Watershed: A Study Day

This study day, organized in conjunction with the BMA exhibition Watershed: Transforming the Landscape in Early Modern Dutch Art, invites conversation and reflection on the environmental, economic, social, and political consequences of the Dutch Republic’s engagement with the water. This convening aims to address how artists, their contemporaries, and the objects on view reveal both an awareness of and an ambivalence toward the relationship between humans and their environment in the early modern period.

Speakers include Lara Yeager-Crasselt (Baltimore Museum of Art), Stephen Campbell (Johns Hopkins University), Dagomar Degroot (Georgetown University), Melanie Gifford (retired, National Gallery of Art), Sarah Mallory (Morgan Library & Museum), and Celia Rodriguez Tejuca (Johns Hopkins University). The afternoon will be moderated by Mitchell Merback (Johns Hopkins University) and Arielle Saiber (Johns Hopkins University).

Following the end of the afternoon presentations, guests and participants are invited to visit the exhibition at the BMA. Free and open to the public.

*This event will be held at Johns Hopkins University, Gilman Hall 132.

For more information, please email european@artbma.org.

About the Exhibition

The Dutch landscape changed immeasurably over the course of the seventeenth century. While the northern provinces of the Low Countries fought for their political and religious independence from Habsburg Spain—ultimately gaining independence as the Dutch Republic in 1648—they were also in a constant struggle against the water. As a region largely situated at or below sea level, and defined by sandy coastlines, vast inland waterways, and extensive wetlands, the Netherlands felt the impacts of environmental change in tangible and immediate ways. The ability of the Dutch to harness, adapt to, and profit from the water became essential for their economy and politics as well as their art and culture.

Watershed: Transforming the Landscape in Early Modern Dutch Art explores the role of water and landscape in defining the identity of the young Dutch Republic. It considers these developments from the perspective of the water’s edge, a site of change, tension, and possibility, and, above all for artists, a place of immense inspiration. Drawn largely from the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the 42 works in the exhibition, including prints, drawing, paintings, and rare books on loan from Johns Hopkins Special Collections, offer the opportunity to reframe how we engage with images of the Dutch landscape and the people and forces that shaped it. Watershed is curated by Dr. Lara Yeager-Crasselt, BMA Curator and Department Head of European Painting and Sculpture.