Group portraits from Holland - a unique exhibition in the Hermitage

ST. PETERSBURG. A unique exhibition was given the opportunity to see visitors to the Hermitage. A collection of group portraits painted by Dutch artists in the 16-17th centuries was brought from the Amsterdam Museum. Many of the paintings first left the borders of the Netherlands.

Exhibition in The Hermitage received the name "Corporate Unity", which fully reflects the essence of the character of the Dutch people. Even in the course of the struggle for the independence of the country, which began in the Middle Ages, this small people rallied into a single nation. People from various walks of life, shoulder to shoulder, made their country ever stronger and more prosperous.

It was a sense of community that led to the emergence in Holland of such a genre of painting as a group portrait. Wanting to capture on canvas their team of like-minded people doing one thing, the inhabitants of Holland, working in hospitals, shelters, guarding the order in the cities, ordered joint portraits of the artists.

Most of the people depicted in the portraits worked on a voluntary basis, I consider my work an honorable duty. Many of them were portrayed by artists during their work. It is conditionally possible to divide the canvases participating in the exhibition into three types - groups representing shooting corporations, the work of doctors and portraits of benefactors.

Most often, such canvases were written in large sizes, so they are extremely rarely represented at exhibitions. It is extremely difficult to transport such paintings, but in the exposition of the opened exhibition you can see twelve large-format canvases delivered from Amsterdam. It is worth noting that the length of the canvas of the greatest magnitude reaches more than 5 m, and its height is about 2.5 meters.

The exhibition runs until September 1st, and then moves to Moscow.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru