Tweet13-03-2011 om 00:30 by Sueli Brodin

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever” wrote the English poet John Keats. Once again I appreciated the profound truth contained in those simple words as I marvelled at the selection of Dutch drawings and sketches from the Golden Age on show at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht. The title of the exhibition: “Treasures from Moscow. Dutch drawings from the Pushkin Museum” captivated my imagination as soon as I saw it. “What is the Pushkin Museum in Moscow? Is it related to the Russian writer and poet Alexander Pushkin, whose works I enjoyed reading as a teenager?” “How did Dutch drawings end up in a museum in Moscow?” “Why are they now on exhibit at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht? Is there a special relationship between the two museums?” “Treasures?” Jan Victors, Woman making pancakes (so-called 'Kitchen in Rembrandt's House') The press presentation of the exhibition by curator Lars Hendrikman answered my questions - and many more - and offered a fascinating journey through time and space back to the Netherlands and Europe of the 17th and 18th centuries. At the time, he said, Dutch art was so renowned that art collectors from all over Europe and as far as Russia would travel to the Netherlands to buy artworks from Dutch masters: not only paintings, but also sketches, etchings and drawings, some of which so finished and refined that they could stand as artworks on their own. In fact, some artists were so in demand that they would especially produce drawings and watercolours to satisfy the needs of the art trade. The 90 artworks on display in Maastricht were selected as the most beautiful and most representative of the 650 Dutch drawings kept in the archives of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. It is the first time in 150 years that they can be seen outside of Russia and the exhibition is just one of the many activities that the Pushkin Museum is organising on the occasion of its 100th jubileum next year to promote its immense fine arts collection. Hendrikman explained that the enormous work and effort of the Amsterdam based Foundation for Cultural Inventory, whose mission is to catalogue and document unknown collections of Dutch and Flemish art outside of the Netherlands and Flanders had played a major role in making the exhibition possible. Rembrandt, Sketch of a woman holding a child “An exhibition about Dutch visual artists of the 17th century would not be complete without a Rembrandt,” commented Hendrikman, and indeed the selection includes an exquisite sketch of a woman holding a child, from the hand of the great master himself. Hendrick Goltzius?, Study of the bust of a woman (Mary Magdalene?) As I listened to Hendrikman’s eloquent and erudite explanations, I felt increasingly absorbed in the drawings and taken by their beauty. Some of them could not be attributed with certainty to specific artists, but I understood what  Hendrikman meant when he rhetorically asked: “Is it a Goltzius? Is it a Rembrandt? Does it matter?” School of Rembrandt, Old woman with folded hands A drawing that particularly touched me was a tiny portrait of an old woman with folded hands by an unknown artist from the School of Rembrandt. Something in her quiet and pensive look,  her shy smile, her simple and tidy garments conveyed a deeply moving sense of serenity. Cornelis Visscher II, Portrait of a Lady as Diana Artists used sketches not only as study tools but also as small scale models for future paintings. The more refined and the more detailed the final sketch was, the more chance they had of being commissioned for the painting. Such a sketch, Hendrikman said, was called a “vidimus”, literally “we have seen” in Latin, and served to demonstrate what the final work would look like. Paulus Constantijn la Fargue, The Grote Markt in the Hague The selection of Dutch paintings ends with a fascinating illustration of the market in the Hague, so elaborate, lively and colourful that one gets instinctively drawn into it. “For this exhibition, visitors will not only be allowed but actually encouraged to come very close to the works, to take their time to observe and enjoy the beauty and the richness of all the details contained in the drawings,” said Hendrikman. “We will even provide magnifying glasses, ” he added with a twinkle full of promises in his eyes. The exhibition "Treasures from Moscow. Dutch Drawings from the Pushkin Museum" will open on 18 March 2011 and will run until 19 June 2011. A comprehensive visitors' guide is available in English ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More treasures

Karel Dujardin, Donkey and other animals at the foot of a hill Cornelis Bega, Peasant talking to a seated woman Hendrik Avercamp, Nine peasants around a wheelbarrow Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem, Country Road with wayfarers and herdsmen with their cattle Nicolaes Berchem is known as a member of the Dutch Italianate landscape painters. Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem, Fantastic creature in a landscape The meaning of this painting remains mysterious. Allaert van Everdingen, Landscape with a castle near Gothenburg The atmosphere of the drawing is almost Romantic, with the dramatic ruins of a castle in the background and the overwhelming size of the natural elements contrasting with the smallness of the human figures in the foreground. Cornelis Troost, The sword of Damocles The dramatic composition of this painting reveals Troost’s initial training as an actor. Adriaen van Ostade, Group of peasants in the doorway of a farmhouse All images are reproduced with the kind permission of the State Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

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