17th century Dutch and Flemish art
The paintings in this room are mainly works whose size made them suitable for domestic display in the town houses of Dutch and Flemish citizens in the northern and southern Netherlands (now Holland and Belgium). The smaller rooms in these houses, used as studies or to display paintings and precious objects, were often called ‘cabinet rooms’.
On one side of the room hangs one of Rembrandt’s earliest self-portraitspresented as a gift to the British king Charles I, shortly after it was painted. Dutch landscapeswere also popular in Britain from the seventeenth century onwards. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the 'View of Dordrecht' by van Goyen was in the local Merseyside collection of the Blundell family, who also owned a large number of Italian and Flemish paintings, drawings and sculpture.
Room highlights include:
Please note: room displays can change due to loans, conservation work and display renewal. If you intend to visit the Walker Art Gallery to see a particular artwork, please telephone 0151 478 4199 beforehand to check the artwork is on display.