Dutch Painting from Hieronymus Bosch to Rembrandt. A Selection of Masterpieces from Dutch Museums

Held in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, this exhibition brought a broad survey of Dutch painting from the Netherlands to Belgium as an act of cultural goodwill between the two neighbouring countries. The title framed the sweep of Dutch achievement across three centuries, from the visionary fantasy of Hieronymus Bosch to the towering legacy of Rembrandt. The show first opened at the Paleis voor Schone Kunsten in Brussels (2 March to 28 April 1946) before transferring to the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, where it drew on loans from Dutch public collections freshly returned from wartime hiding.

Vermeer’s painting from the Mauritshuis in The Hague appeared in the Antwerp presentation as catalogue no. 91, listed under the title “Woman with a Pearl Earring” (the modern name “Girl with a Pearl Earring“ was not yet in use; the work had previously circulated as “Girl with a Turban” or simply as a tronie). During the German occupation, the canvas had been evacuated from the Mauritshuis to a secure underground location and was only returned to public view after the liberation of the Netherlands in May 1945, making this Belgian tour among its first postwar appearances.

The Antwerp venue, the KMSKA, already held one of the most significant collections of Flemish and Dutch painting in Belgium, making it a natural host for a celebration of the northern European pictorial tradition. No precise dates have been documented for the Antwerp run of the exhibition, and a digitised catalogue has not been located; the record rests on the Essential Vermeer exhibition survey and the catalogue entry for no. 91.