Dutch and Flemish Paintings

On View: West Building, Main Floor

166 artworks on view.

Two roosters, a rabbit, and three small birds hang from the top of this vertical still life painting, so the heads of one white rooster and the rabbit come to rest on a dark stone ledge, about a third of the way up the composition. To our left, the tawny-brown rabbit’s nose faces us as the head rests on an azure-blue purse with silver lining. A pair of scissors is tucked behind the strap, which falls down over the ledge. To our right, the head of the rooster curves away with its red coxcomb coming toward us. A black fly rests on the rooster’s comb. The black tail feathers of another rooster arc out behind it, near the upper right corner of the painting. In front of the rabbit's bound, hind legs is a small bird with puffed, silvery-gray feathers, and one black leg tied up with a dark cord. To our left are two more small birds, one with gray, cream, and tan feathers, the other with cream, golden orange, and lapis blue. These two are secured with their beaks pointing upward. Two white and scarlet-red caps, falcon’s hoods, are strung up by white ribbon near the pair of birds. Below the ledge is a carved scene with nude or nearly nude people, but this area is mostly in shadow. Behind the animals is a dark, nearly black wall.

Still Life with Dead Game

Willem van Aelst

1661

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1982.36.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M50

We look slightly down onto five plates, bowls, and dishes filled with oysters, raisins, prunes, figs, and sweets along with a wine glass and decanter, a stack of round, wooden boxes, and two seashells arrayed on a wooden tabletop against a dark background in this horizontal still life painting. Closest to us to our left, eleven glistening oysters on the halfshell are arranged on a round, iron-gray dish. Also close to us, to our right, a white porcelain bowl with a wide, flaring lip is painted with blue flowers, and it is piled with breads, rolls, and pastries. Two shells sit near that bowl: one shimmering, spiraling, ivory-white shell with brown marks sits to our left and an elongated, white shell with a ruffle along its length sits in the lower right corner of the panel. Between and behind these two dishes is a vessel with a pedestal foot and a wide, shallow bowl, filled with white almonds and rods that have been covered with white sugar. In the back left, a dark gray bowl holds raisins and other dried fruit along with an object that could be a slice of bread or cheese. Opposite it, a similar dish holds brown figs that more closely resemble chestnuts. To the back right, the lid of one of the three round, shallow boxes stacked along the right edge of the composition leans against the pile. The inner lid is covered with quince paste, which resembles apricot preserves. One glass goblet with a wide bowl is nearly filled with amber-colored liquid in the back left corner, beyond the dried fruit. A glass decanter, also filled with gold-colored wine, sits to our left of the pedestal-footed vessel holding the sugared sweets, at the center of the composition. The still life is brightly lit from our left.

Dishes with Oysters, Fruit, and Wine

Osias Beert the Elder

c. 1620/1624

Oil on panel Accession ID 1995.32.1

Not on view

The Fall of Man

Hendrick Goltzius

1616

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1996.34.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M45

Warm light coming from the left illuminates four men standing in pairs on either side of a dirt road that winds between rocky, tree-studded hills and a misty river in this almost square landscape painting. The trees have tall, gnarled, brown trunks with high canopies of sage, olive, and forest green while others have golden yellow leaves. The road curves in a C-shape along the foot of the hills that rise up the right side of the composition, their craggy faces painted in warm tones of sand, fawn, and caramel brown. Closest to us is rocky terrain covered with scrubby plants and two moss-covered trees growing next to a broken tree trunk that separates us from the men. The trees are just right of center and divide the scene vertically. The two men to the right of the tree rest among boulders next to the road. One sits and the other stands, and each holds a tall staff. A light-gray, bearded goat lies to the right of the men and closer inspection reveals another grazing nearby. On the left, one man sitting astride a donkey turns his head away from us to look at the man standing just behind him. The men are all simply dressed in knee-length breeches, shirts, and sleeveless coats in shades of brick red, ivory, and tan, or ginger brown, and wear tall, wide brimmed hats. A man driving cattle approaches them from farther back along the road. Beyond the tall trees near the center, the hills slope down to a winding river fringed with trees. The river flows into the distance, past headlands jutting into the water, and ends at a tall mountain rising from the low horizon. A thin wash of butter yellow creates a hazy glow over the river, headlands, and distant mountain. A pale robin's egg-blue sky scattered with petal-pink and dusty rose-colored clouds fills the top of the scene.

