Earthly Humanism

The realm of Dutch and Flemish genre prints is that of etching. The technique transforms the representation of the world into a graphic polyphony in which trees, farm animals, ripened harvests, and rural figures are placed on an equal plane of visual dignity. Despite poverty and deprivation, these scenes are not governed by moralising intent: they convey an affirmative vital force. While many of these sheets were produced during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), they remain distant, for example, from the world of Callot (1592–1635), despite their contemporaneity.

This efflorescence accompanies both the refinement of etching as a medium distinct from engraving and the experiments of an early generation of printmakers active at the turn of the seventeenth century: Willem Pietersz Buytewech (1591–1624), Gerrit Bleker (1592–1656), Jan II van de Velde (1593–1641), Lucas van Uden (1595–1672), and Simon de Vlieger (1601–1653).

These artists establish a pictorial language in the early seventeenth century, later extended by masters such as Adriaen van Ostade and his pupil Cornelis Bega, as well as Jan Ruijscher, Paulus Potter, and Jacob van Ruisdael, who expand its possibilities toward its fullest articulation.