The Drents Museum
in the north of the Netherlands has a new and exciting exhibition. In the Spring I was here for an
exhibition about works by Kazimir Malevich, but now it was time for some boys from
Scotland.
A group of
Scottish painters who were friends and saw eachother regularly in Glasgow,
hence the name for their group: The Glasgow boys.
The Glasgow
boys took their inspiration from the French impressionists, but also from Dutch
landscape painters and for example a painter like Whistler.
They did
not want to paint romantic Scottish landscape that had been so popular with the
older generation, they wanted to paint people and landscapes just as they were.
They also
painted in the outside (en plein air) just as the French painters did, although
in France the weather was often better than in windy and rainy Scotland.
They wanted
to capture the moment and their style showed this and in this they also
followed the French.
Slowly you
see a change from painting farmers to painting middleclass people and scenes
from modern day life.
The
exhibition I saw also shows the connections between the Scottish painters and
their colleagues in other countries. Paintings by Jozef Israels, Anton Mauve and
the French landscape painter Jules Bastien-Lepage can als be seen and this sets
the Scottish group in a larger dimension.
There are
almost eighty paintings and forty drawings and these give an absolutely amazing
overview.
I never
heard of the painters before and their works I did not know, but that is why I
wanted to see it. I love the French Impressionists and I had high expectations.
Well, I did
certainly not come to Assen for nothing. I absolutely enjoyed the beautiful
landscapes, the impressions of Scottish nature and the portraits and much more.
On the one hand you can recognize elements from the French Impressionists
style, on the other hand these Scottish paintings have something that is completely
their own.
Great also
to see the influences of other painters, but also how each painters interprets
things in his own way.
I love that
we have museums like this one who organize exhibitions like this and give you
the opportunity to see something new and to broaden your horizon.
The exhibition
can be seen until February 7th 2016, so if you have the chance, you
will not regret it!
More information HERE
Lucky girl! This exhibit sounds amazing.
ReplyDeleteIt really was very beautiful. A long trip (two hours to get there and two hours back), but it was worth it!
DeleteKind regards,