Dutch Portraits

Book excerpt: In the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, every gentleman of standing had himself eternalized in a portrait. In Holland, these gentlemen were burghers, not aristocrats, or princes of the church. They were prosperous merchants, scholars, generals, and stadholders, seen in official and private settings, alone or in the company of colleagues, or surrounded by their wives and children. Seventeenth-century Dutch portraiture is a remarkable phenomenon: never before had so many portraits been painted. Today, these pictures offer insight into the taste, fashion, occupations, and ambitions of affluent 17th-century individuals. The two great masters of Dutch portraiture, Rembrandt and Frans Hals, are both represented here.