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On the Move: 17th-Century Dutch Artists and Their Travels

A view of a river and riverbank, with a city and a large hill in the background.
Lambert Doomer, Dutch, View of Rouen with Mont Sainte-Catherine, early 1670s. Brown ink, brown and gray wash, green transparent watercolor, and touches of white chalk. The Maida and George Abrams Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gift of George Abrams in memory of Edward M. Kennedy, Harvard Class of 1954, 2011.516.

Lecture

In-Person
Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years has prompted renewed appreciation of the excitement and pleasures, as well as the challenges and dangers, of travel. In this lecture, we’ll learn about the experiences 17th-century Dutch draftsmen had to face as they journeyed from their studios to places near and far. Jane Shoaf Turner will focus on drawings by artists who traveled beyond the Dutch Republic’s borders—across the Channel to England, north and east to Germany and Scandinavia, south to France, over the Alps to Italy, and across the Atlantic to Brazil.

This lecture is organized in conjunction with Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape, on view from May 21 through August 14, 2022. The exhibition explores the profusion of local landscape imagery that occurred in the 17th century, just as the Dutch Republic was expanding its colonial holdings around the world. Featuring masterworks by such artists as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan van Goyen, and Jacob van Ruisdael, Crossroads considers how artists used drawing to navigate intersections, or crossroads, between artistic traditions and social and environmental realities.

Speaker:
Jane Shoaf Turner, Editor, Master Drawings, and Emerita Head, Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Before the lecture, guests are invited to visit the exhibition Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape on Level 3.

Free admission, but seating is limited, and reservations are required. Reservations may be arranged by clicking on the event on this form beginning on Saturday, May 14, after 10am.

The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Doors will open at 3:30pm. Please show your event registration upon entering the museums to receive free admission.

This lecture will be recorded and made available for online viewing; check back shortly after the event for the link to view.

Please note that while face coverings are optional in all other spaces in the Harvard Art Museums, they are required for attendees at all programs in Menschel Hall. The museums will make disposable masks available for visitors who do not bring their own. Please review our general visitor policies, including details on COVID-related precautions.

Limited complimentary parking is available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

Funding for the Crossroads exhibition and related programming was provided by the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Support Fund and the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. Support for the lecture is provided by the M. Victor Leventritt Fund, which was established through the generosity of the wife, children, and friends of the late M. Victor Leventritt, Harvard Class of 1935. The purpose of the fund is to present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and Greater Boston communities. The accompanying exhibition catalogue was made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Publication Funds, including the Henry P. McIlhenny Fund, and by the WOLFGANG RATJEN FOUNDATION, Liechtenstein.