Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, 1632, © Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague. |
Portraiture and the Bourgeoisie in 17th Century Holland |
Salomon de Bray (1597-1663), Double Portrait of the Twins Clara and Albert de Bray, ca. 1646, Private collection (on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland), © National Galleries of Scotland.
Jan Anthonisz. van Ravesteyn (Dutch, ca. 1570-1657). Hugo Grotius, 1599, Oil on panel, Diam. 12-3/16", © Collection Frits Lugt Institut Néerlandais, Paris.
Jan de Bray (c. 1627-1697), Banquet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra: Family Portrait with Salomon de Bray and Anna Westerbaen, 1652, The Royal Collection. |
Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis Following independence from Spain in 1581, the Dutch Republic experienced an era of unprecedented wealth — the "Golden Age." Thanks to the successful activities of merchants and entrepreneurs, a new middle-class elite emerged, which became dominant in local government and civic institutions. These people became the new principal patrons of the arts. To reinforce social position, the bourgeoisie regularly commissioned portraits to commemorate important moments in their lives: births, marriages, and professional and civic appointments. Artists had to find new solutions in portrait painting to satisfy evolving clientele demands. The wide body of work they produced is the subject of Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals. The exhibition includes around 60 works, all painted between 1599 and 1683. Rembrandt and Frans Hals were the greatest masters (the exhibition includes nine works by the former, and a dozen by the latter) but tens, if not hundreds, of other painters also worked in this genre. Works by 29 different artists feature in the exhibition, some by lesser-known artists, such as Jan van Ravesteyn (Hugo Grotius — Collection Frits Lugt, Institut Néerlandais, Paris) and Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck (Andries Stilte as Standard Bearer -—National Gallery of Art, Washington) — artists of enormous talent but underrepresented in many collections outside of the Netherlands. Exhibits range from small portraits meant for the private home to much larger portraits for and about the public sphere. Coming from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is the audacious marriage portrait Hals painted to celebrate the wedding of the wealthy merchant couple Abraham Massa and Beatrix van der Laen. There are portraits of family groups (Willem Kerckhoven and his Family by Jan Mijtens — Haags Historisch Museum, The Hague), charming portraits of children — like the intimate portrayal of The Twins Clara and Aelbert de Bray by Salomon de Bray from a private collection — and historical portraits, such as the The Banquet of Cleopatra by Jan de Bray, one of two loans from the Royal Collection. One of the six rooms in the exhibition is given over to a selection of large-scale group portraits of members of charitable institutions and civic guards. Notable paintings include Thomas de Keyser's dashing Loef Vredericx from Mauritshuis and a remarkable militia portrait by Frans Hals and Peter Codde, The Meagre Company' (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), the largest work in the show at an imposing 209 x 429cm. An undoubted highlight of Dutch Portraits will be the rare loans of two of Rembrandt's most famous works: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp (Mauritshuis) and The Syndics (De Staalmeesters) (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). The 1632 Anatomy Lesson, featuring Dr Tulp explaining the musculature of the arm to a group of fascinated medical professionals, has been rarely seen outside the Netherlands. Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals surveys the unprecedented range and variety of painted portraiture in the Netherlands at this time, and gives insights into the fashion, occupations and ambitions of this group of affluent 17th-century individuals. |
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), The Syndics (De Staalmeesters), 1662, © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. |
