Arthur K. Wheelock

This elegant volume presents 44 outstanding Old Master paintings, primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries, that Jordan and Thomas Saunders III collected over the past 25 years. Included in the Saunders Collection are works by renowned Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, and English masters, among them Frans Hals, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Jan Brueghel, Peter Paul Rubens, Nicolas de Largillière, Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, and Thomas Lawrence. This richly illustrated catalogue was written by a team of specialists under the guidance of Arthur K. Wheelock Jr, former curator at the National Gallery of Art. The introductory essay discusses the principles that guided the Saunders in forming their collection, and the individual entries examine how artists fused careful observation with the imagination to create beautiful and thought-provoking paintings. These texts also examine the social, economic, and political realities that had an impact on these artistic creations.

A brilliant colorist and masterful storyteller, Dutch mannerist Joachim Wtewael (1566-1638) wielded a remarkably skilled brush and the technical ability to show it off in intricate compositions. He took inspiration from a wide range of biblical and mythological sources to create imaginative, often quite erotic scenes. While such pictures were prized in Wtewael's time, more recently they were hidden away--behind other paintings, in leather folders on bookshelves, and in the reserves of great museums. This richly illustrated volume brings together more than fifty of Wtewael's finest paintings and drawings, from a small jewel-like picture on copper depicting Mars and Venus to large-scale mannerist showpieces such as The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and Perseus and Andromeda. A pillar of the Utrecht community, Wtewael was engaged in business, religion, and politics as well as art. He adopted the exotic mannerist style, full of artifice and inventive manipulation, and continued to be fascinated by the challenge of creating sophisticated variations well into his maturity, when other Dutch artists had turned to naturalism. This book explores Wtewael's amazingly refined and detailed paintings and drawings, shedding light on his reputation, his life, and the conflicted times--marked by iconoclasm and strife--in which he thrived. Exhibition schedule: *Centraal Museum Utrecht, February 21-May 25, 2015*National Gallery of Art, Washington, June 28-October 4, 2015* Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 1, 2015-January 31, 2016

One of the most fascinating aspects of Rembrandt's extraordinary artistic career is his suite of brooding half-length portraits of religious figures from the late 1650s and early 1660s. Painted during a difficult time in the artist's life - when he no longer enjoyed a ready market for his works and may have turned to his deep religious convictions for solace - these images are among the most evocative Rembrandt created. For years scholars have debated whether these paintings were intended as a series, yet until now these works have, unbelievably, never been shown together. An exhibition by the National Gallery of Art and this accompanying catalog assemble seventeen of the paintings for the first time, finally giving the powerful images their due. Many of these subtle and wondrous paintings have been identified as images of apostles and evangelists, but among them are also representations of Christ, the Virgin, and still-unidentified saints and monks. In Rembrandt's typical fashion, the men and women in these portraits peer out of the dark recesses of dimly lit interiors as though burdened by the weight of their spiritual and emotional concerns. Yet recent archival research has raised questions about their attribution, the relationships among the paintings, and, in a broader sense, Rembrandt's life and career - issues addressed by the contributors to this volume. With its lavish color images and state-of-the-field research, Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits will make a profound contribution to the understanding of this unique and provocative body of work.

This long-awaited publication presents one of the world's finest collections of Dutch paintings, which come together for the first time in one volume as a major addition to existing scholarship on Dutch art. The volume presents over 100 paintings in colour, many including colour details. Each painting is accompanied by an artist's biography, a detailed commentary, technical analysis, endnotes, bibliographic references, an exhibition history and full provenance. Over 140 comparative illustrations provide vital art historical context to the featured paintings. The range and scope of the works presented in this volume is truly impressive, from sedate church interiors and conventional landscape subjects to bawdy peasant interiors and magnificent still lifes.