MEN O’ WAR, TULIPS & SOME VERY NAUGHTY CATS: Three Dutch Paintings with Annette Welkamp

The Johnston Collection contains a small number of objects from the Netherlands, including three paintings. Their subjects range from a grand sea battle between the English and the Dutch in the manner of Abraham Storck (circa 1670), a dark still life of flowers from the circle of Jean Baptiste Monnoyer (circa 1720), to a rather chaotic cat fight taking place on a table laden with food, attributed to Melchior d’Hondecoeter (circa 1650). This lecture will explore the Dutch obsession with the sea, trade, bulbs and sideboards groaning with food, particularly as it is presented in paintings.

ANNETTE WELKAMP is an arts and heritage consultant and Director of Cultural Connotations. In addition to working across Australia, she was formerly a Visual Arts Curator in the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands.

detail from dessert service Sir James Duke and Nephews, Hill Top Pottery, England, circa 1860-64