Dr. Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Curator of Northern Baroque Painting at the National Gallery of Art, will speak on Horses, Windmills and Skaters at 2 p.m., Sunday, February 21st at the National Sporting Library. During his reflections on the "Images of Pleasure and Purpose in the Dutch Republic," Wheelock will explore ways in which the Dutch found both delight and warnings about human behavior in the games and sports they so enjoyed.

Wheelcock's lecture celebrates the donation by Mrs. Henry Weldon of a 17th-century Dutch oil painting on panel, Horse in a Landscape, by Abraham van Calraet (1642–1722). In his lecture, Wheelock will place this delightful painting in the context of 17th-century Dutch art and culture. Both Calraet and his teacher, Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691), were noted for their luminous paintings of landscapes populated with horses and other livestock. Painted circa 1690, Horse in a Landscape is the oldest work in the National Sporting Library's permanent art collection.

Since 1975, Wheelock has served as Curator of Northern Baroque Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and is a Professor of Art History at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md. Author of numerous books on Dutch painting, he has also organized several major exhibitions, including Gods, Saints, & Heroes: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt (1980); Johannes Vermeer (1995); and Aelbert Cuyp (2001).

Please call Judy Sheehan at 540-687-6542 x 10 to reserve a seat and leave a contact number where you may be reached. Admission is free.

The National Sporting Library is free and open to the public Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 1 to 4 p.m. The Museum of Sporting Art at Vine Hill next door is open by appointment during the Library's normal hours of operation.