An investigation into the art of a mysterious Dutch painter who left no written records behind. His paintings are curious, his figures introverted, and his street scenes strangely stage-like. Jacobus Vrel recorded everyday life in Holland during the seventeenth century and conjured his own idiosyncratic world at the same time. This volume presents the fascinating complete oeuvre of a painter whose works were thought in the nineteenth century to have been painted by Vermeer. Jacobus Vrel is like a phantom. No written sources describing the artist or his work have ever been discovered. His existence is documented only by some fifty surviving works which can hardly be compared with those of his contemporaries. His works, in their austerity and sometimes oppressive silence, seem unexpectedly modern, and have been compared to the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershøi. With detective-like investigative flair, and drawing on extensive technical examinations of the paintings, this book explores the mysterious pictures of this recently rediscovered painter.

An interdisciplinary study of the central role that the neighborhood played in seventeenth-century Dutch painting and culture The neighborhood was a principal organizing structure of Dutch cities in the seventeenth century, and each had its own regulations, administrators, social networks, events, and diverse population of residents. Linda Stone-Ferrier argues that this sense of community contributed to the steady demand for pictures portraying aspects of this culture. These paintings, by such artists as Jan Steen and Pieter de Hooch, reinforced the role and values of the neighborhood. Through close readings of such works--by Steen and De Hooch and, among others, Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Johannes Vermeer--Stone-Ferrier deftly considers social history, urban studies, anthropology, and women's studies in this penetrating exploration. Her new interpretations of seventeenth-century Dutch painting across genres--scenes of streets, domesticity, professions, and festivity--challenge existing paradigms in Dutch art history.

Addressed to students of the image—both art historians and students of visual studies—this book investigates the history and nature of time in a variety of different environments and media as well as the temporal potential of objects. Essays will analyze such topics as the disparities of power that privilege certain forms of temporality above others, the nature of temporal duration in different cultures, the time of materials, the creation of pictorial narrative, and the recognition of anachrony as a form of historical interpretation.

“This is a sensory history and a sensual story told from street level . . . a clear and powerful account of the transformation of street life in Europe.” —Leora Auslander, author of Taste and Power Merchants’ shouts, jostling strangers, aromas of fresh fish and flowers, plodding horses, and friendly chatter long filled the narrow, crowded streets of the European city. As they developed over many centuries, these spaces of commerce, communion, and commuting framed daily life. At its heyday in the 1800s, the European street was the place where social worlds connected and collided. Brian Ladd recounts a rich social and cultural history of the European city street, tracing its transformation from a lively scene of trade and crowds into a thoroughfare for high-speed transportation. Looking closely at four major cities—London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna—Ladd uncovers both the joys and the struggles of a past world. The story takes us up to the twentieth century, when the life of the street was transformed as wealthier citizens withdrew from the crowds to seek refuge in suburbs and automobiles. As demographics and technologies changed, so did the structure of cities and the design of streets, significantly shifting our relationships to them. In today’s world of high-speed transportation and impersonal marketplaces, Ladd leads us to consider how we might draw on our history to once again build streets that encourage us to linger. By unearthing the vivid descriptions recorded by amused and outraged contemporaries, Ladd reveals the changing nature of city life, showing why streets matter and how they can contribute to public life. “[A] dazzlingly kaleidoscopic overview of city life, city living, and city dying.” —Judith Flanders, author of The Invention of Murder

Includes annual reports of the Detroit Arts Commission and of the Detroit Museum of Art Founders Society.