The Netherlands was beautiful, pure and unspoilt by the modern world. Around 1900, painters from the United States loved working in the Netherlands. Dutch art was a source of inspiration and the US public was prepared to pay good money for ‘Dutchness’. An exhibition at the Singer Museum in Laren explores this forgotten genre.

A flat landscape with windmills and tulip fields, Dutch cows, people in traditional dress, picturesque towns and old Dutch interiors. Whether it was the works of 17th century masters or contemporary art from the ‘Hague School’, Dutch art did well on the US art market.

Dozens of US artists came to the Netherlands from 1880 onwards, hoping to find what they imagined had been lost in their own country: a beautiful pre-modern landscape, and simple, pious people untouched by the industrial world.

Romantic paintings
The artists painted what they had come looking for, even if it wasn’t what they actually found. The traditional costume in the romantic paintings of Gari Melchers (1869-1932) look rather too colourful and stylish. What milkmaid would wear clothes as fine as these for a day’s work in the fields? And why does Walter MacEwen (1858-1943) show people wearing the traditional costumes of more than one village in the same painting? Charles Gruppe (1860-1940) paints a barge by a windmill in a bucolic landscape at Voorburg, just outside The Hague (detail - see lead image above) – as if there were no industry so close to the city.

Red Interior (detail) - Rettig

detail - Rettig's Red Interior

A painting by George Henry Boughton (1833-1905) shows young women weeding between the cobbles by the waterfront. The artist was evidently struck by the idea of the orderly Dutch keeping their pavement tidy.

Some painters took props from the Netherlands back with them to the US to use in the studio. John Rettig (1860-1932) spent years living in Volendam. In his painting The Red Interior both the red paintwork and the costume are typical of this fishing village north of Amsterdam. Yet he most likely painted the canvas back in his studio in America, where he had reconstructed a Volendam interior.

Dutchness
The paintings sold well and ‘Dutchness’ became a popular genre in the US. For the exhibition the Singer Museum has brought together paintings from several US museums and private collections. In these forgotten paintings, the work is often of surprisingly high quality.

The exhibition Dreamland. American Artists in Holland 1880-1914 gives a charming view of the Netherlands through the eyes of Americans at the time. And let’s be honest – it’s a view that still keeps tills ringing in the Dutch tourist industry today.

Dreamland - American Artists in Holland 1880-1914 is at the Singer Museum Laren until 16 January 2011.