CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Dordrechts Museum Acquires Large Perspective View by Samuel van Hoogstraten

The Dordrechts Museum has acquired a rare painting by Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678), one of Rembrandt’s most important pupils and one of Dordrecht’s most celebrated painters.

The life-size perspective view (which stands nearly 2.5 meters tall) offers into a palace, where a fireplace is glowing in the basement. The golden fence is a fine example of the skillfully simulated light. Past the colonnade and through the doorway, a glimpse of a vast garden can be seen.

Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678), Perspective View with a Young Man Reading in a Renaissance Palace, ca. 1662-67
Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht

Van Hoogstraten spent much of his life in Dordrecht. In addition to being a painter, he was also a poet and wrote novels and plays. The artist practiced almost all genres in painting: from portraits and still lifes, to perspective pieces such as Perspective View with a Young Man Reading in a Renaissance Palace.

The Dordrechts Museum has the largest Van Hoogstraten collection in the world, now comprising a total of sixteen paintings.

In the video above, curator Sander Paarlberg tells more about the artist and the newly-acquired painting (available with auto-generated subtitles).