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Thanks to private donations, the collection of Dutch and Flemish art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was expanded considerably since 1995. Important Flemish old master works entered the collection: a mysterious Birth of Christ with Shepherds from Antwerp (around 1510/20), a Way to the hill of Calvary by Herri met de Bles, Lucretia by the Master with the Parrot and a woman’s head by Frans Floris I.
Works from the Dutch seventeenth century include a history painting by Moyses van Wtenbrouck, and landscapes by Gillis de Hondecoeter, Esaias van de Velde, Jan van Goyen, Pieter Molijn, Salomon van Ruysdael, Adam Pijnacker and Willem van de Velde the Younger. Among the still-lifes are works by Pieter Claesz. and Roelof Koets, Jan Davidsz. de Heem and a garland by the young Rachel Ruysch, an early oyster still-life (around 1630) by a Haarlem master stands out. Thomas van Apshoven’s Kunstkammer shows a group of Flemish works; among them the Temptation of Saint Anthony by David Teniers and an Epiphany by Simon de Vos. The collection also includes portraits and tronies by Jacob Cuyp, Jacob Backer, Dirk Lievens, Salomon Koninck and Abraham van Dijk. Genre paintings by Pieter Codde, Pieter Quast, Adriaen van Ostade and Simon Kick are surpassed by an unique Sleeping Soldier by Willem Duyster.
In addition to painting, the collection also contains around 2500 sheets of Dutch graphic art, among them drawings by Jan van Goyen, Antoni Waterloo and Allaert van Everdingen as well as prints by Hieronymus Cock, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt, Adriaen van Ostade and many others.
Matthias Wohlgemuth and Samuel Reller (May 2020)