Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis

This fall and winter, The Frick Collection will be the final venue of an American tour of paintings from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague.  Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis will be on view in New York from October 22, 2013, through January 19, 2014.  The prestigious Dutch museum has not lent a large body of works in nearly thirty years, and the fifteen paintings selected for the Frick’s presentation are among the most important in the Mauritshuis’s holdings.  They represent the remarkable achievements of northern artists in the seventeenth century and complement the Frick’s strengths in Dutch portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings.  Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring―which has not been shown in New York since 1984―will have pride of place as the sole picture in the museum’s Oval Room.  Paintings by Frans Hals, Pieter Claesz, Rembrandt, Gerard ter Borch, Carel Fabritius, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Nicolaes Maes, and Adriaen Coorte will be displayed in the adjacent East Gallery.  Additionally, Transforming Still Life Painting (2012) by contemporary British artists Rob and Nick Carter will be shown in the Frick’s Multimedia Room.  This digital work, also on loan from the Mauritshuis, will offer visitors an opportunity to consider the enduring influence that Dutch Old Masters continue to have on artists today.  The Frick’s three canvases by Vermeer will be presented together in a special installation in the adjacent West Gallery, and the exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, a series of public programs, and select free evening hours.