fuck yeah art history

Still Life with Glasses and Tobacco
Willem Claesz. Heda
1633
Private collection (Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo)

It’s amazing how realistically the painters in the the Dutch Golden Age were able to portray still lifes. Note the way he manipulates the largely monochromatic canvas to showcase light reflections.

I saw this painting this weekend as part of the Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection exhibit, which will make the final leg of its journey to Texas, to be shown Nov. 13, 2011 - Feb. 12, 2012 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It took all my self-restraint to not reach out and grab the golden tazza. 

Johannes Vermeer

The Concert

c. 1664

Oil on canvas

Once in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, stolen in 1990 and never recovered.

Gerrit van Honthorst

The Matchmaker

1625

Oil on canvas.

Currently in the collection of the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

Judith Leyster

Self-portrait near age 21

Oil on canvas

1630

Currently in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.