Tonight, the exhibition Rembrandt & Co.: stories told by a prosperous age will be opened in Prague. It has been organized in conjunction with the publication of the summary catalogue of the museum’s collection of Dutch paintings.
Information from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal has opened the exhibition ‘Rembrandt & Co.’ at the National Gallery in Prague. The most valuable piece on loan is Rembrandt’s Portrait of a man in an Oriental costume, which normally hangs in the Rijksmuseum.
The exhibition contains many works from the storerooms of the National Gallery. The works were studied over the course of several years in connection with a research project supported by the Netherlands Institute for Art History.
The National Gallery has a large collection of over a thousand paintings, including many by Dutch masters, making the museum an important representative of Dutch cultural heritage abroad.
The exhibition and the research project are the result of a public-private partnership. The main sponsor is the bank ING, which is using the exhibition to highlight and celebrate the fact that it has been active in the Czech Republic for 20 years.
Exhibition
The collection of Dutch paintings from the 17th and early 18th centuries is the largest and most valuable collection of old European art, administered by the National Gallery in Prague. Its significance far surpasses the boundaries of the Czech Republic. The collection represents virtually all the genres and schools of painting, as well as most of the grandest names of the Golden Age of Dutch art. However, up to now, less than one-tenth of the nearly 600 paintings in the collection have been on public view.
Based on broad international collaboration, for the following three months the Gallery will show, alongside its own holdings, the finest loans from abroad and the Czech Republic, offering the public a representative survey of Dutch painting dating from the Baroque era.
Catalogue
The catalogue features 581 entries with colour reproductions (550 Dutch paintings, 3 addenda to the Catalogue of Early Netherlandish Painting (by Olga Kotkova, 1999), 28 addenda to the Catalogue of Flemish Painting (by Lubomír Slavicek, 2000), with a foreword by Rudi Ekkart and an introducing article by Lubomir Slavicek: "17th Century Dutch Art in Bohemia; A Reflection of Taste".
National Gallery in Prague. Dutch Paintings of the 17th and 18th Centuries. Illustrated Summary Catalogue
Anja K. Sevcik (ed.), Stefan Bartilla, Hana Seifertova
27,5 x 22 cm, 640 pp.
Prague 2012
ISBN 978-80-7035-493-3
CODARTfocus
All of the above constitutes a perfect occasion to visit Prague and the exquisite collection of its National Gallery. Therefore, CODART member Anja Sevcik from The National Gallery in Prague invites us for a special one-day visit.
On Monday 14 May 2012 the museum will open its doors exclusively for CODART-members. The program will entail a presentation of the inventory catalogue; a tour through the exhibition ‘Rembrandt & Co.: stories told by a prosperous age‘ with loans from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Amsterdam Museum, Berlin, Braunschweig, Budapest, Liberec and the Lobkowicz Collection; a special lecture about the restauration of Frans Hals’s Portrait of Jaspar Schade; and in addition: some "uncracked" nuts from the storage rooms.
Possibly we will expand our program with a visit to the Lobkowicz Collection on Sunday 13 May.
We hope to bring you more information soon on our CODARTfocus Prague webpage.
