The artistic production of the Netherlands that emerged from the seventeenth century onward—and its impact on the development of secular genres such as portraiture, landscape, and still life painting, as well as its influence on the educational system of the Academia de San Carlos—is the focus of the exhibition Dutch Art in the Collection of the Museo Nacional de San Carlos. Visitors will be able to admire works by artists such as Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Frans Hals, and Albert Jansz. Klomp, as well as maps and engravings from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
The Dutch art collection preserved by the Museo Nacional de San Carlos enters into dialogue with paintings and engravings from the holdings of the Franz Mayer Museum and Casa del Risco. Together, they illustrate the development of a taste and aesthetic that became part of the artistic language of Mexican painters and collectors in the twentieth century.
The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections: Portraiture and the Great Civic Dynasties, Scenes of Everyday Life, Landscape and Still Life, The Influence of Dutch Art on the Academia de San Carlos, and Cartographies. These sections reveal to the viewer how Dutch art influenced the development of various pictorial genres, while also allowing for a deeper understanding of the importance of the circulation of images and printed materials between this region and the American continent.
Among the works by Rembrandt on display are Bust of an Old Man with Fur Cap and The Draftsman, from the Franz Mayer Museum, as well as a copy of one of his Self-Portraits. Rembrandt fascinated the artistic circles surrounding the Academia de San Carlos, becoming a visual reference in art education in Mexico during the 19th and 20th centuries. He was also one of the most beloved artists among private collectors.
The oil paintings by Albert Jansz. Klomp, Flock at Rest and Bull Tied to a Tree, reflect the importance of pastoral and landscape scenes in the new art market that developed in the Netherlands from the sevententh century onward. Representations of animals and everyday life were widely consumed across different layers of Dutch society, including peasants, farmers, and newly wealthy merchants who decorated their homes with such works.
Dutch Art in the Collection of the Museo Nacional de San Carlos, offers an opportunity to explore the artistic production of the Netherlands and its role in the consolidation and legitimization of European art collections formed by members of Mexico’s political and intellectual elite in the twentieth century, particularly that of Alberto J. Pani.
Curatorship and texts: Claudia Garay Molina
Consulting and texts: César Manrique