The Fantastical Mundane:
Selections from the Grasset-Linares Collection
During the 17th century, booming Dutch trade enabled the rise of a powerful middle class. This, along with the waning patronage system, led to the emergence of an art market that catered to the tastes of the new social class, making art available for display in private homes. This economic prosperity and growing demand for relatable imagery gave way to the Dutch Golden Age of painting, where marvelous still lifes, landscapes, and genre scenes became widely popular as they reflected the preferences and daily life of the new bourgeois society.
The works in this exhibition illustrate the captivating charm of mundane subjects like flowers, fruits, and the natural terrain. The paintings’ shimmering vibrance, paired with their compositional dynamism, captures the viewer’s eye, and invites reflection on the everyday subject’s underlying symbolism. Themes of the inevitability of time passing, the moral goodness of moderation, and the abundance of the natural world emerge from these stunning representations.
On long-term loan from The Grasset-Linares Collection, this selection of ten paintings includes traditional Dutch floral arrangements, rich banquet scenes, and detailed landscapes. These wondrous compositions of everyday Dutch subjects prompt the viewer to contemplate how works created for private consumption embody the crystallization of Dutch culture in the 17th century.
This exhibition is guest curated by Sophia Foster ‘24, Fred W. Hicks Curatorial Fellow at the RMA. Learn more about a selection of the works in the exhibition-specific audio guide.
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