An Italianate Evening Landscape

Jan Both

c. 1650

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2000.91.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M47

In almost complete darkness, we look across reeds and grasses lining a river spanned by narrow, arched, stone bridge ahead of us in this moonlit, horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the painting, just over the footbridge, and the sky is filled with clouds that glow blush pink, flint gray, and lavender purple. The small, porcelain-white moon casts an opalescent gleam on the water under the arch of the bridge. Barely visible in the gloom, a walking path lined by a fence in the lower right corner leads to a copse of tall trees to our right. Closer inspection reveals a man wearing crimson red and a woman wearing pine green standing together near the gate of a walled enclosure beyond the trees. Moonlight glints on their white collars and cuffs, and on the gold buttons and embroidery on their clothing. Spires and buildings with stepped rooflines along the riverbank are outlined against the illuminated sky, though most of the details of the structures are swallowed in shadow.

Moonlit Landscape with Bridge

Aert van der Neer

probably 1648/1650

Oil on panel Accession ID 1990.6.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M49

Shown from the waist up, an elderly man with pale, peachy skin, wavy, silvery-gray hair, and a long beard stands facing our right, almost filling this vertical painting. He wears a butterscotch-gold robe and clutches two large skeleton keys the length of his forearm in his right hand while his other fist rests at his waist. One key is iron gray and the other is copper colored. The man’s balding, high forehead slopes down to thick black brows arching over deep-set, hazel eyes that gaze upward. He has a long nose, pale pink mouth, and hollows under his high cheekbones. He is brightly lit from the upper left against an ink-black background. The strong light creates shadows in the folds of his garment and on his craggy features.

Saint Peter

Anonymous Artist

c. 1616/1618

Oil on panel Accession ID 1960.6.32

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M43

A man and woman on horseback are on a strip of land also occupied by livestock, dogs, and seven other people in front of a body of water and towering cliff in this horizontal landscape painting. The couple on horseback is in the lower left quadrant of the composition, and they both have pale, peach-toned skin. The man’s silvery-white horse pulls its head down and back toward its front legs, mouth open. The man sits with one hand holding the reins and the other planted on his hip, palm facing out. He wears a white cloth tied around his neck, a tan-colored jacket, loose, nickel-gray pants, knee-high brown boots, and a wide-brimmed, peanut-brown hat with plumes of mauve-purple feathers. The man has shoulder-length, dark, curly hair and a goatee. A curved horn hangs from a strap looping across his torso, and a scarlet-red cloth is bunched over the saddle. Behind the white horse, the woman’s brown horse faces us. The woman wears a dark yellow dress with white sleeves and a white cloth along the neckline. Her hair is loose under a wide-brimmed, brown hat with dark yellow and white feathers. A falcon perches on her glove-covered hand. The mounted man talks to another man who stands next to the white horse. That man also has peach-toned skin, holds a lance, and wears a dark, royal-purple coat. A clean-shaven, pale-skinned young man sits and hunches toward two dogs at his feet in the lower left corner of the picture. Two more men wearing long robes stand a short distance away behind the boy. One has their back to us and the other, facing us, has dark brown skin and wears a turban. He holds one hand out, palm up. The person on this side sits in a boat near the left edge of the painting, looking off in that direction. He has dark, peach-colored skin and also wears a turban and robe. Six dogs spaced across the picture from the left edge to the mounted couple have brown or black fur with white spots. In the lower right corner of the composition, a person wearing tattered brown and red clothes sits facing away from us next to a cow and two sheep, all of whom lie down. The cow looks in our direction, head held low. Three goats mill about, and two sheep lie in a pile by the water’s edge as two men coax another goat onto a rowboat already laden with at least two cows. A two-masted sailing ship sits askance in low water to the right. A sailboat edges into the scene from the right edge, and a ship with sails unfurled sails near the cliff face to the right. That rocky outcropping comes almost halfway across the picture and is painted in tones of earthy brown and marine blue. Blocky structures along the top of the outcropping are hazy in the distance. The body of water stretches back to the horizon, where there are more outcroppings on the right and a church tower on the left. Mounds of white, puffy clouds against a vivid blue sky fill the top three-quarters of the composition behind the rock formations.

