Object number1962.2

View of a Dutch Village with a Ruined Wall

Datec. 1660-1665

Artist Daniel Vosmaer (Dutch, active 1650-1666)

CultureDutch

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsUnframed: 25 3/16 x 20 7/8 in. (64 x 53 cm)
Framed: 27 3/16 x 31 1/8 x 3 1/8 in. (69 x 79 x 8 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, Agnes Rindge Claflin Fund

On View

On view

Period17th c

Classification(s)

Painting

Terms

Markings(backing removed during 1963 restoration; see file for labels returned to museum)

ProvenanceLaubinger, Salzburg. Boehler;
Paul Cassirer & Co., Amsterdam;
purchased 1962 by VC Art Gallery.

Vassar Exhibitions

Time and Transformation in Seventeenth Century Dutch Art

Master Class: Northern European Art 1500-1700 from the Permanent Collection

Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Vermeer and the Delft School," March 5, 2001- May 27, 2001; London, England, The National Gallery, June 20, 2001-September 16, 2001;

Poughkeepsie, NY, FLLAC, Vassar College, "An Exhibition in Memory of Agnes Rindge Claflin 1900-1977," April 30 - June 4, 1978;

Poughkeepsie, New York, FLLAC, Vassar College, "Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art", April 8-June 19 2005. catalog no. 44;

Tokyo, Japan, Metropolitan Art Museum, "Vermeer and the Delft Style" August-December 2008;

Williamstown, Williams College Museum of Art, “Williams-vassar Exchange Exhibition,” February 28-March 18, 1966;

Northampton, MA, Smith College Museum of Art, June 20, 1991-May 6, 1993 (extended load);

Delft, Netherlands, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Gemeente Musea Delft, “Delft Masters: Contemporaries of Vermeer,” March 1-June 9, 1996;

New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Vermeer and the Delft School,” March 5-May 27, 2001 (London, National Gallery, June 20-September 16, 2001). Cat. no. 87, repr.;

Poughkeepsie, NY, FLLAC, Vassar College “Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art,” April 8-June 19, 2005 (Sarasota, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, August 20-October 30, 2005; Louisville, The Speed Art Museum, January 10-March 26, 2006). Cat. no. 44, repr.

Rome, Italy, Scuderie del Quirinale, "Vermeer, Il secolo d'oro dell'Arte olandese," September 27, 2012-January 20, 2013;

Poughkeepsie, NY, FLLAC, Vassar College, "Master Class: Northern European Art 1500-1700 from the Permanent Collection," April 27-September 2, 2018.

Label TextIn this work, Daniel Vosmaer occupied the immediate foreground with a crumbling brick wall, forgoing the illusion of pictorial depth typically sought by seventeenth-century Dutch land and cityscape painters. The scene may represent the aftermath of the infamous gunpowder explosion of 1654 that occurred in the city of Delft, which Vosmaer depicted explicitly in other drawings and paintings. For the artist and his peers in the Netherlands, ruins that resulted from natural or manmade disasters often served as fodder for imagery that invited contemplation of trauma, memory, and time.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu