A celebration of Golden Age Dutch art
Petworth House and Park celebrates Dutch art and design as it hosts a major new exhibition of paintings from the Golden Age.
Prized Possessions – Dutch Paintings from National Trust Houses runs at Petworth from January 26 to March 24.
Andrew Loukes, house and collections manager for Petworth House and Park, said: “Prized Possessions brings together Dutch seventeenthcentury paintings by some of the finest masters of the Golden Age from National Trust collections aroundthecountryandexamines how and why this style of art was desired, commissioned and displayed in Britain.
“The show is especially relevant to Petworth, which holds major Dutch paintings in its collection and reflects the Dutch influence of King William III and Queen Mary II in its design.
“At Petworth House, the Prized Possessions exhibition will be seen for the first time in a country house context, having previously been exhibited in galleries at the Holburne Museum in Bath and The Mauritshuis in The Hague.
“With Petworth House as a venue, the exhibition will also invite visitors to discover more about the influence of William and Mary on the Dutch-inspired design choices that were made for the property in the 1680s by the Duke and Duchess of Somerset at a seminal moment in the house’s history.
“Petworth was partly remodelled by the French architect Daniel Marot, who had worked extensively for the Dutch court, especially on the palace at Het Loo. Decoration at Petworth includes the spectacular wood carvings of fruit, flowers, trophies and game by Anglo- Dutch master carver Grinling Gibbons, who had also worked for William and Mary at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court.”
Prized Possessions, curated by David Taylor and Rupert Goulding, includes nearly two dozen works from Trust houses around the country by celebrated artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Lely, Gabriel Metsu, and Cornelis de Heem alongside less well-known names such as Simon Pietersz Verelst and Adriaen van Diest.
Additional Dutch works which feature include The Three Younger Children of Charles I, 1647 by Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), commissioned by Algernon Percy, the 10th Earl of Northumberland, after the King’s children were put in to his custody by Parliament during the English Civil War.
For further information and opening times for the exhibition visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ petworth