Gerard de Lairesse
Encyclopedia
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...
painter and art theorist.
Lairesse was born in Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
. His broad range of talent included music, poetry, and the theatre. He was perhaps the most celebrated Dutch painter in the period following the death of Rembrandt. His treatises on painting and drawing, Grondlegginge der teekenkonst (1701) and Groot Schilderboek (1707), were highly influential on 18th-Century painters like Jacob de Wit
Jacob de Wit
Jacob de Wit was a Dutch artist and interior decorator who painted many religious scenes.-Biography:De Wit was born in Amsterdam, and became famous for his door and ceiling paintings. He lived on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, and many of the buildings on the Keizersgracht still have door or...
. Students of De Lairesse included the painter Jan van Mieris
Jan van Mieris
Jan van Mieris , was a Dutch painter.He was born in Leiden, the eldest son of Frans van Mieris the Elder, and learned the art of painting from his father and from Gerard de Lairesse. In his youth, various sicknesses impeded him in the progress of his studies...
. He died in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
.
Works
Well-known paintings by de Lairesse include his Allegory of the Five Senses (1668), Diana and Endymion (ca. 1680) and Cleopatra Landing at Tarsus. Some of his paintings show influence by the Iconologia of Cesare RipaCesare Ripa
Cesare Ripa was an Italian aesthetician who worked for Cardinal Anton Maria Salviati as a cook and butler.Little is known about his life. He was born in Perugia and died in Rome. After the death of the cardinal, Ripa worked for his relatives...
. A versatile artist, De Lairesse also made many prints for book illustrations and painted sets for theatre productions.
Among other things, De Lairesse produced:
- A set of illustrations for Govert BidlooGovert BidlooGovert Bidloo or Govard Bidloo was a Dutch Golden Age physician, anatomist, poet and playwright. He was the personal physician of William III of Orange-Nassau, Dutch stadholder and king of England....
's anatomical atlas Anatomia Humani Corporis (1685). - A set of illustrations for Gerard ReynstGerard ReynstGerard Reynst was a Dutch merchant, father of a museum curator, and later the second Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies...
's collection Signorum Veterum Icones (1670), a series of prints based on the Italian statuary in Reynst's Amsterdam collection. - Painted doors of the organ in the WesterkerkWesterkerkThe Westerkerk is a church of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands denomination in Amsterdam, built in 1620-1631 after a design by Hendrick de Keyser. It is next to Amsterdam's Jordaan district, on the bank of the Prinsengracht canal....
church in Amsterdam. - Set designs for the Amsterdam theatre.
- A portrait of the Dutch stadholder and king of England, William III of EnglandWilliam III of EnglandWilliam III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
.
Painting career
Bertholet Flemalle
Bertholet Flemalle, Flemal, or Flamael was a Flemish Baroque painter.-Biography:The son of a glass painter, he was instructed in his art by Henri Trippet and Gerard Douffet successively. He visited Rome in 1638, and was invited by the Duke of Tuscany to Florence and employed in decorating one of...
and his father Renier Lairesse. In 1664 De Lairesse was forced to flee Liège after a love affair gone wrong. He moved north to Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
in the Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
. When his talent was discovered by art dealer Gerrit van Uylenburgh
Gerrit van Uylenburgh
Gerrit van Uylenburgh , or Gerrit Uylenburgh, was a Dutch Golden Age painter and art-dealer. He was the eldest son of Hendrick van Uylenburgh and took over the family art-dealing business after Hendrick's death and burial in the Westerkerk church in 1661...
, he in 1667 relocated to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
.
At first, De Lairesse was highly influenced by Rembrandt, but later he focused on a more French-oriented style similar to Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century...
. The French even nicknamed him the "Dutch Poussin".
In Amsterdam during the second half of the 17th Century, the pious austerity and embarrassment of riches of the Protestant Dutch in Rembrandt's age had given way to unbridled opulence, even decadence, and de Lairesse's classical French, or Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
, style fitted this age perfectly. It made him one of, if not the most popular painter in Amsterdam. De Lairesse was therefore frequently hired to adorn the interiors of government buildings and homes of wealthy Amsterdam businessmen with lavish trompe l'oeil
Trompe l'oeil
Trompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...
ceiling and wall paintings. Many of these paintings still exist in the original buildings where they were painted, but many owners took the paintings with them when they moved.
For instance, he produced three ceiling paintings in 1671 for the Amsterdam regent Andries de Graeff
Andries de Graeff
Free Imperial Knight Andries de Graeff was a very powerful member of the Amsterdam branch of the De Graeff - family during the Dutch Golden Age. He became a mayor of Amsterdam and a powerful Amsterdam regent after the death of his older brother Cornelis de Graeff...
. The paintings glorified the De Graeff
De Graeff
De Graeff is an old Dutch patrician family. The family have played an important role during the Dutch Golden Age. They were at the centre of Amsterdam public life and oligarchy from 1578 until 1672...
family's role as the protector of the Dutch republic and the works of art can be viewed as a visual statement opposing the return of the House of Orange as Stadtholder
Stadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
s of the republic. They were created for Andries de Graeffs ‘Sael’ at his mayor’s residence in Amsterdam. The ceiling paintings now adorn the Ferdinand Bol room at the Peace Palace
Peace Palace
The Peace Palace is a building situated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is often called the seat of international law because it houses the International Court of Justice , the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International Law, and the extensive Peace Palace Library.In addition...
in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
.
