Civic Pride: Group Portraits from Amsterdam

March 10, 2012 – August 28, 2017
West Building, Ground Floor, 7th Street Lobby

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: Two large-scale group portraits from the Dutch Golden Age, on long-term loan from the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam Museum, 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, Govaert 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. The two works, both titled Governors of the Kloveniersdoelen, were painted 13 years apart. Flinck (in 1642) and Van der Helst (in 1655) created comparable yet distinct interpretations of the shared sense of duty and personal interactions of two different generations of governors.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Sponsors: The exhibition is made possible by the Hata Foundation. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the Netherlands Cultural Services and through the generosity of Mrs. Henry H. Weldon.

Brochure: Civic Pride: Group Portraits from Amsterdam by Henriette de Bruyn Kops. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2012.