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Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Copy-and-paste citation text:

Alexandra Libby, Henriette Rahusen, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Marjorie E. Wieseman, Lara Yeager-Crasselt, Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century, NGA Online Editions, https://purl.org/nga/collection/catalogue/17th-century-dutch-paintings (accessed March 19, 2024).

The emergence of the Dutch school of painting in the early seventeenth century is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of the visual arts. The Netherlands had only recently become a political entity and was still suffering from the effects of a long and arduous war against Spain. Yet the small republic’s success in gaining independence from a powerful adversary resulted in an enormous sense of self-esteem. The Dutch were proud of their achievements, proud of their land, and intent upon creating a form of government that would provide a lasting foundation for the future. They expressed pride in their unique social and cultural heritage in many ways, but most famously in their rich artistic traditions.

The collection of Dutch seventeenth-century paintings in the National Gallery of Art includes works by well-known masters of the period, including Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Aelbert Cuyp. Now numbering more than 150 paintings, the collection comprises examples of the portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, marine paintings, still lifes, and biblical and mythological scenes that have made this school of painting one of the most beloved and admired in the history of European art.

The Catalog

This award-winning online catalog of the Gallery’s collection first launched in 2014, uniting a long tradition of authoritative, peer-reviewed content with the flexibility of online publishing. As works are added to the collection, new entries are added to the catalog. The newest entries include the following:   

Jan Asselijn, The Tiber River with the Ponte Molle at Sunset, c. 1650

Jan van Goyen, View of Rhenen, 1646

Meindert Hobbema, Wooded Landscape with Figures, c. 1658

Thomas de Keyser, Portrait of a Gentleman Wearing a Fancy Ruff, 1627

Aert van der Neer, Winter in Holland: Skating Scene, 1645

Jan Steen, Ascagnes and Lucelle (The Music Lesson), 1667

Additional entries devoted to recent acquisitions are forthcoming.

We invite you to explore this catalog and delve into the the Gallery’s seventeenth-century Dutch paintings.

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