In the Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Discover the Dutch Golden Age with an exceptional collection of 70 powerful paintings, including works from world-renowned artists Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, and Jacob van Ruisdael. From detailed still lifes, humorous genre scenes and striking portraits to impressive landscapes, cityscapes, and architectural paintings, In the Age of Rembrandt presents artworks that capture life in the Dutch Republic.  

Featuring works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this exhibition offers a fascinating overview of 17^th century Dutch painting; where new subjects and styles redefined traditional genres. After gaining independence from Catholic Spain in 1585, the Protestant self-ruling Dutch Republic was established. What followed has since been dubbed the Golden Age, with the Netherlands emerging as a centre of global trade and an economic world power. This vibrant economy gave rise to a prosperous middle class, whose desire for paintings fueled a rapidly expanding art market. In addition to portraying traditional religious and mythological scenes, Dutch artists also began depicting ordinary people, local landscapes and cities, and other secular subjects. The artists’ experiments with perspective, optics and science, and their careful observation of the world around them generated some of the most realistic and lifelike paintings to date.

It has been more than 20 years since an exhibition of this calibre on painting in the Dutch Golden Age—one of the most significant periods of artistic production in history— has been shown in Toronto. In the Age of Rembrandt reflects the ROM’s renewed commitment to presenting the finest works of art and culture, and draws attention to the Museum’s own European decorative arts collection, widely recognized as one of the best in North America.