This study day, organized in conjunction with the Baltimore Museum of Art’s 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. It 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. Following the presentations, guests and participants are invited to visit the exhibition at the BMA.

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

This event is co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Department of the History of Art, with support from the Program in Museums and Society.