In collaboration with the Department of History of Art and Architecture, the Harvard Art Museums present Art and Thought in the Dutch Republic, a three-part lecture series delivered by Hanneke Grootenboer, professor of art history at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and the 2021 Erasmus Lecturer on the History and Civilization of the Netherlands and Flanders at Harvard University.

Room for Reflection: The Space of Painting

The new genre of interior painting enjoyed great popularity among 17th-century Dutch citizens. Its indoor scenes featuring people involved in mundane activities resemble the domestic settings in which they were hung. Other art forms such as perspective boxes and dollhouses further reinforce the link connecting physical, pictorial, and mental space by relating home to the interiority of the individual.

In this lecture, Professor Grootenboer explores how paintings, such as those by Samuel van Hoogstraten, Pieter Janssens Elinga, and Pieter de Hooch, provided a space for reflection for Dutch audiences and helped shape concepts of privacy and intimacy that remain with us today.

Led by:
Hanneke Grootenboer, Professor of Art History at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and the 2021 Erasmus Lecturer on the History and Civilization of the Netherlands and Flanders at Harvard University

This talk will take place online via Zoom. The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. To register, please complete this online form.

Please read these instructions on how to join a meeting on Zoom. For general questions, email am_register@harvard.edu.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.

The Harvard Art Museums have reopened to the public. Reservations are required for visitors and can be made up to three weeks in advance. Please visit the museum website for more information.

The 2021 Erasmus Lectures are presented by the Harvard Art Museums in collaboration with the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard.

Please join us for the other lectures in this three-part series (all times Eastern):
Part 1, Friday, November 5, 4pm
Part 2, Friday, November 12, 4pm

Separate registration is required for each lecture.

The Erasmus Lectureship on the History and Civilization of the Netherlands and Flanders invites lecturers to spend a semester in any department of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. The lectureship was endowed in 1967 by donations from individuals and businesses in the Netherlands and from Dutch expatriates in the United States. In 1994, the endowment was enlarged by a donation from the Government of Flanders.