Caspar Netscher and late seventeenth-century Dutch painting / catalogue raisonn of the paintings

Cloth bound with dusjacket, as new !, 2002. 4to., 542 pp. text, 378 ill. (33 full-page colourplts). ISBN 9070288370. Caspar Netscher (1635/6-1684) was one of the most acomplished and successful artists active in the Netherlands during the latter part of the seventeenth century. Paradoxically, however, the same factors that made him so successful during his lifetime and into the eighteenth century also occasioned his exclusion from the modern canon of seventeenth-century Dutch painting, for his art represents a decisive move away from the hearty egalitarian aesthetic that prevailed during the earlier part of the century. Responding to (and helping define) his patrons' desire for international style and sophistication, Netscher's exquisite portraits and subject pieces are unmistakably Dutch, yet are imbued with an elegance more in keeping with progressive pan-European tastes.This is the first full-length study to examine the work of this important Dutch artist The text is complemented by an appendix of documents relevant to the artist (most previously unpublished), and concludes with an exhaustive catalogue raisonne of the paintings. The latter contains detailed information on 220 accepted paintings by the artist, 44 problematic attributions (including some compositions known only through copies and works that involve a significant amount of studio assistance); 470 rejected works; and 388 paintings mentioned in the literature prior to 1800 but presently untraced.