De Lairesse as art theorist
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
, which caused him to go blind in 1690. The misformed nose which the disease gave him is clearly visible on the portrait which Rembrandt painted of him around 1665. After losing his sight, de Lairesse was forced to give up painting and focused instead on lecturing and writing on art. His books were:
- Grondlegginge der teekenkonst ("Foundations of Drawing"), published in 1701
- Het groot schilderboeck ("Great Book of Painting"), published in 1710
In Het groot schilderboeck, De Lairesse wrote his disapproval of Dutch Golden Age painters like Rembrandt and Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
because they often portrayed everyday scenes and ordinary people such as soldiers, farmers, maids, and even beggars. In de Lairesse's view, painting ought to show lofty biblical, mythological and historical scenes, in the spirit of Karel van Mander, who felt that the historical allegory was the highest of genres.
He was a disciplined intellectual, inspired by the notion that only correct theory could produce good art. For him theory meant the strict adherence to rules. The ultimate purpose of the visual arts was the improvement of mankind, and therefore art must, above all, be lofty and edifying. He set forth hierarchies of social status, of subject matter, of beauty itself. The artist, he said, must learn grace by mingling with the social and intellectual élite, must allow his subject matter to teach the highest moral principles, and must strive for ideal beauty. He must follow closely upon nature but overlook its imperfections.
In the main reception room there should be tapestries or paintings on the wall with life size figures ... and in the kitchen, images of kitchen equipment and the spoils of the hunt, the picture of some maid, servant, dog or cat. De Lairesse, for whom pictorial illusionism was of utmost importance, also wrote about the place of pictures on walls. For example, he urged that landscapes (and indeed all paintings) should be hung at a height where their horizons were even with eye level. De Lairesse urged that portraits that be hung high and have a low viewpoint. Gerard de Lairesse was cognisant of the problems posed by viewing paintings from a distance and drew connection between the hanging position and the scale and style of individueal paintings. He noted ... that a piece ten feet large, with life-size figures, should be viewed at ten feet distance, and that a smaller one five feet high, with life-size, half-length figures, must have five feet distance.
Legacy
His treatises on painting and drawing, Grondlegginge der teekenkonst (1701) and Het groot schilderboeck (1707), were highly influential on later painters like Jacob de WitJacob de Wit
Jacob de Wit was a Dutch artist and interior decorator who painted many religious scenes.-Biography:De Wit was born in Amsterdam, and became famous for his door and ceiling paintings. He lived on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, and many of the buildings on the Keizersgracht still have door or...
. He also worked with many established artists of his day on larger commissions for house decorations, and publications.
He attracted many pupils, including Jan van Mieris
Jan van Mieris
Jan van Mieris , was a Dutch painter.He was born in Leiden, the eldest son of Frans van Mieris the Elder, and learned the art of painting from his father and from Gerard de Lairesse. In his youth, various sicknesses impeded him in the progress of his studies...
, Simon van der Does
Simon van der Does
Simon van der Does was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter.-Biography:Van der Does was the son of Jacob van der Does by his second wife. He was taught to paint by his father and became in turn the teacher of the later art historian Johan van Gool...
, and the brothers Teodor
Teodor Lubieniecki
Teodor Lubieniecki was a Polish Baroque painter and engraver.-Biography:Teodor and his brother Krzysztof Lubieniecki hailed from Arian family. They learned to paint from Juriaan Stur in Hamburg. In 1667 they travelled to Amsterdam, where Krzysztof apprenticed with Adrian Backer, and Teodor with...
and Krzysztof Lubieniecki
Krzysztof Lubieniecki
Christoffel or Krzysztof Lubieniecki was a Polish Baroque painter and engraver active in Amsterdam during the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:...
. According to Houbraken, Jan Hoogsaat
Jan Hoogsaat
Jan Hoogsaat , was a Dutch Golden Age painter.-Biography:According to Houbraken he was one of the best pupils of Gerard de Lairesse...
was one of his best pupils.
Celebrated during his lifetime and well into the 18th century, he was berated during the 19th century. With or without justification, he was considered superficial and effete, and was held in large part responsible for the decline in Dutch painting. Two hundred years after his death in 1711 the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th Edition (1911) gave no listing at all for De Lairesse, while devoting four pages of solid text to Rembrandt.
Works by De Lairesse are now on display at many museums around the world, including the Rijksmuseum
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or simply Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history. It has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art...
and Amsterdams Historisch Museum
Amsterdams Historisch Museum
The Amsterdam Museum, until 2011 called the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, is a museum about the history of Amsterdam. Since 1975, it is located in the old city orphanage between Kalverstraat and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal.-History:...
in Amsterdam, the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York City, the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
in Washington, D.C., the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
in London, and the Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
.
In the Binnenhof
Binnenhof
The Binnenhof , is a complex of buildings in The Hague. It has been the location of meetings of the Staten-Generaal, the Dutch parliament, since 1446, and has been the centre of Dutch politics for many centuries....
(now the seat of the Dutch parliament) in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, a hall which he decorated in 1688 is named after him. A street in Amsterdam, the De Lairessestraat, is also named after him.
External links
- Example at the Rijksmuseum of a GrisailleGrisailleGrisaille is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many grisailles in fact include a slightly wider colour range, like the Andrea del Sarto fresco...
by de Lairesse