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Dou to Vermeer

The paintings in this room were all created in the Low Countries between 1630 and 1680, the heyday of the so-called Dutch Golden Age. They are modest in scale, the majority scenes of everyday life, with figures in landscapes or in homes, taverns and shops. These artists didn’t set up their easels in the market place; they worked from drawings, memory and imagination, but they depicted the familiar everyday world around them. The people they painted were of the same kind that bought their paintings: we can see examples in simple ebony frames on the walls of the interiors of de Hooch and Vermeer.

All but two of these paintings were acquired by George IV to hang in the sumptuous interiors of Carlton House, his London residence when Prince of Wales. Like their original purchasers, he admired them for their comedy, their brilliant technique and their truth to life. They continue to fascinate through their minute detail, tactile surfaces and ability to suggest spaces filled with light and air.

View the works in this section below:

Adriaen van Ostade (Haarlem 1610-Haarlem 1685)

The Interior of a Peasant's Cottage

Godfried Schalcken (Made 1643-The Hague 1706)

The Game of 'Lady, come into the Garden'

Jan Steen (Leiden 1626-Leiden 1679)

A Woman at her Toilet

Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-Amsterdam 1684)

Cardplayers in a sunlit Room

Johannes Vermeer (Delft 1632-Delft 1675)

Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman

Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-Amsterdam 1684)

A Courtyard in Delft at Evening: a Woman spinning

Nicolaes Maes (Dordrecht 1634-Amsterdam 1693)

The Listening Housewife

Gerrit Dou (Leiden 1613-Leiden 1675)

The Grocer's Shop

Gerrit Dou (Leiden 1613-Leiden 1675)

A Girl chopping Onions

Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)

Self-Portrait in a Flat Cap

Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)

Christ and St Mary Magdalen at the Tomb

Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)

A Rabbi with a Cap

Nicolaes Berchem (Haarlem 1620-Amsterdam 1683)

A Mountainous Landscape with Herdsmen Driving Cattle down a Road

Philips Wouwerman (Haarlem 1619-Haarlem 1668)

The Hayfield

Jacob van Ruisdael (Haarlem c. 1628-Amsterdam 1682)

Evening Landscape: a Windmill by a Stream

Adriaen van de Velde (Amsterdam 1636-Amsterdam 1672)

A Hawking Party Setting Out

Paulus Potter (Enkhuizen 1625-Amsterdam 1654)

A Young Bull and two Cows in a Meadow

Paulus Potter (Enkhuizen 1625-Amsterdam 1654)

Two Sportsmen Outside an Inn

David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp 1610-Brussels 1690)

Fishermen on the Sea-shore

David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp 1610-Brussels 1690)

The Drummer

Barent Graat (Amsterdam 1628- Amsterdam 1709)

A Family Group

Gonzales Coques (Antwerp 1614 - Antwerp 1684)

The Family of Jan-Baptista Anthoine