The Kremer Collection is an exceptional private collection of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, assembled by George and Ilone Kremer since 1995. The collection includes works by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch and Caesar van Everdingen. In 2025, almost 50 works from the collection will be on display at the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar.

The exhibition’s title, een gedeelde liefde (A shared love), refers to the love for art shared by collectors George and Ilone Kremer. On the one hand, the Kremer family’s passion runs like a red thread through the exhibition: the passion for collecting itself and the fervent desire to share this passion with the general public and younger generations. On the other hand, the cycle of love is a wonderful parallel to describe The Kremer Collection.

Structured like a love story – from the grand and compelling to the intimate and surprising – the exhibition also offers an insight into the passion that drives the Kremer family to add a work to their collection.

An absolute highlight of the exhibition is an intimate and subdued painting of a young maid by Michael Sweerts from around 1660. Dreamy and slightly absent-minded, the girl looks over her shoulder. She seems to be lost in thought, as if caught in a quiet moment of contemplation. Sweerts shows that sometimes the greatest power lies in the small and silent, just as love is often expressed in the smallest gestures.