PRESS RELEASE

12 November 2015

Dutch masterpieces collected by kings and queens since Charles I go on display in a new exhibition

The first painting by van Rijn to reach England and one of fewer than 40 known paintings by are among the highlights of Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer, a new exhibition from the opening tomorrow (Friday, 13 November) at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. The exhibition has been created in partnership with the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, , where it will be shown in autumn 2016.

The exhibition includes works by some of the finest artists of the day, among them Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch and Jan Steen. Produced during the Dutch ‘Golden Age’, when the Netherlands was at the forefront of commerce, science and art, these pictures represent a high point in ‘genre painting’ – ordinary scenes of everyday life rendered in extraordinary detail. Renowned for their exquisite depiction of space and light, Dutch artists of the period also included humorous or moralising messages in their work for the contemporary viewer to decode.

The arrival in England of Rembrandt's painting An Old Woman, called 'The Artist's Mother' established the artist's international reputation. Charles I received the painting in 1629, four years into his reign, as a gift from Sir Robert Kerr, his ambassador at the court of the exiled king and queen of Bohemia. Charles went on to form a spectacular collection of European works of art, including Dutch-school paintings such as 's A laughing Bravo with a Bass Viol and a Glass, 1625, and Hendrick Pot's Lady and Gentleman in an Interior, ‘A startling Introduction’, c.1632.

Johannes Vermeer's Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman, or 'The Music Lesson', painted in the early 1660s, entered the Royal Collection in 1762, when George III purchased the collection of Consul Joseph Smith, Canaletto's patron and agent. The work was then attributed to Frans van Mieris the Elder whose signature was probably confused with that of the much less well-known artist Vermeer. The composition is dominated by Vermeer's powerful use of perspective to draw the eye to the figures at the rear of the room. Unusually, the young woman has her back to the viewer and her face can only be seen as a reflection in the mirror on the wall. The meaning of this enigmatic work has been much debated, and it has been suggested that the subject of the painting is music itself.

Cardplayers in a Tavern, c.1664, by Jan Steen was purchased around 1827 by George IV, the most enthusiastic royal collector of Netherlandish art. Steen ran a brewery in Delft between 1654 and 1657, and in this painting the artist shows drinkers playing cards as the landlord of the establishment looks on. Details such as the folds of a jacket strewn across a bench, and the dust-pan and brush and mussel shells scattered in the foreground, are captured with meticulous care. Steen's Interior of a Tavern with Card Players and a Violin Player, c.1665, and

Press Office, Royal Collection Trust, York House, St James’s Palace, SW1A 1BQ T. +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected], www.royalcollection.org.uk

Merrymaking in a Tavern with a Couple dancing, c.1670, explore the themes of drinking, music and love that are typical of genre painting of the Dutch 'Golden Age'.

Gerrit Dou's The Young Mother, 1658, has been loaned from the Mauritshuis in The Hague, where over twenty works from the exhibition will be shown in September 2016. The painting was given to Charles II in 1660 and became part of the British Royal Collection. Charles II was so taken with the picture that he offered Dou a position as court artist, which the painter declined. Stadholder William III of Orange inherited the Collection in 1688 on becoming King of England, Ireland and Scotland, and sent the painting to decorate his new hunting lodge 'Het Loo' near Apeldoorn in Holland. The painting remained at Het Loo after William's death and was described by his executors as 'the finest known'.

Gerrit Dou was Rembrandt's first apprentice and among the most talented. He specialised in scenes with a soft light source emerging from a shadowy setting, and his work is characterised by near invisible brushwork. In A Girl chopping onions, 1646, this refined technique is beautifully demonstrated in the upturned pewter jug in the foreground and the rendering of the young woman's face. Like many paintings of the period, A Girl chopping onions includes a concealed message. The empty birdcage hanging from the roof and the onions, regarded as an aphrodisiac in the 17th century, probably allude to the girl's lost innocence.

The introduction to the exhibition explores the history of the collecting and display of Dutch art by generations of the royal family. George IV's prolific acquisitions in the early 1800s include Rembrandt's Agatha Bas, 1641, and the group portrait, Charles I, Henrietta Maria & Charles, Prince of Wales, later Charles II, c.1632, by Hendrick Pot.

Ends

Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer is at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 13 November 2015 – 14 February 2016. It will be shown alongside High Spirits: The Comic Art of Thomas Rowlandson.

The accompanying catalogue Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer by Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures, Royal Collection Trust, and Quentin Buvelot, Senior Curator at the Mauritshuis, is published by Royal Collection Trust, price £29.95.

The exhibition will be shown at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, 4 March – 24 July 2016, and at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, 29 September 2016 – 8 January 2017.

Visitor information and tickets for The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace: www.royalcollection.org.uk, T. +44 (0)30 3123 7301.

A selection of images is available from www.picselect.com. For further information and photographs, please contact the Royal Collection Trust Press Office, +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected].

Press Office, Royal Collection Trust, York House, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1BQ T. +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected], www.royalcollection.org.uk

Notes to Editors

Royal Collection Trust, a department of the Royal Household, is responsible for the care of the Royal Collection and manages the public opening of the official residences of The Queen. Income generated from admissions and from associated commercial activities contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational programmes. Royal Collection Trust’s work is undertaken without public funding of any kind.

The Royal Collection is among the largest and most important art collections in the world, and one of the last great European royal collections to remain intact. It comprises almost all aspects of the fine and decorative arts, and is spread among some 13 royal residences and former residences across the UK, most of which are regularly open to the public. The Royal Collection is held in trust by the Sovereign for her successors and the nation, and is not owned by The Queen as a private individual.

Admission to The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace is managed by The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity in England and Wales (1016972) and in Scotland (SCO39772).

The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis is home to the very best of painting. The compact, yet world-renowned collection, is situated in the heart of The Hague, right next to the government centre. Masterpieces such as Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt, by Fabritius and The Bull by Potter are on permanent display in the intimate rooms of this seventeenth-century monument.

More than two hundred top works from Dutch and Flemish masters are on display in the historic yet intimate interior, with its silken wall covering, sparkling chandeliers and monumental painted ceilings. Genre paintings by Jan Steen, landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael, still lifes by Adriaen Coorte and portraits by Rubens offer a rich and varied representation of the best of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painting.

Press Office, Royal Collection Trust, York House, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1BQ T. +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected], www.royalcollection.org.uk