Paperback, 250 x 210 mm, 100 images 
ISBN 978 1 90568 625 4

Holland in the seventeenth century presented artists with the most man-made landscape in Europe, and one which still exerts a fascination on our imaginations today.

The human narrative within this painted landscape could range from depictions of peasants working and relaxing in the tradition of Bruegel to an evocation of aristocratic estates, where noblemen hunted and rode. At the same time other Dutch artists were discovering in Italy a range of different subject-matter: the idealised Arcadian landscape, the vitality of the Roman streetscape, or the hot, ruin-covered mountains of the Roman campagna. Finally there was the sea, which played such a vital role in Dutch consciousness, and which was used to suggest the drama of the nation’s life and history.

This book discusses some of the finest examples of each of these different types of landscape, exploring how they relate to one another, their context within other works of the period, how their different artists, including such masters as Isaac van Ostade, Philips Wouwermans, Paulus Potter, Jacob van Ruisdael, the Van de Veldes and Aelbert Cuyp, influenced each other’s explorations of the idea of landscape, and how each enables us today to enter the Dutch Golden Age.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor is Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures.

Jennifer Scott is Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery. She was previously Director at the Holburne Museum, Bath and Curator of Paintings at Royal Collection Trust (2004–2014).