WEST PALM BEACH, FL (PNAN) – Opening at the Norton Museum of Art on Saturday, October 25, 2025 and on view through March 29, 2026, the exhibition, “Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time: Masterpieces from the Leiden Collection” it will be the largest exhibition of privately held Dutch 17th-century paintings ever organized in the United States. In addition, it coincides with the 400th anniversary of New Amsterdam’s founding on the island of present-day Manhattan.
Rembrandt is the artist at the exhibition’s heart, with works representing all periods of his career. Complementing his paintings are those by artists intimately connected to him in Amsterdam, including his teacher Pieter Lastman and pupils Ferdinand Bol and Arent de Gelder, among others.
The exhibition also features artists working in Rembrandt’s hometown of Leiden, including his friend and rival Jan Lievens and student Gerrit Dou, as well as Jan Steen, Frans van Mieris, and Gabriel Metsu. Painters who worked in other Dutch artistic centers are also represented, such as Hendrick ter Brugghen, Carel Fabritius, Frans Hals, Gerard ter Borch, and Johannes Vermeer. https://www.norton.org/exhibitions/art-and-life-in-rembrandts-time-masterpieces-from-the-leiden-collection
Organized thematically, the exhibition offers a glimpse into 17th-century life in the Netherlands. People take center stage, as seen in portraits and character studies capturing the social aspirations and individuality of the era’s citizens.
Also on view are engaging depictions of everyday activities: market vendors selling their wares, soldiers playing cards, youths engrossed in books, and women writing letters or playing music. Religious and mythological subjects, commonly shown in private homes, reveal the period’s spiritual and intellectual pursuits.
Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated, 160-page catalogue exploring Dutch life in the 1600s and providing detailed entries on each work.