This exhibition presents more than 130 works, paintings, engravings, drawings and objects, spanning all the genres developed to perfection by Dutch artists. It also demonstrates the special role of Vermeer and above all Rembrandt, the most influential artist of the period. Rembrandt, a master of chiaroscuro, brought an unrivalled dimension, density and human beauty to his works which made him a pioneer of modernity and placed him three centuries ahead of his contemporaries.

Amsterdam in the 17th century was one of the economic centres of industry, commerce and art… It was in this period that genre painting was born and that numerous painters became specialised in a particular field: still life or vanitas, landscape, satires of village life, comedy of manners, painting of monuments or portraits, etc. Although Vermeer and Rembrandt became symbols of this period, they are not really very representative but are in a class of their own. This is because, unlike other painters, they were interested in several genres and refused any specialization.


Picture : Pieter de Hooch, Interior with a mother who removes lice hair of her child (the duty of a mother), c. 1658-60, Loan from the city of Amsterdam,
© Image Department Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2009