Tuesday’s ad is for Heineken. It looks like it’s from the 1960s or so, but it was definitely before 1991, when Heineken bought their importer, Van Munching & Co. One interesting thing I’m pretty sure isn’t on their neck label any more is the suggestion to “Serve at 45°-50° F.” Not sure about their claim of tasting “tremendous,” that’s not been my personal experience.
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Today in 1945, The Netherlands were liberated from Nazi Germany.
Netherlands
Netherlands or Dutch Breweries
Netherlands Brewery Guides
Other Guides
Guild: Centraal Brouwerij Kantoor
National Regulatory Agency: Not Known
Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: See European Union requirements
Drunk Driving Laws: BAC 0.05%
Alcohol Consumption By Type:
Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):
WHO Alcohol Data:
Patterns of Drinking Score: 1
Prohibition: None
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Today’s work of art is by a contemporary Dutch artist, Jos Van Riswick, who for most of his life worked at a university as a physicist before giving it all up to pursue an artist’s life in Nijmegen, Holland. After some experimentation, he found that traditional oils suited him best, and has been specializing in still lifes, such as this commission, done for someone in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The painting, Beer Still Life, was completed in August of 2010.
In his biography, van Riswick cites Rembrandt, along with Vermeer and Caravaggio, as influences and I have to agree that his work looks more timeless and older than many of his contemporaries. You wouldn’t look at this painting and immediately place it as having been done less than two years ago.
To learn more about Van Riswick, he has a short biography on his website. You can see many more of his paintings at Postcard From Holland, his blog Jos van Riswick — Painter, his Drawing Book and his eponymous website JosVanRiswick.com.
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Today’s work of art is by the Dutch artist Adriaen van Ostade, a Golden Age painter of genre scenes. This is the second painting of his I’ve featured, the first being Ale House Interior. Like that one, van Ostade did a watercolor first, and it, too, is in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. But eventually, in 1673, it was completed as an oil painting on a wood panel. It usually called The Violin Player, though some call it A Violinist at a Farmhouse Door.
The painting today hangs in the Mauritshuis at The Hague in the Netherlands. The museum describes The Violinist:
A group of people are gathered in front of a simple house that seems to be a country inn. The atmosphere is one of gaiety, for an itinerant violinist has come to the door to play a tune, accompanied by the boy in the red jacket who plays the hurdy-gurdy. The music is enjoyed by young and old alike. In the middle of the picture, a man sits on a bench, his legs wide apart, holding a tankard of beer. In the doorway, a woman leans on the lower half of the door and two men look out, trying to catch a glimpse of the musicians. Some children hang about outside, enjoying the excitement. A tousled girl steadies a child wearing only one shoe, and a little boy makes contact with a dog.
I’m no expert on Dutch architecture, but the building doesn’t look like a farmhouse to me, as the Morgan Library insists. To me, at least, it looks more like a tavern door, and that better explains the man with the big tankard of beer.
To learn more about Adriaen van Ostade, Wikipedia and the J. Paul Getty Museum each have a biography of him, and you can also see links to his works online at ArtCyclopedia. The Web Gallery of Art and the Wikimedia Commons also feature a number of his paintings.
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Today’s work of art is by the Dutch artist Joseph de Bray, who’s more famous as the son of Salomon de Bray, also a painter, and for essentially just one work of art, his In Praise of Herring, which is also known as Eulogy to a Herring and Still-Life in Praise of the Pickled Herring. It was completed in 1656.
The painting also includes a poem, also titled In Praise of Herring by Jacob Westerbaen, who was de Bray’s brother-in-law. Unfortunately, I was also unable to find the full text of the poem, either. Say what you will about pickled herring — and I’m certainly not a fan — but if you’re going to pair it with a beverage, you can bet it’s going to be beer.
The Web Gallery of Art has this to say about the artist and his painting:
Fish still-lifes developed as a category during the seventeenth century — not an astonishing phenomenon when we recall that fishing, particularly for herring and cod, was a mainstay of the Dutch economy. A notable exponent of the type is Abraham van Beyeren. As the Dutch love for flowers, their love for seafood is proverbial. The Haarlemer Joseph de Bray, son of Salomon and brother of Jan, celebrated this taste in his picture, dated 1656, dedicated to the apotheosis of the pickled herring.
Resting behind the large, succulent herring and other objects in the painting’s foreground, there is an elaborate tablet, draped with a festoon of herrings and requisite onions, inscribed with a poem by the Remonstrant preacher and poet Jacob Westerbaen: ‘In praise of the Pickled Herring’ published in 1633. After telling of the herring’s delight to the eye, palette, and its other qualities, Westerbaen adds that consumption of it ‘Will make you apt to piss/And you will not fail/(With pardon) to shit/And ceaselessly fart…’ – proof, if it is needed, that plain profane messages are as likely embodied in Dutch paintings as spiritual ones. The painting was evidently a success. In the following year he painted another, somewhat larger still-life, now in Aachen, dedicated to the same subject. It includes the text of Westerbaen’s verse dedicated to the pickled herring, and a brief passage from his poem ‘Cupido’ on the page of an open folio accompanied by an ample display of herrings and onions.
And another source said the following:
Joseph de Bray came from a family of Haarlem painters which included the highly respected Salomon de Bray (his father) and Jan de Bray (his brother). Joseph is known for this curious still life in which the different elements — the jug, the glass of beer, the fish, the bread, the butter and the onions — are organized in a U-shape. In the centre of the composition is a manuscript where one can read a poem by Doctor Jakob Westerbaen, singing the praises of a salted and smoked herring!
To learn more about Joseph de Bray, sadly, there’s not much. There isn’t even a Wikipedia page in English for him, it instead forwards to his father’s page where Joseph is mentioned. There is, however, a short German page for him, and that translates as follows:
Son of the painter Salomon de Bray and brother of Dirck, Jacob and Jan de Bray. He was certainly younger than his brother, Jan, and older than his brother Dirck. Probably trained by his father, he specialized mainly on still life. In 1664, he died of the plague.
The earliest known evidence of his artistry is a small drawing of an Arcadian landscape dated 14th February 1650, classified because of the uncertain lines as an early work. There are only a handful of works that can be ascribed with certainty. The most famous depiction is “Still Life with a poem on the pickled herring” that has survived in several handwritten copies. Recently appeared on the international art market is another picture which is tentatively attributed to him. Besides the few oil paintings, there are some drawings, which are also brought in touch with him.
There’s not much else, beyond this article, Painting Family: The De Brays, about his family.
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Today’s work of art is by the Dutch artist Adriaen van Ostade, a Golden Age painter of genre scenes. The painting is usually known simply as Ale House Interior though its full title is actually Ale House Interior with Nine Peasants Smoking, Drinking, and Playing Cards or Tric-trac. Completed in 1673, it’s “pen and brown ink, brown wash, watercolor in varying tints of gray, green, yellow, purple, and pink, with some bodycolor, over traces of graphite, on paper; [with a] framing line in brown ink.” Today, the original is in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.
Here’s how one source describes the painting:
This magnificent drawing was executed using a very elaborate technique, signed and dated by Van Ostade. In a highly detailed manner, it depicts the interior of a tavern and the different activities going on: a card game, beer drinking, a relaxing smoke by the fireplace. The dress, furniture, accessories and decor are all accurately rendered in this scene of daily life in Holland during the seventeenth century.
To learn more about Adriaen van Ostade, Wikipedia and the J. Paul Getty Museum each have a biography of him, and you can also see links to his works online at ArtCyclopedia. The Web Gallery of Art and the Wikimedia Commons also feature a number of his paintings.
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For more of my past columns, see Brooks On Beer
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