Louvre to showcase Dutch Golden Age

ABU DHABI: Louvre Abu Dhabi will present Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre, from Feb.14 through May 18, 2019.

It constitutes the largest exhibition of Dutch Masters from the 17th century held in the Gulf region to date. 

This extraordinary assemblage of 95 paintings, drawings, and objects-including more than 20 works from across Rembrandt van Rijn’s career and by his workshop-surveys Rembrandt’s artistic journey in 17th-century Leiden and Amsterdam, as well as his relationships with rivals and peers including Jan Lievens, Ferdinand Bol, Carel Fabritius, Gerrit Dou, Frans van Mieris, Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer. 

Among the many highlights in the exhibition are two works by Vermeer-The Lacemaker (Musée du Louvre) and Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (The Leiden Collection)- that were painted on canvas cut from the same bolt. In the exhibition, these have been hung side by side for what is thought to be the first time in 300 years.

Also of special note are: the first display at Louvre Abu Dhabi of the museum’s most recent acquisition, Rembrandt’s oil sketch Head of a Young Man, with Clasped Hands: Study of the Figure of Christ, ca. 1648-56; and the first-ever combined display of Rembrandt’s Bust of a Bearded Old Man (The Leiden Collection) with the special carrying case commissioned for it by a previous owner of the painting, Andrew W. Mellon, the eminent early 20th-century financier and philanthropist. 

The exhibition is organised by Louvre Abu Dhabi, The Leiden Collection, the Musée du Louvre and Agence France-Muséums.