The constant contrast between light and dark appears everywhere from the facades of the building where black plays against white or brick, to the great Flemish portraits where the face and hands stand against all shades of black, dark browns and taupes, the gray clouds against the blue of the sky, which appear so regularly in the landscape paintings. 
Always, the sense of pure white created by light on light materials brings a sense of brightness to an environment that for most of the year lacks it with many wet, cold and somber.
The importance of light was expressed in the Dutch paintings which delighted on its play on subjects and spaces to the large windows in homes that were splurged in glass – a very expensive material at the time. All for the pleasure of brightness.
These are best shown in Rembrandt’s Night Watch where lightness floats in a sea of dark browns and black where two colors travel throughout the painting accenting personalities.
There is always an exception to the rule and that is Van Gogh where color creates so many different emotions. Here light permeates every painting. His early works started in the traditional dark style of somber coloration but soon turned to a style where bold brush strokes conveyed vibrancy, energy and movement, combining reality and the abstract. His constant use of soft greens, green blues and blue greens with dashes of yellows still influences us today.
#1 by m elissa lee on December 4, 2009 - 3:43 pm
Dear Vicente,
Light and Dark are all elements of how we negotiate life in general and to see how paintings often show this is also an element of how one would deal with so much darkness much of the year. When one is surrounded by the sun most of the time one seeks darkness and a break from the sun, but it is the other way around when one is in the dark dampness (I often think of how many times I am in Paris and the entire trip is dark and damp)most of the time one need the light, so we as humans will recreate it any way we can!!!!!!
I love light in homes and neutral colors with a little color thrown in to offset the neutral tones…. Blue often plays well with natural washes…..
Enjoy your trip!!!!!!!
xxoo
Melissa
#2 by Gary Nelling on December 4, 2009 - 5:53 pm
I’ve always thought that Dutch classical era paintings are particularly luminous. Perhaps they had a rare appreciation and understanding of light because of its scarcity, but perhaps their is something about the generous humorous Dutch personality too. English classical painting displays some of the same feeling, but for me the Dutch were the masters in expressing light.
Did you enjoy Gerrit Rietveld’s Van Gogh Museum as a building and series of exhibit spaces? I thought it was a good integration of large and intimate spaces, and the open stair gave it some movement. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that he designed major commissions like this in addition to his well-known De Stijl single-family and multi-family housing and his famous red-blue chair.
#3 by Karena on December 5, 2009 - 7:31 pm
I am thinking and Vermeer and Rembrandt and even Turners brilliant use of lights and dark’s. As a painter sometimes I may stay too monochromatic or tonal, not always though! The contrasts can be mesmerizing!