilders, or “fine-painters”. This manner implied an extremely accurate and thorough representation of the details in a small format. The artist lived in his native Leiden all his life. Dou never married. He was known among the townspeople as a bore. He left a fortune of twenty thousand guilders.
Gerrit Dou died on February 9, 1675 and was buried in his hometown in St. Peter’s Church. Researchers attribute about two hundred paintings to him. In the nineteenth century, interest in Dou’s works was almost completely lost. Gerrit Dou was declared by the artist a soulless, actually artisan, businessperson.
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In a sense, this was true — Dou’s painting pursued goals rather applied, practical. The master’s task is to create a kind of expensive toy for a wealthy customer. This entertained the guests and made it possible to show their wealth, as well as to feel their own involvement in the art world. Protestant ethics did not allow people to decorate themselves and their homes with gold and jewelry.
Gerrit Dou created real masterpieces. His paintings adorn the best museums in the world, including the Hermitage and the Louvre. The value of his paintings at auctions is estimated in millions of dollars.
