Boudewijn Bakker, who worked as a researcher at the Amsterdam City Archives, is a recognised expert on the history of landscape in the Dutch Golden Century. He has written several authoritative studies, including a book on Rembrandt’s landscape drawings. He studied history and art history at the University of Amsterdam and obtained his doctorate cum laude on the subject treated in this book.
(Thoth, 2004, 486 pagina's)
Art critics like to emphasise the modern and realist character of the famous Dutch landscape paintings of the seventeenth century. Art historian Boudewijn Bakker explicitly distances himself from this interpretation, drawing attention to the long history and tradition of landscape as a subject in Dutch painting, a history stretching back to Jan van Eyck’s generation of the early fifteenth century. His broad, audacious approach, together with a lucid style and seemingly casual erudition, make this a remarkable and challenging study.
