Virtual Visits

Virtual Visits with Ines Powell

In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met

Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century—the Golden Age of Rembrandt, Hals, an Vermeer—have been a highlight of The Met collection since the Museum's founding purchase in 1871. This exhibition will bring together some of the Museum's greatest paintings to present this remarkable chapter of art history in a new light. Through roughly sixty-five works of art organized thematically, the exhibition will orient visitors to key issues in seventeenth-century Dutch culture—from debates about religion and conspicuous consumption to painters' fascination with the domestic lives of women. Works typically displayed separately in the Museum's galleries—such as Rembrandt's [Gerard de Lairesse](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459082) and Lairesse's own [Apollo and Aurora](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436843)—will be presented side by side, producing a visually compelling narrative about the tensions between realism and idealism during this period.