The Centraal Museum in Utrecht is organizing an ambitious international retrospective exhibition on painter Gerard van Honthorst from April to September 2026. It will be first comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to the artist.

Like no other seventeenth-century artist, Gerard van Honthorst was able to create a connection with the viewer. Around 1630, he was even the most successful painter in the Dutch Republic and was commissioned by elites and royal houses across the European continent. Not only in his own time but 400 years later too, Honthorst still touches us with his intimate nocturnal scenes, his harmonious, almost audible musical scenes, his versatility and humor. But are the emotions he evokes with his work still recognizable and the same for us? With the exhibition and accompanying public program, the museum is giving the public the opportunity to get closer to Gerard van Honthorst and his artworks and making the most important features of his work accessible. This will enable the public to answer the above questions itself. The exhibition will include about one hundred works of art, mostly by Honthorst himself. To create a comprehensive overview these will be complemented with works by Anthony van Dyck, Rembrandt van Rijn and Paulus Moreelse.