Art News

Large group portraits of the Dutch Golden Age Celebrate civic pride at the National Gallery of Art, Washington

WASHINGTON, DC.- The civic pride of the Dutch Golden Age will be celebrated in a special installation of two large-scale group portraits, on loan from Amsterdam to the National Gallery of Art, Washington. On view March 10, 2012, through March 11, 2017, in the Seventh Street Lobby of the West Building, Civic Pride: Dutch Group Portraits from Amsterdam will provide 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.