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Dutch Adventures in the New World
Fred Stern
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"The Milkmaid," by Johannes
Vermeer.
Click image to enlarge.
I have never seen so many people crowd around a single painting. The attraction? “The Milkmaid,” a 17th century depiction of a servant. Museum-goers are riveted by this small but signature work by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675).
We are lucky to have her, if only for a short time. The painting is on loan from the Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York -- part of the region-wide celebration to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s historic voyage from The Netherlands to what is now New York and up the waterway we now know as the Hudson River.
As it remains today, Holland in 1609 was a tiny country -- at that time, a population of just 4 million people -- with limited land area partly wrested from the sea. But it was a population with a feisty spirit and enormous ambition. The nation had embarked on a lucrative venture in South East Asia, founding the Dutch East India Company to set up trading posts in the Spice Islands. The trade route was long and difficult to navigate, however, involving sailing south to the southern-most tip of Africa and around the treacherous Cape of Good Hope.
So in 1609 Henry Hudson, a British adventurer and navigator, was hired to locate a Northeast Passage to South East Asia which would be safer and greatly cut the required sailing time. North America had been discovered by Europeans only a little more than 100 years before, and was still largely unexplored. The continent held out promise, if other options failed, as the source for the shortcut passage.
Of course, Hudson was bound to fail in North America, like so many others before and after him, because there was simply no such passage until the establishment of the Panama Canal.
Hudson’s first choice was to sail north after leaving Europe’s western shore, but he was hampered by ice after reaching the islands of Greenland and Spitzbergen. So reluctantly he sailed south with his Dutch crew and his ship the “Half Moon” (“Halve Maen”). After circling Nova Scotia he reached what is today the harbor of New York and realized that the huge waterway emptying in the harbor could be the passage he was searching for. He began sailing up the river which now bears his name, reaching what is now the capital of New York State, Albany, where the river became too narrow to navigate.
On returning from his first voyage, Hudson reported to the Dutch authorities that he found the natives friendly. He and his crew had traded trinkets for fur and the country’s produce of tobacco and corn.
Henry Hudson had attempted to find the Northeast Passage twice before and once after the Hudson River expedition. After his fourth try, in which the unfortunate sailors spent the winter icebound in what is now Hudson Bay, Canada, his crew mutinied. He and eight shipmates where set adrift, never to be heard from again.
Dutch settlement and the patroon system
Meanwhile, other ships followed Hudson’s exploration of the Hudson River, and soon a small trading post was set up on the shores of Manhattan. Soon Dutch settlers set up a new colony, New Netherland (Nieuw-Nederland) in the Mid Atlantic states with New Amsterdam, now Manhattan, as its capital. Dutch interest in the region was piqued and further explorations were undertaken in what is today Massachusetts and Delaware.
Obstacles however were soon to develop. The Native Americans which included the Lenapes, Mohawks and River Indians, weren’t all that friendly once they discovered that the Europeans meant to stay, not just to visit. And New Netherland remained sparsely inhabited with Dutch immigrants, which is not surprising. After all citizens of the “Seven United Netherlands” were for the most part quite prosperous, and few were interested in leaving their comfortable homes to brave a 3000 mile journey with no security guarantees at the end of their journey. Moreover, unlike many European countries, the Netherlands placed no religious restrictions on its people, so religious intolerance was not a reason to leave.
As a special inducement to its wealthy citizens to leave the comforts of Holland and settle in the new land, the Dutch instituted rewards called "patroonships." This was a land grant system which gave individuals (i.e. patroons) rights similar to European landowners, including the right to own large stretches of land; to appoint local officials; and in general, to assume the role of law as they saw fit. The patroon system was especially strong in the Hudson Valley of New York and New Jersey, along with portions of other Mid Atlantic states.
The patroon had some obligations to meet as well. He was obliged to provide a tenancy for 50 families in a four year time span. His tenant farmers were to compensate the patroon for their land use in money, labor, a share of crops and in other ways similar to the obligations demanded by large landowners in England.
Patroons owned whole villages as well as fishing rights. Almost the entire New York Borough of The Bronx was given to a patroon named Jonas Broncks. What is today the town of Pelham in New York State’s Westchester County belonged to a patroon named David Pelham. (You can visit the manor house of a patroon, Cortlandt Manor which is in Cortlandt, New York. It was deeded to Stephanus Van Cortlandt, along with roughly 85,000 acres of arable land, woods, lakes and streams.)
