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| Jasper Geeraerts Still life with Lobster ca. 1645 oil on canvas Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut |
"Learning that color is a fiction of light is one of the primary shocks of growing up: that this hitherto deeply physical thing is just a reflection, and that nothing can keep its color under the cover of darkness, are monstrous things to understand, even for my adult mind. Yet there is something about color's frailty at its twilight moment of oblivion that also brings out its magnificence. At color's juncture with night, everything is suddenly in climax. The world gleams like burnished metal; water like inlaid gold. The sky hangs like heavy weave tapestry. Detail is secondary and focus is lost. The dullest window glows with evanescent glory and even streetlights dominate with an intensity normally unknown to them. Then you watch in thrill and panic as this vivid world is slowly tarnished by night, both woolly and indistinct, denying finally the mysterious illusion of color."
– Magic Hour by Tacita Dean, 2007
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| Michiel Sweerts Boy in a Turban holding a Nosegay ca. 1661 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Peter Paul Rubens The Four Continents ca. 1615 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Jacob van Oost St Macarius of Ghent with Plague Victims 1673 oil on canvas Louvre |
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| Lodewijk de Vadder Soignes Forest 17th century oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent |
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| Jacques Fouquier Wooded landscape with stream 17th century distemper on paper Louvre |
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| Thomas van Apshoven Landscape with musician 17th century oil on canvas private collection |
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| Denys van Alsloot Landscape with Flight into Egypt ca. 1608 oil on panel private collection |
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| Roelant Savery Mountain Landscape with a Castle 1609 oil on panel Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Jan Davidz. de Heem Eucharist exposed in niche within fruit wreath 1648 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Jan Siberechts The Ford ca. 1672 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Paul Bril View of a Port ca. 1607 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Jan Fyt Vase of Flowers and Two Bunches of Asparagus ca. 1650 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Anonymous Flemish painter Corpse of a nun laid out on a bed 17th century oil on canvas Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut |