The Art Exhibitions Blog

Think of Delft, and you think, inevitably, of one artist: Johannes Vermeer . But in the middle of the 17th century, Vermeer wasn't the only painter from this city in southern Holland set for a particular place in art history.  Vermeer's enigmatic genre scenes are incomparable, but one of his fellow members of the Delft artists' guild was to produce some of the most characteristic pictures of the Dutch Golden Age: images of domesticity that almost sum up the period. His name was Pieter de Hooch, and this autumn and winter he's getting the attention he deserves in a show at the Museum Prinsenhof in Delft.  We have to admit to a bias towards Golden Age painting, but  Pieter de Hooch in Delft: From the Shadow of Vermeer is the best exhibition we've seen in 2019. It's not big, but it's beautifully put together and incredibly informative. And astonishingly, this is the first time de Hooch has ever had an exhibition devoted to him in the Netherlands.  ...

A couple of big anniversaries dominate the 2019 exhibition calendar: It's 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci's death, and 350 since Rembrandt's. Van Gogh is celebrated in two major shows, while Bridget Riley and Antony Gormley are among the leading contemporary artists in focus. Here's a look at some of the standout dates for the diary in 2019, in more or less chronological order. January The first big show of the New Year comes at Tate Modern in London, with Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory opening on January 23. The Tate is promising 100 of Bonnard's greatest works from museums and private collections around the world. Until May 6. To mark Rembrandt Year in the Netherlands, the Mauritshuis in The Hague is putting on show all of the 18 paintings in its collection that are by Rembrandt or have been attributed to him. January 31 to September 15. February Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing will see drawings by Leonardo in the Royal Collection exhibite...

The British have long had a liking for art from the Dutch Golden Age; many of the paintings that made their way across the North Sea are to be found not in museums and galleries but in country mansions. Prized Possessions: Dutch Masterpieces from National Trust Houses  offers a rare chance to see some of the best together in one place -- in a museum: the Holburne in Bath. It's a small but well-formed show that offers an all-too-brief overview of the remarkably productive 17th century in the Netherlands: landscape, cityscape, church interior, portrait, genre scenes, flower painting and of course a naval battle against the English. With a great cast list too: Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch and Aelbert Cuyp. The National Trust may not own a Vermeer, but it does have a number of paintings by de Hooch, his Delft contemporary. In the Holburne,  The Golf Players  from Polesden Lacey in Surrey is a classic example of his household scenes: the view through multiple...

You don't really need an excuse for a Rembrandt exhibition, but 2019 provides a perfect diary date: it's the 350th anniversary of his death, and some of the Netherlands' biggest galleries (and the Dutch tourism authorities) are celebrating with a year-long programme of events. Let's start at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where they have two big shows planned. The gallery, home to the Night Watch , has the world's biggest collection of Rembrandts, and from February 15 to June 10 it's planning to display 22 paintings, 60 drawings and the 300 best examples of his prints in All the Rembrandts of the Rijksmuseum . Towards the end of 2019, there's the mouth-watering prospect of a show comparing Rembrandt and his Spanish close contemporary Velazquez in what the Rijksmuseum says will be a comprehensive overview of paintings by the two great masters, with paintings hung in pairs. It's a collaboration with the Prado in Madrid, which is celebrating its 200th ...