Grand exhibition of Dutch Masters from the Hermitage opens on 7 October
For the first time in its existence, the Hermitage Amsterdam
is set to hold an exhibition devoted to one of the most spectacular
treasures of the State Hermitage museum in St Petersburg: its collection
of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings. The selection of works coming
to the forthcoming Dutch Masters from the Hermitage. Treasures of the Tsars
exhibition totals sixty-three paintings by no fewer than fifty
different artists, including six by Rembrandt. Virtually all the great
Dutch Masters will be represented. The State Hermitage’s collection of
Dutch Golden Age paintings contains 1500 works, making it the biggest
anywhere outside the Netherlands.
Grandest ever selection
The exhibition promises to be a feast of old favourites and new
discoveries, with six works by Rembrandt plus works by Gerrit
Adriaensz. Berckheyde, Ferdinand Bol, Gerard ter Borch, Gerard Dou,
Govert Flinck, Jan van Goyen, Frans Hals, Pieter Lastman, Gabriël Metsu,
Paulus Potter, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Steen, Joachim Wtewael and many
others. The glory days of Golden Age painting between 1650 and 1670 will
be lavishly represented by 37 works. In addition to world-famous
masterpieces like Rembrandt’s Flora and Young Woman with Earrings, one of Frans Hals’ renowned male portraits and van Bartholomeus van der Helst’s Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam,
the show will include works by lesser-known but still extremely
impressive painters like Willem Drost, Jacob Duck, Pieter Janssens
Elinga, Arent de Gelder and Emanuel de Witte. The vast majority (57) of
the works normally form part of the permanent display of Dutch Painting
at the State Hermitage and most have not been back in the Netherlands
since they were acquired for the Russian collection.
Love of Dutch Masters
The exhibition will also explore the Russian Tsars’ love of
Dutch Masters and the way the artworks were traded. Peter the Great was
among the earliest collectors of Dutch Masters, acquiring his first
Rembrandt when he was just 25. His interest predated the craze that
gradually swept Europe. In the eighteenth century, Catherine the Great
built up a large collection (as did many private collectors) and
nineteenth-century Tsars continued to build on her holdings, thereby
helping to reinforce the growing international appreciation of Rembrandt
and his contemporaries.
Dutch Masters from the Hermitage will be on show in
the Hermitage Amsterdam from Saturday 7 October 2017 to 27 May 2018. A
host of companies, funds and private donors have agreed to sponsor the
exhibition.