Floor plan

Time and placeThe Netherlands

The Netherlands

A sage-green harbor teems with more than a dozen sailing ships and rowboats under a pale gray sky in this horizontal painting. The horizon comes about one-fifth of the way up the composition, and dark gray and white clouds tower above. Light filters onto the scene through the clouds from our left to fall across the ships while casting shadows on the water nearest us. Painted in tones of slate gray and warm brown, most of the ships closest to us have their sails furled so the masts and horizontal yard arms bristle against the sky. The larger ships have cannons poking out of square portholes. On our right, a war ship floats with its ornately carved and gilded stern facing us. A flag flying from the tallest of the three masts has red, white, and green stripes. The artist painted his name on that flag, “R. Zeeman.” The ship is tied to a buoy with a length of rope, and an empty rowboat is tethered to the right side of the ship. A similar ship but with the sails hanging loosely is tied to a buoy just beyond this one. A row of pickets, like a fence, extends into the water behind these two ships. To our left, a rowboat full of men has pulled up alongside a partially sunken ship, its masts tilting toward us. A few people stand on two more ships nearby. A black temporary dock floats next to the leftmost ship here. A person mixes something that smokes on the platform, and another person stands on a board lifted halfway up the ship’s side, presumably working on a repair. Two women in another rowboat next to the floating dock lean over the side, washing clothes. Another fence encloses the harbor to our left, and a hut in the middle of the harbor is surrounded by a similar structure. Two rowboats closer to us are filled with men wearing tall hats and black or brown coats, and women wearing black bonnets and white shawls. More sailing ships and rowboats move back or around beyond the harbor, out to sea. Visible cracks cover the surface of the painting.
A work made of engraving in black on cream laid paper.
A work made of engraving on two joined sheets of ivory laid paper.
A work made of oil on copper.
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1653
Portrait of Tieleman Roosterman, by Frans Hals, 1634
A work made of oil on canvas.

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

Works made in the Netherlands, from every century in the collection.

First room, north wall

  1. A sage-green harbor teems with more than a dozen sailing ships and rowboats under a pale gray sky in this horizontal painting. The horizon comes about one-fifth of the way up the composition, and dark gray and white clouds tower above. Light filters onto the scene through the clouds from our left to fall across the ships while casting shadows on the water nearest us. Painted in tones of slate gray and warm brown, most of the ships closest to us have their sails furled so the masts and horizontal yard arms bristle against the sky. The larger ships have cannons poking out of square portholes. On our right, a war ship floats with its ornately carved and gilded stern facing us. A flag flying from the tallest of the three masts has red, white, and green stripes. The artist painted his name on that flag, “R. Zeeman.” The ship is tied to a buoy with a length of rope, and an empty rowboat is tethered to the right side of the ship. A similar ship but with the sails hanging loosely is tied to a buoy just beyond this one. A row of pickets, like a fence, extends into the water behind these two ships. To our left, a rowboat full of men has pulled up alongside a partially sunken ship, its masts tilting toward us. A few people stand on two more ships nearby. A black temporary dock floats next to the leftmost ship here. A person mixes something that smokes on the platform, and another person stands on a board lifted halfway up the ship’s side, presumably working on a repair. Two women in another rowboat next to the floating dock lean over the side, washing clothes. Another fence encloses the harbor to our left, and a hut in the middle of the harbor is surrounded by a similar structure. Two rowboats closer to us are filled with men wearing tall hats and black or brown coats, and women wearing black bonnets and white shawls. More sailing ships and rowboats move back or around beyond the harbor, out to sea. Visible cracks cover the surface of the painting.
    Amsterdam Harbor SceneReinier Nooms, called Zeeman, c. 1654/1655Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. A work made of engraving in black on cream laid paper.
    The Apollo Belvedere, plate 3 from Three Famous Antique SculpturesHendrick Goltzius, c. 1592, printed c. 1617Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. A work made of engraving on two joined sheets of ivory laid paper.
    Fortune Distributing her GiftsJan Harmensz. Muller, 1590Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. A work made of oil on copper.
    Portrait of a ManJan Baptist Weenix, c. 1650Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

