The Low Countries

The paintings in this space 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 did not 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 an example in a simple ebony frame on the wall in Pieter de Hooch’s interior.

All but one of these paintings were acquired by George IV. 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.