Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art

“Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art dives into unexploited visual and artistic material in the history of racial capitalism’s beginnings at the time of Rembrandt. It is also a completely new interpretation of the objectification of the enslaved body by a Reformed religion of an imageless God. This major and refined perspective is made, for the first time, necessary and obvious by Caroline Fowler, who takes the cultural ramifications of racial slavery one step farther, thanks to the means of a bold and expanded art history.” - Anne Lafont, Professor of Art History, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

“The scholarly audience and the museum world have been waiting for a book like this for a long time. Given the shifting perspective in Old World heritage institutions on the place of slavery, racialization, and empire, there is a great need for Caroline Fowler’s thorough theorization and reflection. An impressive book.” - Karwan Fatah-Black, author of White Lies and Black Markets: Evading Metropolitan Authority in Colonial Suriname, 1650–1800

“In this passionate and imaginative book Caroline Fowler offers important new accounts of canonical artists from the portraiture of Rembrandt to the interior scenes of Gerard ter Borch, Frans van Mieris, and Vermeer to the iconoclastic interiors of Pieter Jansz. Saenredam. Brilliant and original.” - Joseph Koerner, author of Bosch and Bruegel: From Enemy Painting to Everyday Life

"This is a wide-ranging and accessible survey of the critical absence in Dutch art of enslaved people, who fundamentally contributed to the economic flourishing of the Dutch Republic. Building on recent research into the global trade in human cargo, raw materials, and other goods, the author focuses on the invisibility of enslaved Indigenous and African workers in Dutch art. . . . Highly recommended. All readers." - A. Golahny, Choice

“[Fowler’s] thoughtful analyses encourage readers to reexamine how the global violence of the slave trade may have infiltrated images that have long been considered provincially Dutch. In her reexamination of these works, she draws attention to art history’s overdependence on what can be seen, as well as its exaltation of sight as the principal way of knowing.”