Information
The Michaelis Collection of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painting was assembled by the diamond trader Max Michaelis in the early twentieth century. In 1914, he donated the collection to the South African government.
The collection is permanently exhibited in Cape Town at the Old Town House Museum, part of Iziko Museums of South Africa, the former town hall built during the Dutch East India Company era. To house the collection, the town hall was refurbished an remodeled to resemble the galleries of the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
The extensive collection offers an encyclopedic overview of the period, representing various genres—such as portrait, landscape, historical, and still-life painting—with works by important artists from the Northern and Southern Netherlands. These include Willem van Aelst (1627–1683), Ludolf Bakhuizen (1631–1708), Abraham van Beyeren (1620/21–1690), Ferdinand Bol (1616–1695), Albert Cuyp (1620–1691), Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Jan van Goyen (1596–1667), Frans Hals (1582/83–1666), Melchior d’Hondecoeter (1636–1695), Philips Koninck (1619–1688), Nicolaas Maes (1634–1693), Jacob van Ruysdael (1628/29–1682), Jan Steen (1626–1679), Emanuel de Witte (1616–1691/92), and Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668).