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| Michiel van Miereveld Portrait of Aeltje van der Graft 1619 oil on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Anthony van Dyck Portrait of an old woman ca. 1620 oil on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Adam de Colone Portrait of Margaret Graham, Lady Napier 1626 oil on canvas National Galleries of Scotland |
Dutch Painting
God knows – it's not a milk-blue washt morning I see:
delft, cobalt.
Firelight mails you: in links and mesh.
We get down to the meaning of brass things:
– Are we on love's ladder, the
first rung?
Are we singing the song of
what will be sung?
Things with a gleam, things with a ring.
This ushers us into a Dutch evening.
It is not to be found everywhere –
cheerful seriousness:
The fire in your cheek
like that of the old masters, keeps keen.
The light upon the
shoulders
and chest is dense, sculptural: bronze-green.
The motions are those (arrested) of bearing pitchers.
There is a glaze
moving over objects – as if the sea
washed the scene with a passion:
And then, the sea froze.
– Lynn Strongin (1971)
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| Paulus Moreelse Young woman with mirror, or, Allegory of profane love 1627 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Frans Hals A Dutch lady ca. 1643-45 oil on canvas National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Michiel Sweerts Old woman spinning ca. 1646-48 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Rembrandt Woman in bed ca. 1647 oil on canvas National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Jan de Bray Portrait of a woman 1660 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Gerrit Dou Young woman at a window with a copper bowl of apples and a cock pheasant 1663 oil on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Frans van Mieris Woman playing a lute 1663 oil on panel National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Jacob Ferdinand Voet Portrait of Queen Christina of Sweden ca. 1670-75 oil on canvas National Galleries of Scotland |
Helen, the Sad Queen
Azure, 'tis I, come from Elysian shores
To hear the waves break on sonorous steps,
And see again the sunrise full of ships
Rising from darkness upon golden oars.
My solitary arms call on the kings
Whose salty beards amused my silver hands.
I wept; they sang of triumphs in far lands,
And gulfs fled backward upon watery wings.
I hear the trumpet and the martial horn
That wield the rhythm of the beating blade,
The song of rowers binding the tumult.
And the gods! exalting on the prow with scorn
Their ancient smile that the slow waves insult,
Hold out their sculpted arms to my sad shade.
– Paul Valéry, translated by Janet Lewis (1950)
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| Gerard Soest Portrait of Lady Margaret Hay, Countess of Roxburghe ca. 1675 oil on canvas National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Adriaen van der Werff Tancred's servant presenting the heart of Guiscard in a golden cup to Guismond ca. 1675 oil on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| attributed to Arnold Boonen Portrait of a lady ca. 1700 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |