The exhibition ‘Civic Pride: Group Portraits from Amsterdam’ shows two large-scale group portraits from the Dutch Golden Age, on long-term loan from the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam Museum. The exhibition provides an extraordinary opportunity for visitors to enjoy a type of Dutch painting rarely seen outside the Netherlands.
The exhibition ‘Civic Pride: Group Portraits from Amsterdam’ shows two large-scale group portraits from the Dutch Golden Age, on long-term loan from the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam Museum. The exhibition provides an extraordinary opportunity for visitors to enjoy a type of Dutch painting rarely seen outside the Netherlands.
In these imposing works, two of Amsterdam’s most important portraitists from the mid-17th century, Govert Flinck (1615–1660) and Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613–1670), have immortalized the civic pride of the men who governed the Kloveniersdoelen, the building where one of Amsterdam’s three militia companies held its meetings. The two works, both titled Governors of the Kloveniersdoelen, were painted 13 years apart. Flinck (in 1642) and Van der Helst (in 1655) created comparable yet distinct interpretations of the shared sense of duty and personal interactions of two different generations of governors. The works are on view until March 11, 2017.