Painting everyday life in the Dutch Republic

Dates: 1 October to 3 December 2024  

Time: 7pm-9pm

Venue: Western Gateway Building room G18, UCC 

Fee: €250

Closing date for registrations: 20th of September 2024

Course Overview: 

After its long struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, the Dutch Republic rapidly emerged as the new European economic powerhouse during the first half of the seventeenth century. Its trading network extended to every corner of the known world, from Brazil to Japan, with its newly empowered merchant class dominating both the political, social, moral and economic life of the new republic. But how was this wealthy and increasingly powerful country going to define itself? What kind of people were they and what kind of republican society were they creating? 

Focusing on the pivotal role played by visual artists, this course aims to answer these crucial questions. It will focus on key issues such as the family and the redefining of the role of the parent. It will consider the crucial question of romance, marriage and the role of women within the private sphere. It will look at everyday practices, such as attending a banquet or a bar, making music and reading and writing letters. It will consider the issue of trade and the role of men within the public sphere. And it will also look at the physical construction of the new republic, focusing on its waterways and the depiction of newly reclaimed land. Underpinning these themes are key questions of nationhood and national identity, the social and moral values of the ruling middle class, and the rise of global trade and the exercise of colonial power.  

Having established the broader historical and cultural context for seventeenth century Dutch painting, the programme for this course takes a thematic approach in which individual lectures investigate a particular theme commonly adopted by artists working during the period such as the romantic aspirations of young women, the reading and writing letters, or the depiction of Dutch waterways. The subject selected will then be considered through the eyes of a small group of artists whose differing approaches will amplify, the potentially rich and varied range of narrative and pictorial possibilities. Although Johannes Vermeer and Jan Steen were contemporary, and were for a while living in the same town, there is significant gulf between their depictions of young women, between the silent passivity of a solitary girl painted by Vermeer, catching the light from a window to read a love letter, and Steen’s depiction of drunken women dancing on the table in a crowded bar. The lecture programme will conclude with two sessions that focus on the legacy of this extraordinarily rich and influential period in European art history, by considering the influence of both Dutch genre painting and its landscape tradition on French and English painting of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  

To measure the importance of the role played by artists in helping the Dutch answer these critical questions of who we think we are, and how we think we should live, it is worth remembering that almost every household would have a painting or print on its wall, a visual means by which those perennially important questions, could be clarified, stabilized, agreed, and then presented to society through the work of those visual artists who recorded in such painstaking detail the minutiae of everyday life in the Dutch Republic. 

Course Schedule: 

This course to run as a two-hour evening session. The following timetable breaks each weekly session into two lectures. 

Week 1:

(1)The struggle for independence: Constructing the Dutch Republic

(2) Art and the national voice in the Dutch Republic: Constructing the art market

Week 2:

(1) The development of Dutch genre painting: Lessons in social and moral value

(2) Banquets and bars: Representing eating and drinking

Week 3:

(1)Representing romance: The art of the love letter. 

(2) Representing romance: Music and seduction

Week 4:

(1) Vermeer and the art of silence: The depiction of private spaces

(2) Steen and the rowdy night out: The depiction of public spaces

Week 5: 

(1) Validating the middle class: The role of portraiture in Dutch painting 

(2) Rembrandt, experimentation and the role of the self-portrait

Week 6:

(1) The development and role of the Still Life in Dutch painting

(2) Pepper, porcelain and Tea, Still Life and trade

Week 7:

(1) National Identity in Dutch landscape painting: the panoramic landscape 

(2) National Identity in Dutch landscape painting: waterways and ferries

Week 8:

(1) Idealizing the world: The Italianate Tradition in Dutch landscape panting 

(2) Discovering the world: The exotic landscapes of Franz Post

Week 9:

(1) The Influence of Dutch genre painting on French painting.

(2) The influence of Dutch genre painting on English painting.

 Week 10:

(1) The Influence of Dutch landscape painting on French painting.  

(2) The influence of Dutch landscape painting on English painting.

Course Lecturers: 

Dr Simon Knowles.  I completed my BA (|Hons) at Falmouth School of Art in 1978, and my MA in History of Art at Birmingham University in 1981. I completed my PhD at University College Cork in 2011. The subject of my doctoral research focused on the role played by visual practices as a means to secure and amplify the identity and significance of urban spaces and locations. I taught on the evening diploma course in the History of Art at University College Cork, starting in 1997 and in the History of Art department at UCC from its foundation in 2001 until my retirement in 2022. In addition, I also taught history of art at the Crawford College of Art and Design, Munster Technological University from 1997 until my retirement in 2022. 

 
My teaching and research interests include seventeenth-century Dutch art and nineteenth-century English genre painting. My published work focuses primarily on nineteenth century English genre painting. In addition to my work as an art historian I also maintain my practice as a visual artist. 

Entry Requirements:

Applicants must be at least 18 years old at course commencement. Short courses are not assessed. Students will receive a UCC Certificate of Attendance upon completion. 

Contact Details for Further Information: 

Email: shortcourses@ucc.ie  

Please note our refund policy as follows: 

100% refund if student cancels 1 week prior to course commencement, less €50 processing fee.

100% refund if student's course is cancelled due to insufficient numbers.