Jan van der Heyden is arguably the greatest cityscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age. From early on Van der Heyden also found inspiration for […]
Pieter Lastman was one of the most important Dutch history painters of his generation. Under the impact of his several years spent in Italy and […]
From a high river bank in the right foreground, a herdsman seated on a donkey drives a herd of cattle downstream towards a ford. He […]
The Haarlem artist Philips Wouwerman was a celebrated and prolific artist, who specialised in landscapes that almost featured one or more horses in a key […]
Emanuel de Witte was born around 1617 in Alkmaar. According to Houbraken, he studied in Delft with the still-life painter Evert van Aelst (1602-1657) and […]
Elementary education was widespread in the northern Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Children of the upper classes were generally taught at home, but large numbers […]
Little is known about Matthias Stom. He was probably born around 1600. This can be deduced from the earliest mention of his name in a […]
The marine painter Aernout Smit knew exactly what ingredients were needed to produce an exciting seascape: a darkening, cloudy sky, towering waves, treacherous-looking rocks, and […]
At the foot of a rock or cliff in a mountainous landscape lies a still life of dead birds: a woodcock at the left, to […]
A musician with a flamboyant feathered beret tunes his lute at a table at which a man and woman are also seated. Bacchus enters from […]
In inventories of seventeenth-century collections one very often comes across descriptions such as ‘Portrait in oil of a sultan’, ‘A Turkish general’ or ‘A Turkish […]
Egbert van der Poel specialised in a highly specific sub-genre of landscape painting: city and village fires at night. Any blazing fire provided a dazzling […]
The Haarlem painter Isack van Ostade, who died in his late twenties, left behind a sizeable oeuvre of paintings and drawings, created in the space […]
Adriaen van Ostade specialised in peasant scenes: he depicted peasants drinking and making merry or fighting in taverns, simple peasant families, market pedlars, and musicians. […]
This charming Shepherdess by Paulus Moreelse, dated 1617, is the earliest depiction of a pastoral half-length figure in Dutch painting.1 The subject began to enjoy […]
A boy smoking a pipe is likely to provoke an ambivalent initial response in a present-day viewer. The healthy flush in the boy’s cheeks, combined […]
The seventeenth century was one of the great eras of genre paintings: scenes of everyday life. Some were ‘merry company’ scenes, featuring well-to-do burghers as […]
This spectacular piece was painted by the Antwerp animal and still life painter Carstian Luyckx.1 Though scarcely known to the general public today, this versatile […]
This unpublished painting surfaced at an American auction a few years ago, and since then it has undergone thorough restoration.1 Though it is unsigned, this […]
The interlaced monogram ‘DVL’ placed at the lower centre of this Arcadian landscape identifies the artist as the Hague painter and burgomaster Dirck van der […]
This is the only extant still life by the Haarlem painter Judith Leyster – which makes it a remarkable work within her small oeuvre. Leyster […]
In the foreground of this sweeping landscape a small group of travellers make their way down a winding country road. A mounted woman drives her […]
This large canvas is the work of Abraham Janssens, an important Antwerp history painter who left behind a fairly small but nonetheless varied and interesting […]
The interior scenes created by Pieter de Hooch beginning in 1658 are undoubtedly among the greatest works of seventeenth-century Dutch art. He was not only […]
Hobbema here depicts a landscape like those often found on the edge of a wood or in the dunes. Clumps of trees alternate with open […]
This recently rediscovered self-portrait by Adriaen Hanneman of 1669 – painted not on the usual canvas but rather on panel – is the last dated […]
The man shown in this small oval portrait on copper, which can easily be held in the hand, has remained anonymous. In the past, the […]
This attractive little painting, which can be dated to about 1650, depicts a boy sitting on a wooden footstool eating his porridge in rapt concentration. […]
‘How dashingly Frans paints people from life!’ Already in 1628 the Haarlem clergyman, poet and chronicler Samuel Ampzing (1590-1632) praised the portraiture of his fellow […]
According to the inscription, the young lady depicted here was 19 years of age when Van den Eeckhout painted her portrait in 1670. Thanks to […]
We know of a total of 12 painted self-portraits by Gerrit Dou,1 clearly a faithful follower of his teacher, Rembrandt. The latter depicted himself at […]
Seated in a bare room, an old man with a long beard sharpens the end of his quill. He is dressed in oriental costume, with […]
Very little is known about the still-life painter Adriaen Coorte. He belonged to the Coorte family of IJzendijke, a small town near the Dutch city […]
Dozens of villagers have come forth into the night to help extinguish a fire that has broken out in a farmhouse. They fill their buckets […]
We know of around twenty night scenes by the Delft artist Leonaert Bramer painted on slate, a highly unusual support. This little painting is one […]
The Virgin and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist, and Gabriel was painted by Ferdinand Bol, one of Rembrandt’s most prominent pupils.1 Born […]
When Otto Benesch published this portrait for the first time in 1934, as a portrait by Rembrandt from his early Amsterdam period, e.g. 1633-34, his […]
