Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum

Presented as part of the Sydney International Art Series 2017–18, this landmark exhibition brought 78 works from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, marking the most significant display of Dutch Golden Age painting ever seen in Sydney. The selection spanned the full range of the period’s achievement, from characterful portraits and icy winter landscapes to sumptuous still lifes and the intimate domestic interiors for which the era is celebrated. A room devoted solely to Rembrandt van Rijn gathered seven major oil paintings alongside sixteen etchings in superb impressions, offering an exceptional survey of his work across biblical and secular subjects.

At the heart of the exhibition were two works drawn directly from the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour, the inner sanctum of the national collection that ordinarily draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Vermeer’s “Woman in Blue Reading a Letter” (c. 1663) and Rembrandt’s “Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul” (1661) were the focal loans, and their temporary absence from Amsterdam underscored the ambition of the project. The Vermeer, with its still composition built almost entirely from shades of blue and soft ochre, was one of only a handful of works by the Delft master included in the exhibition and represented a rare opportunity for Australian audiences to encounter the painting outside the Netherlands.

The broader selection included works by Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Gerard Dou, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Lievens, and Judith Leyster, illustrating the variety of genres that flourished during the seventeenth century as Dutch prosperity and civic culture fuelled an unprecedented market for paintings. The exhibition attracted large audiences and was widely reviewed as the most ambitious loan show from the Rijksmuseum to have toured to the Southern Hemisphere.