The collection of Dutch paintings comprises more than 300 paintings, including several top works of art history. One of the most important and earliest works is Hans Memling's "Bathsheba in the Bath", one of the first life-size nudes north of the Alps. Paintings by Jan van Amstel, Albert Bouts and Colyn de Coter are further highlights of early Durch painting.
Rubens and Rembrandt
The focus of the collection is on paintings created between 1600 and 1670 in regions of present-day Belgium and the Netherlands. The representative and at the same time very personal double portrait of "Geronima Spinola Spinola and her granddaughter Maria Giovanna Serra" is one of the rare Italian portraits of the Antwerp painter-prince Peter Paul Rubens in a German museum. Portraits by the Frisian Wybrand de Geest, the Haarlem painter Frans Hals and Rembrandt van Rijn, who worked in Amsterdam, introduce us to Dutch portrait painting. "Paul in Prison" is one of the most important paintings in the collection and is an early work by the just 21-year-old Rembrandt.
Landscape Painting
Landscape painting sets a special accent: Joos de Momper's fantastic nature scenes and Anton Mirou's small views of nature are early Flemish examples of this still young genre. Jan van Goyen's "Storm on the Haarlem Sea" and Jacob van Rusidael's "Forest Landscape with Stream" demonstrate how Dutch painters dramatically set the scene for nature, thus ensuring the popularity of landscape painting around 1650.
New Subjects
The classical canon of painting was expanded in the 17th century in the Netherlands to include architectural views, genre paintings and still lifes. Women painters such as Clara Peeters' are also in demand. In addition to flower still lifes, meal still lifes and ceremonial still lifes were particularly popular. Even today, one can hardly get enough of the carefully presented delicacies of Osias Beert and David de Hem. Still lifes are always full of mystery and only reveal their meaning at first glance, which is why it is advisable to look closely, like Pieter Codde's "Art Lovers in the Studio".
