Michael and Ghislaine Howard have just returned from a lecture tour of the Netherlands. The major focus of Michael’s talks were the artists, Van Eyck, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals and, of course, Van Gogh.
It’s amazing that such a small geographical area marked by the rapid development of trade and urbanisation from the fifteenth century onwards led to such an extraordinary production of great art. All artists are profoundly shaped by the political turmoil and the economic, commercial, religious and cultural currents of their time - but from that mix the artists of the Low Countries over the centuries created a body of art that reaches across the centuries to touch and excite us today. In their very different ways these artists share an unshakable faith in what it is to be human.
Illustrated is ‘The Goldfinch’ by Carel Fabritius, 1654 from the Mauitshius in The Hague and a sketch of the same by Michael and a sketch by Ghislaine from Ruben’s famous, ‘Descent from the Cross’, 1612-14, at Antwerp Cathedral that so inspired Van Gogh.