Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Most of the paintings in the Green Silk Room date from the Dutch Golden Age (c.1581–1672), a period which saw The Netherlands emerge from war as an independent Protestant republic. The country grew prosperous, creating a unique climate for the arts. 

The number of Dutch artists grew to an unprecedented level, as did patronage from an expanding middle class. Artists experimented with new secular themes in portraiture, landscape, genre scenes and marine painting, all characterised by a heightened attention to realistic detail. 

Also on view in this room are some fine examples of 18th-century furniture as well as important Sèvres and Meissen porcelain. 

Scroll down to find the key objects to look for on each tour.

Star object

A Gentleman and a Lady at a Virginal

  • Signed Gabriel Metsu
  • About 1667
  • Oil on panel
  • Amsterdam, Netherlands

Metsu was a master at telling open-ended visual stories that draw the viewer into the dramatic moment represented. In this fine example we see a well-dressed woman seated at a piano. She is distracted by a man who offers her a glass of wine, while her lapdog, who represents loyalty, sniffs cautiously at his boots. Both the woman and her dog seem uncertain about the man’s intentions. Will she or won’t she give into his advances? 

Metsu was equally renowned for his skill in harmonising colours. Here he injects a largely muted palette with dashes of bright red or orange pigment, which further animate the scene. 

By 1900, when Wernher bought this work, Metsu was regarded as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

Artists and makers

A Yacht at Anchor Firing a Salute

  • Signed Willem Van de Velde the Younger
  • About 1658
  • Oil on canvas
  • Amsterdam, Netherlands

While small in scale, this painting packs a visual punch with its bright palette, spirited handling and the sharp, dark forms of the vessels that dominate the composition’s middle ground. At the centre, a Staaten Jaght (‘States yacht’) fires a salute as a barge pulls away on the left. The painting is signed with Van de Velde’s initials, WVV.

By 1762, Van de Velde’s talents at representing the sea had been recognised beyond the Netherlands, and that winter he and his father, also a successful marine painter, were invited to England by King Charles II. Together they produced a number of highly ambitious sea pieces for the king and nobility, changing the face of marine painting and influencing the genre for centuries to come.