Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba

The museum possesses approximately 150 works by Dutch and Flemish artists, focusing heavily on the seventeenth century – the period of greatest expressiveness in terms of works, authors, genres, and themes. To complete the collection, there are two small groups of works dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: a collection of paintings, made in oil on canvas, wood or metal, and a very small group of engravings and drawings on paper, which have not yet been sufficiently well studied.

The landscape genre is represented with works from the first Italianate period in the early seventeenth century as well as from the later period, when the characteristic style of the Dutch school was developed. There are also genre scenes, still lifes, allegories, religious paintings with Old Testament themes, and an important gallery of portraits testifying to different subgenres, perspectives, and genre turning points, with significant examples. The numerous seventeenth-century artists whose work is displayed include Nicolaes Berchem, Jacob Storck, Isaac van Duynen, Gerard de Lairesse, Jacob Duck, Thomas de Keyser, Jan de Baen, Johannes Verspronck, and Jan Wijnants.

The small eighteenth-century section includes a series of 21 works by the major engraver Jacobus Houbraken.

The Flemish and Belgian art collection consists of around 100 oil paintings, on wood, canvas, or metal. Though some date from the early sixteenth century, the emphasis is on the seventeenth century, with religious and genre scenes, landscapes, allegories, portraits and still lifes.

The sixteenth-century section includes examples of Mannerism in Antwerp, including a striking triptych attributed to the Circle of the Master of the Lille Adoration. Highlights include works by the Master of the Female Half-Lengths, and two images of the Tower of Babel, attributed to a follower of Jacob Grimmer and the school of Marten Van Valckenborg, respectively, as well as a work by Michiel Coxcie and some anonymous artists. The seventeenth century, the largest and most prominent section, begins chronologically with a beautiful townscape attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder. The collection also includes paintings by major artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, David Teniers, Cornelis de Vos, Jan Cossiers, Erasmus Quellinus, Jan Pauwel Gillemans the Younger, Bonaventura Peeters, as well as Rubens’s workshop. The eighteenth century is barely represented, with only two works linked to Jan Joseph Horemans the Elder and his son. The museum also owns copies of seventeenth-century works by artists including Jan Brueghel the Younger and Rubens.

Oscar Antuna Benitez, Curator of the Dutch and Flemish Collection (February 2024)