Dutch Artwork

Dutch art prints bring four centuries of painting from the Netherlands into your home. This collection gathers more than 18,000 art prints, from Golden Age masters such as Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals and Jacob van Ruisdael to the grey seascapes of the Hague School, the bold colour of Vincent van Gogh and the clean grids of Piet Mondrian. You will also find genre scenes by Gerard ter Borch and Theo van Hoytema's bird illustrations.

About Dutch Art

Dutch art means the art of the Netherlands after the northern provinces split from Flanders in the south. Its high point was the Golden Age of the 17th century, during and after the Eighty Years' War for independence, when the new Dutch Republic was the most prosperous nation in Europe.

Dutch Calvinism kept religious paintings out of churches, so artists painted for private homes instead, and most specialised in one type of picture. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) painted portraits and biblical scenes and made about 300 etchings. Frans Hals worked in Haarlem with loose, lively brushwork. Johannes Vermeer painted quiet interiors in Delft, Jan Steen filled his canvases with humour and disorderly households, and Jacob van Ruisdael painted flat land under skies that can take up two-thirds of the canvas.

After the French invasion of 1672 the art market never fully recovered, and Dutch painting lost its lead in Europe. It returned in the 19th century with the Hague School, a group of painters who lived and worked in The Hague between about 1860 and 1890. Influenced by France's Barbizon painters, Jozef Israëls, Jacob Maris, Anton Mauve and Hendrik Willem Mesdag painted the Dutch landscape and sea in soft, sombre tones.

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) did his best-known work in France, where his bold colour and expressive brushwork helped lay the foundations of modern art. Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) moved from landscapes to pure abstraction and, with Theo van Doesburg, founded De Stijl in 1917, a movement built on horizontal and vertical lines and primary colours.

Style and Subjects

Golden Age paintings are usually small and full of careful detail. Landscapes have low horizons and towering clouds over dunes, rivers with grazing cattle and frozen winter canals. Seascapes show ships at sea, often flying the Dutch flag. Still lifes lay out food, silver and flowers in muted browns, and almost all carry a quiet reminder that life is short, such as a half-peeled lemon.

Vermeer is admired for clear colour and his handling of light, while Rembrandt uses deep light and shadow to turn a group portrait into drama. Later, the Hague School painted sea and sky in soft greys, and Mondrian reduced painting to straight lines and flat colour, as in Composition No. I, with Red and Black.

Famous Works

• The Night Watch (1642), Rembrandt van Rijn, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (owned by the Amsterdam Museum). A militia group portrait full of light and shadow; despite the name, it is not a night scene.
• The Milkmaid (c. 1658), Johannes Vermeer, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. A kitchen maid pours milk, painted with costly ultramarine blue.
• Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665), Johannes Vermeer, Mauritshuis, The Hague. A tronie, a study of a head rather than a portrait.
• The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede (c. 1670), Jacob van Ruisdael, Amsterdam Museum, on loan to the Rijksmuseum. Low land, water and a wide sky meet around one tall windmill.
• Starry Night Over the Rhône (1888), Vincent van Gogh, Musée d'Orsay, Paris. The night sky over the river at Arles.
• Panorama of Scheveningen (1881), Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Panorama Mesdag, The Hague. A circular painting about 120 metres around, seen as if from a dune above the sea.

Decorating with Dutch Prints

Golden Age landscapes and seascapes, with their wide skies and calm colours, suit living rooms and studies, above a sofa or a desk. The quiet home scenes of Vermeer and Ter Borch suit kitchens and reading corners, and darker still lifes and portraits suit a library or formal dining room.

Mesdag's soft grey sea and beach scenes bring a calm note to bedrooms and bathrooms. Van Gogh's starry skies and flowers add colour, and a Mondrian composition suits a modern room or home office. Van Hoytema's birds are a light, cheerful choice for a hallway or a child's room.

FAQ

Who are the most famous Dutch painters?

Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer and Frans Hals are the best-known painters of the Golden Age. From later periods, Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondrian are the most famous, though both did their best work outside the Netherlands.

Where can I see famous Dutch paintings?

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam shows The Night Watch, The Milkmaid and works by Hals and Ruisdael, and the Mauritshuis in The Hague holds Girl with a Pearl Earring. The National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also have large Dutch collections.

What is the Hague School?

The Hague School was a group of painters who lived and worked in The Hague between about 1860 and 1890, influenced by the French Barbizon painters. They used fairly sombre colours and liked grey, cloudy weather, so they are sometimes called the Grey School.

What does "Dutch School" mean on a painting?

When a painting is labelled "Dutch School", the artist who made it is not known. A few works in this collection carry that label.

Related Artists

• Rembrandt van Rijn — Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman, painter of The Night Watch
• Johannes Vermeer — Delft painter of quiet interiors and Girl with a Pearl Earring
• Frans Hals — Haarlem portraitist known for loose, lively brushwork
• Jacob van Ruisdael — the leading landscape painter of the Golden Age
• Vincent van Gogh — Post-Impressionist whose bold colour shaped modern art