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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.

David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp 1610-Brussels 1690)

The Drummer

David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp 1610-Brussels 1690)

A Kermis on St George's Day

Gonzales Coques (Antwerp 1614 - Antwerp 1684)

The Family of Jan-Baptista Anthoine

Gerrit Dou (Leiden 1613-Leiden 1675)

The Grocer's Shop

Gerrit Dou (Leiden 1613-Leiden 1675)

A Girl chopping Onions

Adriaen van Ostade (Haarlem 1610-Haarlem 1685)

The Interior of a Peasant's Cottage

Nicolaes Maes (Dordrecht 1634-Amsterdam 1693)

The Listening Housewife

Godfried Schalcken (Made 1643-The Hague 1706)

The Game of 'Lady, come into the Garden'

Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-Amsterdam 1684)

Cardplayers in a sunlit Room

Jan Steen (Leiden 1626-Leiden 1679)

A Woman at her Toilet

Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-Amsterdam 1684)

A Courtyard in Delft at Evening: a Woman spinning

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

Evening Landscape: a Windmill by a Stream

Paulus Potter (Enkhuizen 1625-Amsterdam 1654)

A Young Bull and two Cows in a Meadow