The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is holding a large-scale show of their entire 17th century Dutch painting collection. I don't think I have to say why this is so exciting. I adore both Rembrandt and Pieter Claesz, a Haarlem still-life painter, who I first discovered at my favorite museum ever, the Kunshistorisches in Vienna.

The exhibit is organized by names and dates of the collectors who gave the paintings to the Met. Holland Cotter, the Times critic, notes the disadvantages of this – namely the difficulty of discerning any sort of comparison or charting historical progress between artists or styles.

Still, because the Met is pulling out every 17th century piece they have, I will need to make a trip to New York before the exhibit closes on January 6.


Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669)
Self-portrait, 1660
Oil on canvas; 31 5/8 x 26 1/2 in. (80.3 x 67.3 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913 (14.40.618)