Wednesday Nov 20, 2019 – Delft Princenhof
We set off early (for us) to catch the 10:04 train to
Delft. We were going to see an
exhibition of 30 paintings by Pieter de Hooch at the Princenhof Museum. The train ride was only an hour. I took some photos along the way. We have
visited Delft before. The town center is
very picturesque, actually better than my photos. We didn’t visit either the Oude or Nieuwe
Kerks on this trip, so that probably saved you another 100 photos. I climbed the tower of the Nieuwe Kerk on our
previous visit. The Oude Kerk has a
floor plaque memorializing Vermeer’s family grave, if not the actual location.
The de Hooch exhibition was very good. The space was pretty
small and that is the reason for my complaints about other people being in MY
way. I have to say that I get in front
of a painting and take the photo, but I’m not there for more than 5-7 seconds,
if that. What drives me nuts is the
folks with the audio guide that have to stand right in front of the painting
and listen to the entire segment. Most
people stand back and listen to the guide, so that other people can get a look
at the painting. I’m working on my
grouchy old man routine if you haven’t noticed.
I also put a few of Vermeer’s paintings in the photos to compare with de
Hooch’s work. Probably the biggest
difference is that the Vermeer photos are professional photos from the
internets. Another difference is that de
Hooch’s paintings are physically smaller than Vermeer’s. The comparison shows the typical genres in
Dutch paintings. Overall I like Vermeer
over de Hooch, but some of de Hooch’s come very close to Vermeer’s. Enough for
the art talk.
After the exhibit we walked around central Delft. We did get something to eat, and as always it
was very good. We caught a 15:00 (I’m
back to using the colon) train to Amsterdam.
We got home in time to see Sondland testify in the impeachment hearings,
lucky us. For dinner we went back to the
Foodhallen and had a great time. Sue
struck up a conversation with two young Dutch guys while I got the beer and a
meat and cheese plate for dinner. We
finished up with brownies. It was all
good. We will go back at least one more
time before we come home.
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