Information from the museum
The portraits of Maerten Soolmans and his wife Oopjen Coppit, two masterpieces by Rembrandt painted in 1634, have been jointly acquired by the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. They will be exhibited for the first time to the public at the Musée du Louvre from March 10 to June 13, 2016.
Francois Hollande, President of the French Republic, and Their Majesties the King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands inaugurated the presentation on the morning of March 10 during a state visit to France.
This unprecedented joint acquisition, backed by an intergovernmental agreement, was made on February 1, 2016 by the French and Dutch States on behalf of the Musée du Louvre and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
The entry of these works into national collections marks the culmination of a 140-year-long history between France and the Netherlands. The Louvre benefited from the generous support of the Banque de France to make the acquisition.
The paintings are the only examples of full-length portraits by the greatest painter of the Dutch Golden Age. They bear witness to the artist’s unrivaled skill in representing the subtlety of materials and employing the greatest economy of means to create a symphony of black and white hues.