
An Introduction to Dutch Art in the Royal Collection
During the seventeenth century the royal families of Great Britain and the Netherlands became connected. In 1613 James I's daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, married Frederick V, Elector Palatine, who was the grandson of William I of Orange. Then in 1641 Charles I's daughter, Mary, married William II of Orange; in 1677 their son, William III, married James II's daughter Mary. In 1688 the couple seized the British throne during the Glorious Revolution and established the system of constitutional monarchy which survives to this day.

Charles I, Henrietta Maria and Charles, Prince of Wales (later Charles II) ©
Throughout this same period the British monarchy brought Dutch painters to London. They liked painters of ‘perspectives’, ships and portraits in the style of Van Dyck. These works performed a specific function, but they did not compete in status with the idealised classic scenes for which these same monarchs looked to Italy. Some individual paintings by the greatest names of the Dutch Golden Age were brought to England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but it was not until the nineteenth century that they were collected in earnest. In the first three decades of the century George IV formed one of the world's most important collections of portraits, landscapes, genre and religious scenes by Cuyp, Dou, Steen, De Hooch and Rembrandt.
Adriaen Hanneman (1604-71)
William III (1650-1702) when Prince of Orange
Hendrick van Steenwyck the Younger (Antwerp c. 1580 - The Hague? 1649)
The Liberation of Saint Peter
Hendrick Pot (Haarlem c.1585-Amsterdam 1657)
Charles I, Henrietta Maria and Charles, Prince of Wales (later Charles II)
Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-93)
'Holmes's Bonfire', the burning of Dutch Merchant Ships between Terschelling and Vlieland, 19th August 1666
Gerrit van Honthorst (Utrecht 1590-1656)
The Four eldest Children of the King and Queen of Bohemia
Attributed to Gerrit Jensen (active 1680-d.1715)
Cabinet
Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707)
The Attack on the French Ships at Martinique, 6th July 1667
Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)
An old Woman called 'The Artist's Mother'
Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)
A Rabbi with a Cap
Sir Peter Lely (1618-80)
Mary II (1662-94), when Princess
Hieronymus Janssens (Antwerp 1624 - Antwerp 1693)
Charles II dancing at a Ball at Court
David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp 1610-Brussels 1690)
The Drummer
Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)
Christ and St Mary Magdalen at the Tomb
Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-93)
The Battle of the Texel (Kijkduin), 21 August 1673
David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp 1610-Brussels 1690)
The Interior of a Kitchen with an Old Woman Peeling Turnips
Adam Willaerts (Antwerp 1577-Utrecht 1664)
Embarkation at Margate of the Elector Palatine and Princess Elizabeth
Gerrit Jensen (active 1680-d.1715)
Seaweed Writing Desk
William Mulready (1786-1863)
The Interior of an English Cottage
Petrus van Schendel (1806-70)
Market Scene by Night
Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707)
The "Mary Rose" Action, 28 December 1669
Adriaen van der Werff (Kralingen 1659-Rotterdam 1722)
Cimon and Pero
Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)
Agatha Bas (1611-1658)
Attributed to Ferdinand Bol (Dordrecht 1616-Amsterdam 1680)