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Tuesday 2 December 2008

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Family business

Andrew Lambirth

Wednesday, 3rd September 2008

Painting Family: The De Brays, Master Painters of 17th Century Holland
Dulwich Picture Gallery, until 5 October

Cecil Collins — A Centenary Exhibition
Monnow Valley Arts Centre, Middle Hunt House, Walterstone, Nr Abergavenny, Herefordshire, until 14 September

I must say I admire museums and galleries that put on exhibitions devoted to the revival of lost reputations, in other words to a genuine spirit of reassessment. In these revenue-dominated days, exhibition organisers are driven increasingly in the direction of guaranteed best-sellers, and the crop of predictable subjects on the gallery circuit grows apace. So it is refreshing to be greeted by a relatively unknown name, and have a whole exhibition attached to it. I am an admirer of Dutch painting of the Golden Age — within certain limits. I can quickly surfeit on a diet of richly detailed still-life paintings and genre scenes. In a mixed exhibition, the Dutch tend to fare worst. In last week’s review of Love, the summer display at the National Gallery, for instance, the Dutch contingent didn’t get a look in, though in passing I was interested to note that the pale profile of Leah in Hendrick Ter Brugghen’s ‘Jacob reproaching Laban’ was strongly reminiscent of Balthus. At Dulwich, the focus is squarely on the Dutch once again.

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