New Netherland needed to protect itself not only from Native Americans but from the Swedish settlements especially in Delaware and from the British. These were constantly encroaching on its border. Some 12 forts were built many along the Hudson River including one, De Wal at the foot of the East River in New York City from which Wall Street derives its name.
In 1626 Peter Minuit, then the director of New Netherland, made perhaps the most famous real estate deal in history when he bought Manhattan for $24 from local Indians. The agreement is currently on view at New York City’s South Street Seaport Museum as part of the 400 year anniversary.
Peter Stuyvesant who arrived in 1647 proved to be an exceptionally strong governor. But the problems and quarrels between competing commercial and public enterprises, and between the New Netherlanders and the Dutch government in Europe proved untenable.
After four British warships entered New Amsterdam harbor on August 27, 1664 they met no resistance, and although the Dutch took New Netherland back some nine years later, the undeclared war came to an end a year later and the Dutch adventure in America for all intents and purposes was over.
Vermeer's "Milkmaid" displayed to honor Hudson
To commemorate Henry Hudson and the voyage of the “Half Moon,” New York has now unveiled a pavilion named for New Amsterdam. It is located in lower Manhattan and is a gift from the Dutch people and their government.
The pavilion is just one of many ways the region has been celebrating the 400 year anniversary. Among the most impressive have been special exhibitions of Dutch art from the period. For example, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art recently displayed its holdings of 228 Dutch paintings dating from 1600 to 1800. It is an extraordinary collection and testifies to the affection American collectors hold for Dutch art and all things Dutch.
Like Holland’s outsize contributions to international exploration and commerce, the country had an influence on the visual arts far exceeding what would be expected for a place so small. Holland has produced far more than its share of great art and artists. Among them are Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Gerard Terborch.
But perhaps none is more beloved -- or his works more sought after -- than Johannes Vermeer. So popular does the artist remain to this day, that a very successful movie was made about him, “The Girl with the Pearl Earring.”
To a certain extent, Vermeer’s mystique lies in the rarity of his paintings -- only 36 are known to exist today. But his appeal goes far beyond that. His exquisite use of light and color beautifully portrayed the lives of everyday Hollanders of the 17th Century, and elevated even the most humble to the status of royalty.
Take for example, “The Milkmaid.” The diminutive canvas, about 17 inches square, depicts a young serving woman pouring milk from a wide jug into a stoneware vessel. The small table on which she performs this task holds a bread basket, as well as some generous-sized lumps of bread, as she prepares to make a bread pudding, or some type of porridge. An ordinary scene, an indifferent woman dressed in working clothes, is turned into a magical moment through several important elements. First, the light pours in through a leaded glass window. We have no idea what is happening outside the kitchen, in the street, or along the front of the house. It really doesn’t concern us. Vermeer has transformed the kitchen into a brilliant stage where we are witnessing a powerful ceremony carried on by a simple maid clad in a brilliant combination of lemon gold and blue. We don’t know what she is thinking, as she works at her humble task, but we can guess she is daydreaming of a beau.
Thirty six paintings (one is in the possession of thieves) are unfortunately all we have by the hand of Vermeer. He died at 43 years of age, producing on average only two paintings every year. Other 17th century Dutch painters created an avalanche of canvases, endless processions of land and seascapes, historic scenes and genre pieces portraying the daily life of the populace. As for Vermeer he stayed almost entirely with interiors; his favorite theme was a woman alone in sometimes sumptuous, sometimes ordinary surroundings.
Like other Dutch paintings of the period, Vermeer’s canvases tell us much about home life there. The settings often include a leaded glass window to the left of the model. We also see the costly Oriental carpets that were used as table coverings and the generous curtains that complete the picture. You can see all this in the painting “A Maid Asleep” and the glorious “Woman Reading a Letter.” Other delightful vignettes are the “Officer and the Laughing Girl” and “Girl interrupted in her Music,” both at New York’s Frick Collection. If you live anywhere in or near Washington, D.C. make sure you see the four Vermeers at the National Gallery.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has five Vermeers in its permanent collection, in addition to the borrowed “Milkmaid.” In the Met’s current exhibit commemorating the Hudson exploration, these five are grouped in four rooms around “The Milkmaid” as are seven other paintings highlighting the 17th Century Golden Age of Dutch painting. These include “A Woman Seated at a Window,” by Gabriel Metsu, and a work by Pieter de Hooch, “The Visit.”
