It is easy to treat the Dutch artist as an agreeable intimist—a transcriber of domestic niceties. But he grew up in a world of war, starvation, and massacres. His paintings were safe havens.

It is easy to treat the Dutch artist as an agreeable intimist—a transcriber of domestic niceties. But he grew up in a world of war, starvation, and massacres. His paintings were safe havens.