First room, south wall

  1. Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1653
    Aristotle with a Bust of HomerRembrandt van Rijn, 1653Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. Portrait of Tieleman Roosterman, by Frans Hals, 1634
    Portrait of Tieleman RoostermanFrans Hals, 1634Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. A work made of oil on canvas.
    The Dutch Whaling FleetAbraham Storck, c. 1695Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, south wall

  1. A work made of oil on panel.
    Still LifePieter Claesz, c. 1625Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Portrait of Gerard de Lairesse, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1665–67
    Portrait of Gerard de LairesseRembrandt van Rijn, 1665–67Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. A work made of engraving in black on cream laid paper.
    Drunken SilenusJonas Suyderhoef, 1642Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, north wall

  1. A work made of oil on canvas.
    Resurrection of ChristSamuel van Hoogstraten, c. 1665Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Enclosed Valley, by Hercules Seghers, c. 1623–30
    Enclosed ValleyHercules Seghers, c. 1623–30Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. A work made of reed pen and iron-gall ink on tan laid paper.
    Avenue of Pollard Birches and PoplarsVincent van Gogh, March 1884Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Third room, north wall

  1. The Harvesters, by Pieter Bruegel, 1565
    The HarvestersPieter Bruegel, 1565Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. The image shows a landscape viewed from above. The scene is oval, framed by tree branches on each side. Distant mountains form a boundary near the top. Delicate, finely executed lines create detailed foliage and landscape features. A winding path with a small figure adds scale. Lush trees climb upwards, with a muted color palette of the paper and dark brown and black lines providing contrast.
    The Boulder Crowned with TreesHerman van SwaneveltCourtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. An elegantly dressed man and woman ride horses toward us and to our right in a landscape with low, rolling hills, stone buildings, and trees in this horizontal painting. The two horses and riders take up the right half of the composition. Both people have pale skin and look at us. The woman has a high forehead, a straight nose, a round face, and curly blond hair falling to her shoulders. She wears a sapphire-blue dress with slashed sleeves to reveal a white garment beneath. Her hat is adorned with blue and white feathers, and she wears a string of pearls around her neck. The legs of her white horse darken to black below the knees, and the bridle is tied with blue bows near the horse’s ears. The sidesaddle sits on a woven, rug-like blanket. Next to her, to our right, the man rides a larger chestnut-brown horse with a white triangle between its eyes. The man looks at us out of the corners of his dark eyes under gathered brows. He has a long, straight nose and is cleanshaven, though a hint of a five o’clock shadow slightly darkens his cleft chin. His light brown hair falls in curls down past his shoulders, and he wears a dark brown coat with voluminous white fabric rippling out above tan-colored gloves. He holds a riding crop in his right hand, on our left, resting against his hip. Near the white horse’s feet, to our left, a dark brown dog with a white nose sniffs at a plant. Behind it, another reddish-brown dog sniffs the ground near the horse’s back hoof. A third dog stands beyond, partially obscured by bushes and plants growing in the lower left corner of the canvas. A man wearing a tall black, wide-brimmed hat and carrying a long staff leads two slender dogs resembling grayhounds on leashes along the path, a little behind the riders. Two more elegantly dressed men ride horses toward us father back on the path. Sand-colored stone buildings, hazy in the distance, are clustered around a squared tower, possibly a bell tower, to our left. The land dips gently to the horizon line in the deep distance. The riders are silhouetted against a swirling slate-blue cloud that fills most of the sky in the top two-thirds of the painting. The sky clears to pale blue to our left and then warms to golden yellow along the horizon, beyond the buildings. The artist signed the painting near the lower left corner: “A. Cuijp.”
    Lady and Gentleman on HorsebackAelbert Cuyp, c. 1655, reworked 1660/1665Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington