The Dutch Golden Age, spanning roughly the 17th century, was a period of extraordinary artistic flourishing in the Netherlands. Amidst giants like Rembrandt and Vermeer, numerous highly skilled painters contributed to the rich tapestry of Dutch art, specializing in landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and scenes of everyday life. Among these talented individuals was Barend Gael, a painter noted for his evocative landscapes and lively genre scenes, whose work reflects both the influence of his renowned teacher and his own distinct artistic personality.
Origins and Artistic Formation in Haarlem
Barend Gael was born in Haarlem around 1620. Haarlem, alongside cities like Amsterdam, Leiden, and Delft, was a major centre for painting during the Golden Age. It was home to a thriving community of artists and a competitive market. The city was particularly renowned for its landscape painters, including figures like Jacob van Ruisdael and Salomon van Ruysdael, creating an environment rich in artistic stimuli for a young, aspiring painter.
Crucially, Gael's artistic development was shaped by his tutelage under Philips Wouwerman (often spelled Wouwermans). Wouwerman was one of the most popular and successful painters of his time, celebrated for his dynamic compositions, particularly his depictions of horses in various settings – battles, hunts, stables, and landscapes. He was a master of capturing equine anatomy and movement, often set against meticulously rendered landscape backgrounds.
The influence of Wouwerman on Gael's work is undeniable, particularly noted in paintings dated around 1660. Gael absorbed his master's skill in depicting horses and integrating figures naturally into landscape settings. Like Wouwerman, Gael often populated his scenes with riders, travellers, and animals, demonstrating a keen eye for detail and a fluid brushwork style learned during his apprenticeship. While Wouwerman often tackled dramatic battle or hunting scenes, Gael seems to have favoured more peaceful, everyday subjects, though the technical proficiency, especially with horses, echoes his master's teachings.
Artistic Style and Thematic Focus
Barend Gael established himself primarily as a painter of landscapes and genre scenes, often blending the two. His works typically depict the Dutch countryside, village outskirts, market squares, or roadside inns. A sense of tranquility often pervades his landscapes, even when they are populated with numerous figures and animals engaged in various activities. His compositions are generally well-balanced and thoughtfully constructed, guiding the viewer's eye through the scene.
Gael excelled in portraying the specificities of rural and village life. His paintings frequently feature peasants, travellers, merchants, soldiers, and coachmen, often shown resting, conversing, or tending to their animals. Horses are a recurring motif, rendered with an anatomical accuracy and liveliness that clearly stems from his training with Wouwerman. However, Gael developed his own nuances, often focusing on more rustic or common scenes compared to some of Wouwerman's more elegant equestrian gatherings.
His palette tends towards the naturalistic tones characteristic of Dutch landscape painting of the period, with an emphasis on earthy browns, greens, and atmospheric blues and greys for the sky. He paid careful attention to light and shadow, using it to model forms and create depth within his scenes. The quality of his work is often considered high, sometimes approaching that of his teacher, Wouwerman, cementing his reputation as a significant figure within 17th-century Dutch painting.
Representative Works
Several works exemplify Barend Gael's style and thematic interests, showcasing his skill in landscape, figure painting, and animal depiction.
One such painting is Dutch Peasants Keeping Watch (also known by its Dutch title Wachtende Hollandse boeren). Dated speculatively to 1630/39 (though this early dating might be questionable given his likely birth year of c. 1620 and peak influence around 1660), this work measures 55.5 x 65.5 cm and is held in a German private collection. The title suggests a scene of rural vigilance, likely featuring peasants and perhaps their animals within a landscape setting, typical of Gael's interest in everyday rural life.
Another key work is Resting Coachmen (known in German records as Reiter bei dem Rast or Reiter bei der Droschke). This piece, an oil painting possibly executed on a double-sided wet canvas, measures 53 x 70 cm. At the time of documentation, it was undergoing restoration. The subject matter – coachmen or riders taking a break – is entirely characteristic of Gael, providing ample opportunity to depict horses, figures in repose, and a roadside or inn setting.
A further example is Band Performance in Front of a Village Shop (Musikanten vor einem Dorfladen). Created sometime between 1630 and 1668, this painting (39.5 x 45 cm), located in Amsterdam, captures a lively village moment. It likely depicts musicians entertaining onlookers near a local shop, combining genre elements with architectural details and landscape features, showcasing Gael's ability to orchestrate multi-figure compositions within a specific environment.
