The Dutch Italianates: Seventeenth-Century Masterpieces from Dulwich Picture Gallery

Muscarelle exhibition Odilia Bonebakker examines a work from the show before it hung on the wall. Courtesy of Muscarelle Museum

Muscarelle exhibition Curator Xavier Salomon inspects a work from the show after it is brought out of its packing crate. Courtesy of Muscarelle Museum

Muscarelle exhibition Xavier Salomon, Elizabeth Wilson, and Muscarelle director Aaron De Groft review the imperfections of a painting prior to installation. Courtesy of Muscarelle Museum

Muscarelle exhibition Detail of a View of a Plain by Aelbert Cuyp. Courtesy of Dulwich Picture Gallery

Muscarelle exhibition Aaron De Groft and Kevin Gilliam adjust a painting during installation. Courtesy of Muscarelle Museum

Muscarelle exhibition Detail of Bridge in an Italian Landscape by Adam Pynacker. Courtesy of Dulwich Picture Gallery

Muscarelle exhibition Detail of A Road near a River by Aelbert Cuyp. Courtesy of Dulwich Picture Gallery

by Betsy Moss | November 21, 2008

The Muscarelle Museum of Art is pleased to be the first venue to kick off the national tour of The Dutch Italianates: Seventeenth-Century Masterpieces from the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, an exhibition presenting views of the Italian landscape of the seventeenth-century as seen through the eyes of some of the most accomplished Dutch artists of the Golden Age. The Dutch Italianates will be on view at the Muscarelle Museum through March 22, 2009.

The exhibition will feature a group of forty paintings from the collection formed for a king and will highlight the famed masters of the Dutch Italianate style, including masterpieces by Aelbert Cuyp, Nicolaes Berchem, Karel Dujardin, Philips Wouwermans, and Adam Pynacker. This exhibition will offer an exceptional opportunity to view works from the world-class collection of Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, called the best small museum in all of Europe and a collection formed for a King.

Included in the exhibition is one of Aelbert Cuyp's most accomplished works, the Herdsman with Cattle of c. 1645. Featured in the major Aelbert Cuyp exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. in 2002, it returns to America for The Dutch Italianates at the Muscarelle. The painting is one of five by Cuyp in the exhibition. Other highlights include Adam Pynacker's six-foot masterpiece Landscape with Sportsmen and Game of 1665.

Italy has always exerted a powerful influence on artists of all kinds. The seventeenth-century proved to be one of Italy's most influential periods, as artists from all over Europe flocked to Rome to work alongside their Italian colleagues. Perhaps the most remarkable and prolific artistic influx of painters to Italy in this period was the Dutch.

The Dutch artists turned to the Italian campagna for their subject matter playing a crucial role in the birth of a new genre of pure landscape painting. Painters such as Jan Both and Nicolaes Berchem returned from Italy bringing with them seductive visions of mountains and peasants basking under golden skies in stark contrast to the flat and often cloudy Holland. Dutch patrons could not get enough of the genre, inspiring Cuyp, Wynants, Wouwermans and Weenix to create their own interpretation of a landscape they may never have seen.

For the founders of Dulwich Picture Gallery collecting in the 1790's these artists were at the height of their value and reputation. This exhibition will introduce audiences to the artists responsible for a style that profoundly influenced the eighteenth-century French and English aesthetic, and even carried over to nineteenth-century America.

This selection of works from the permanent collection of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London has been lent by permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. The exhibition tour is organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C. and will include the following venues in addition to the Muscarelle Museum of Art: Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art & Science, Fresno, California (April 11, 2009 - June 21, 2009), Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (July 11, 2009 - September 20, 2009), and the Oklahoma City Art Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (October 8, 2009 - January 3, 2010).

The Muscarelle Museum of Art is located on Jamestown Road on the campus of The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Museum is open from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 12:00 noon until 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Museum is closed on Mondays. Docent tours are available at 2:00 p.m. on Sundays and other times as announced. During exhibitions, there is an admission fee of $10. Admission is free for Museum members, The College of William & Mary faculty, staff, and students, and children under twelve.