Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection presents a window into the evocative moment of artistic creativity that took place in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Following the development of Dutch art through a selection of 78 history paintings, genre scenes, portraits, and drawings, the exhibition provides a comprehensive understanding of the history of Dutch art during its Golden Age through The Leiden Collection.
The ways in which artists responded to one another, and to tradition, are central to the themes and scope of the exhibition. These relationships are explored most centrally through the remarkable breadth and depth of artistic innovation in Leiden, as demonstrated by Rembrandt van Rijn and Jan Lievens, and the Leiden fine painters, Gerrit Dou and Frans van Mieris. The exhibition further explores the work of important Dutch and Flemish artists in other artistic centers, including Frans Hals, Hendrick ter Brugghen, Jan Steen, Carel Fabritius, Peter Paul Rubens, and Johannes Vermeer.