Gael also painted scenes like a Busy Market Scene, described as featuring a vegetable seller, a church in the background, and a group with horses preparing to depart. This type of composition allowed him to depict a cross-section of society engaged in commerce and daily routines, set against a backdrop that blends village architecture with glimpses of the surrounding landscape. The inclusion of departing horses again highlights his affinity for equestrian subjects.
The painting Travelers at a Village Well is also associated with Gael, particularly in discussions comparing figure painting styles. The figures in this work have been compared to those in Meindert Hobbema's The Travelers, raising questions about potential influence or even collaboration, although such connections remain speculative.
Collaborations, Contemporaries, and Influence
The art world of the Dutch Golden Age was highly interconnected, with artists often influencing, collaborating with, or competing against one another. Barend Gael was part of this vibrant scene. His most significant connection was, of course, his teacher-student relationship with Philips Wouwerman.
Beyond this, records indicate that Gael engaged in collaboration. He is known to have painted figures (staffage) into the landscapes of Jan Wynants. Wynants was a respected landscape specialist whose compositions often benefited from the addition of figures and animals by other artists, a common practice at the time. Painters like Adriaen van de Velde and Johannes Lingelbach also provided figures for Wynants, placing Gael in good company among skilled figure painters who lent their talents to landscape specialists.
The potential connection to Meindert Hobbema, another major landscape painter of the era, is intriguing but less certain. The stylistic similarity noted between figures in Gael's Travelers at a Village Well and Hobbema's work suggests at least a shared visual vocabulary, if not direct interaction. Hobbema, like Jacob van Ruisdael, excelled in depicting wooded landscapes and watermills, contributing significantly to the Haarlem landscape tradition.
Gael worked during a period populated by numerous exceptional artists. Besides those already mentioned (Rembrandt, Vermeer, Wouwerman, Wynants, Hobbema, Ruisdael), his contemporaries included masters across various genres: Nicolaes Berchem, known for his Italianate landscapes often filled with pastoral figures; Paulus Potter, famed for his incredibly lifelike paintings of animals, especially cattle; Jan Steen, a master of lively, often humorous and chaotic genre scenes; Pieter de Hooch and Gerard ter Borch, who specialized in refined interior scenes depicting domestic life and elegant figures; and Aelbert Cuyp, celebrated for his atmospheric landscapes bathed in a distinctive golden light. While direct interactions with all these figures are not documented, Gael operated within this rich artistic milieu, contributing his own distinct voice.
Regarding his own legacy in terms of teaching, the provided information doesn't explicitly name any direct pupils whom Gael formally trained in his own workshop. However, influence can be transmitted through various means. It is noted that Adriaen Verdelo (II) studied with his cousin, Barent Gael, suggesting a learning environment or shared practice rather than a formal master-pupil dynamic. It's also possible that another painter, Adriaen Gael (II), was influenced by Barend's work, perhaps through family connection or shared artistic circles.
Later Years and Legacy
While born and trained in Haarlem, Barend Gael later moved to Amsterdam, the bustling economic and cultural heart of the Dutch Republic. He passed away in Amsterdam, though sources present some variation in the exact date, citing either 1687 or sometime between 1681 and 1683. Amsterdam offered a larger market and different artistic opportunities compared to Haarlem, although details of his activities there remain scarce.
Unlike some of his more famous contemporaries, detailed accounts of Barend Gael's personal life, personality, or specific anecdotes have not been prominently recorded or passed down through historical sources. Our understanding of him is primarily constructed through his surviving artworks and the basic biographical data available.
Barend Gael remains a respected figure within the extensive ranks of Dutch Golden Age painters. He successfully navigated the artistic currents of his time, absorbing the crucial influence of Philips Wouwerman while developing his own focus on peaceful landscapes and scenes of everyday Dutch life. His skill in depicting horses, his ability to create atmospheric settings, and his consistent production of appealing genre landscapes earned him a place among the notable masters of the period. His collaborations and connections situate him firmly within the network of artists contributing to the era's visual culture. Though perhaps not an innovator on the scale of Rembrandt or Vermeer, Barend Gael was a highly competent and characteristic painter whose works continue to offer valuable insights into the art and life of the 17th-century Netherlands.
