Celebrating the enduring British taste for collecting Dutch paintings
from the long seventeenth century, this exhibition catalog will explore
why and how this particular type of art was desired, commissioned, and
displayed, through the consideration of Golden Age masterpieces from a
number of National Trust houses. This catalog will be published to
accompany the first ever exhibition of Golden Age Dutch pictures in the
collection of the National Trust, which will be shown at the Mauritshuis
in The Hague, the Holburne Museum in Bath and at Petworth House in West
Sussex (2018-19). It will feature portraits, still lifes, religious
pictures, maritime paintings, landscapes, genre paintings and history
pictures, painted by celebrated artists such as Rembrandt, Lievens,
Hobbema, Cuyp, Hondecoeter, De Heem, Ter Borch and Metsu, as well as
less well-known artists such as De Baen and Van Diest. With over 350
heritage properties in the UK, the National Trust cares for one of the
world's largest and most significant holdings of art and its collection
of Dutch Old Masters is particularly impressive. The catalog will
include essays by Quentin Buvelot (chief curator at the Mauritshuis) and
David Taylor (curator of pictures and sculpture at the National Trust).
The authors will also discuss other aspects of the influence of Dutch
culture in British country houses (using National Trust examples) - on
furniture, garden design, and print and ceramics collecting.
