Starting 11th October 2018, the Mauritshuis is organising an exhibition on 17th-century Dutch paintings with an English origin. Twenty-two Dutch masters from twelve British country houses tell the story of the enormous popularity enjoyed by these Golden Age artists in the United Kingdom. In the 18th and 19th centuries in particular, the British nobility decorated the rooms of their monumental country houses with landscapes, portraits, still lifes and genre pieces by the most famous old masters, including Rembrandt van Rijn, Aelbert Cuyp, Pieter Saenredam and Jan Steen.
Rembrandt van Rijn painted at least 40 self-portraits in his lifetime, and from Buckland Abbey in Devon comes this Self-portrait with feathered beret (1635). This work is also an example of a tronie, a painted study in which the person portrayed is dressed in an exotic costume.
Upton House, with its famous collection of paintings, is home to Interior of the Catharinakerk in Utrecht by Pieter Saenredam from c. 1660. This painting is characterised by the peaceful harmony of the enormous white interior to which the people are subordinate. Of course, Jan Steen is not missing. His oeuvre is vast, and taverns, cafés and brothels were favourites in his paintings. In the painting The Tired Traveler, also from Upton House, from c. 1660-61, a woman offers the man a glass of wine—or is there more going on?
Well-known painters such as Abraham Bloemaert, Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit van Honthorst, Pieter de Hooch and Gabriel Metsu are represented as well.