Relatively little is known about Johannes Vermeer. He lived most of his life in the small Dutch town of Delft, famous for its pottery, where he was a member of the Delft painter’s guild, which he eventually headed. Although born a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism when he married a Catholic woman against her parent’s wishes. They had eleven children, of whom eight survived their childhood. Supporting this large family was a constant concern for the Vermeers, and they experienced tight economic times. Most of his existing paintings were contracted for, which was the way that artists made their living in those days. Many artists such as Rembrandt had workshops in which they employed subordinate artists to execute much of the work, but Vermeer apparently worked by himself, explaining in part why he produced so few paintings.
Vermeer sometimes acted as a dealer for other people’s creations, but he was not successful at it. After his death his wife declared bankruptcy. A solitary collector bought the paintings that had not been contracted for. His name and work were almost totally forgotten for more than 200 years, only coming to light and popularity in the middle of the 19th century.
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"The Sleeping Maid," by
Vermeer.
Click image to enlarge.
Why didn’t Vermeer prosper economically the way other Dutch 17th century painters did? One reason might have been the decline of his hometown, Delft, which experienced an armament explosion in 1654 that destroyed more than 200 houses. Also, Amsterdam, Leiden and The Hague had become much more sophisticated than Delft, attracted a more affluent populace.
Another explanation might be found in the subject matter Vermeer painted. He was not interested in painting the kinds of things that had the most commercial appeal. The Dutch were proud of their new prosperity coming on the heels of their victory over Spain, and the growing importance of tiny Holland as a naval power. They wanted to grace their homes with portraits to show off to friends and keep for their progeny. But Vermeer limned no burgher portraits.
The Dutch loved landscapes with river crossings, wind mills, hunters or skating parties, but these were not Vermeer’s métier, either. We have only one landscape by Vermeer, a superb view of Delft dating to 1660/61, and one streetscape, an oil of “The Little Street” with a view of a passageway behind the artist’s house.
The Dutch presence persists
It seems that wherever we look in our daily lives we continue to encounter the Dutch influence, even though their immigration numbers were very small compared to the influx of immigrants from other regions. For example, Saint Nicolas is part of the New Netherland tradition and now, as Santa Claus, has become so very much our own Americanized version.
Dutch folklore was an important source of ideas for American writers who drew upon the old tales for their story lines. Foremost, perhaps, was Washington Irving, author of Rip Van Winkle, who must have been told these old folktales.
Our vocabulary is enriched by everyday Dutch words we have anglicized. Cookie is a version of the Dutch word “koekje.” The word boss has its roots in the Dutch word for foreman, “baas.” Here are more examples:
“Ahoy” from the Dutch “hoi” hello,
”Block” from “bloc” a tree trunk
“Bush” from “bosch” an area that has not been cleared
“Furlough” from “verlof”
“Hooky” from “hoekje” corner
And there are many more.
From early on, our political philosophies have been similar to those of Holland. In fact John Adams, our second president compared the origin of The Netherlands and the American Republic as follows: “The two are so much alike that the history of one seems the transcript of the other.” It’s not surprising, then, that three of our presidents could boast of their Dutch heritage: Martin van Buren, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
This 400 year anniversary has served as a reminder of the contributions Holland has made to America, starting with the exploration of the great river by Henry Hudson and his Dutch sailors in “Half Moon.” The Hudson River, since the Dutch first described it, has played an integral role in our history. As a striking part of the American landscape, it continues to inspire artists and writers. Here is the poet Paul Goodman writing about the Hudson after returning home from travel abroad:
This is our lordly Hudson hardly flowing
under the green-grown cliffs
and has no peer in Europe or the East
Be quiet, heart! Home! Home!
Fred Stern is a poet and writer on the arts. He is based in
New Jersey. His poetry collection 'Corridors of Light' is
available from Booklink.com and on the web.
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