View of an Italian Port

Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem

early 1660s

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1990.62.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M49

Painted almost entirely in tones of beige and golden brown, we look across a smooth body of water at a row of buildings around a large church and several windmills scattered across the skyline in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the painting, and the ice-blue sky above is nearly filled with pink-tinged clouds. Closest to us, a man bends over a container or bundle on a narrow spit of land in the lower left corner. Three boats float close by in the water beyond him. A rowboat at the lower center of the painting is filled with at least ten people, wearing bonnets or hats, dressed in tones of muted teal blue, golden yellow, and smoke gray. An empty, smaller boat is tied to and floats off one end of the rowboat. To our left, beyond the spit of land, a second rowboat is pulled up alongside a shallow boat with sails unfurled. Five people sit or stand in the rowboat as a sixth person is helped from the smaller rowboat up onto the sailboat. At least seven people and perhaps some bundles fill the deck of the sailboat. A bird flies low to the surface of the water nearby. A church with a tall, square tower and the lower buildings around it reflect in the placid water on the distant shore. More boats float along the winding shoreline in the deep distance, and a few more spires, windmills, and stately buildings are silhouetted against the sky.

View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil

Jan van Goyen

1644

Oil on panel Accession ID 1978.11.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M49

We look across choppy waves at a sailboat canting at a sharp angle, with several others floating nearby or in the distance, all beneath a sky filled with charcoal-gray clouds in this horizontal painting. In the bottom third of the canvas, the battleship-gray waves are topped with frothy white crests. The boat closest to us is slightly left of center, and its mast tips wildly to our right. Sunlight catches the straw-yellow sail as it pulls taut in the wind. At least two men crouch or bend over in the wooden vessel below, as white spray kicks up off the far side of the boat. Two white seagulls, tiny in scale, fly closer to the water’s surface to our left of that boat. The next closest vessel is to our right, and it is nearly swallowed in shadow. Two men huddle at one pointed end of the narrow boat, and a crimson-red sail flaps loosely in the wind. At least four more boats in the distance, along to the horizon, range in size from a small sailboat to a three-masted ship. The sail of the smallest boat also tips sharply to our right, but the tall masts of the ship are upright, and those sails are furled. Dark clouds billow up from the horizon, but break near the upper left corner. The sky beyond is pale apricot peach, and a few streaks of light reach the water’s surface.

After the Storm

Willem van de Velde the Younger

c. 1700

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2016.22.7

Not on view

This is a painting of two individuals in a dimly lit room. One person on the left is seated; they are richly dressed in a gray hat and long gray coat, and they look directly toward us. They have pale skin, dark hair, and a dark mustache. They are being assisted by another person on the right who helps them take off their boots. The assistant also appears to have light skin and dark hair, and they wear simple brown clothes. They are in shadow, while the seated person’s face is brightly lit. The dark room features a table with an ornate cloth, a small dog under a chair, scattered shoes, fabric, and an archway showing a glimpse of an exterior scene with a fountain and obelisk against a twilight sky.

Anthonij de Bordes and His Valet

Michael Sweerts

c. 1648

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2012.13.1

Not on view

Clouds surge across a steel-blue sky over a gently rippling body of water in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes a quarter of the way up the composition and the water in the bottom quarter is painted with shades of slate blue and gray with pearl-white highlights where the low sun skims across the surface. A rowboat to the left is piled with barrels and six men. A masted sailboat is moored on a sandbar to the right, leaning sharply away from us as three men tend to the hull. Dark gray smoke billows from a flickering orange flame under a long-legged pot farther back on the sandbar. A pier-like structure constructed with thick, weathered logs juts out of the water along the right edge of the composition. One long pole with a barrel impaled on the end reaches more than halfway up the painting. White smoke curls around a three-masted ship farther out in the water, beyond the sandbar, and at least nine sails dot the distant horizon to the left. Sunlight streaks vertically from behind a screen of clouds in the top left corner of the composition, and puffy, pale gray clouds pile against a pale blue sky in the right two-thirds of the painting.

Estuary at Day's End

Simon de Vlieger

c. 1640/1645

Oil on panel Accession ID 1997.101.1

Not on view

Woman Weaving a Crown of Flowers

Godefridus Schalcken

c. 1675/1680

Oil on panel Accession ID 2005.26.1

Not on view