Curator Jochen Sander in front of Govert Flinck, parade of crossbowmen (Voetboog) under Captain Joan Huydecopere and Lieutenant Frans van Waveren, 1648/50
Following the exhibition “Call me Rembrandt” three years ago, the Städel is once again hosting masterpieces of Dutch painting. The proximity between Frankfurt and Amsterdam plays an important role: both metropolises are characterised by the bourgeoisie, with its leading role in politics and the economy and its focus on trade and finance. In keeping with Johann Friedrich Städel’s intentions, the Städel itself now holds a collection of almost 260 works by Rembrandt.
A stroke of luck for Frankfurt: due to remodelling and renovation, the Amsterdam Museum, the most significant lender, is currently closed. This means that works of art can be seen in Frankfurt that would hardly have left the Netherlands under normal circumstances.
A century of growth and prosperity
An ‘Allegory of the Expansion of the City’ by Nicolaes Pieteresz Berchem and paintings of the new buildings form the prelude as important symbols of Amsterdam’s rise. From a small harbour on the Amstel with around 50,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the 17th century, the city grew into a European megacity, housing around 200,000 people by 1660. The real rise began as early as 1566/68 with the revolt of the Dutch provinces against the Habsburgs and the founding of the Republic, and ended almost exactly 100 years later when a war against England and France effectively cut Amsterdam off from world trade.
Two paintings show the stock exchange building, because with the start of securities trading in 1612, the stock exchange became the driving force behind the economic boom. New opportunities for risk diversification emerged, and trading in share certificates provided broad sections of the population access to financing for international trade expansion. The “blue chips” were the East India Trading Company and, from 1623, the West India Trading Company.
Job Adriaensz Berckheyde, The Courtyard of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, ca. 1670
Huge group portraits as an Amsterdam speciality
This boom led to the creation of huge group portraits, which are essentially only known from Amsterdam. Nick Jue, CEO of ING Germany, one of the sponsors of the exhibition, explained: “The Dutch group portrait represents this period like no other pictorial genre. The bourgeois elite commissioned these large-format paintings from the most important Amsterdam painters. These are paintings that speak of national pride and self-confidence — qualities that are still part of Amsterdam’s DNA today.”
Initially, it was the members of the Amsterdam shooting associations, the civic militias, who regularly depicted. The exhibition features, among other works, two paintings of the Crossbowmen’s Guild, each more than five meters wide, created nearly 20 years apart. The world’s most famous shooting picture, Rembrandt’s “Night Watch”, which will never leave the Rijksmuseum, is at least represented in a 15 × 20 cm format — as a watercolour by Jacob Colijns in a sketchbook. According to experts, the era of these paintings ended around 1650, partly because there was simply no room for new paintings in the shooting houses.
Professional group portraits, on the other hand, were commissioned more by chance in the 17th century. Two “lectures” by the physician Dr Sebastiaen Egbertsz are therefore noteworthy, one with almost 30 participants grouped around a corpse, the other with ‘only’ six people standing in front of the skeleton of an executed English pirate.
Social commitment of the bourgeois elite
In contrast, almost all social, welfare and disciplinary institutions, such as almshouses and orphanages, retirement homes and hospitals, as well as penitentiaries for men and women, are represented, with the exhibition itself focussing on a few selected institutions. These paintings reflect the social commitment of the bourgeois elite. As regents, members of the upper classes took care of the management of these institutions in accordance with their Protestant understanding of faith — but also of maintaining the public image of these honorary posts.
The residents of the facilities, on the other hand, could not afford their own portraits. They also had no use for such pictures. The aim of the exhibition is also to show this other side of the city, so those people who lived in difficult social circumstances.
Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy, The Regents of the Spinhuis, 1626/28
Golden times with a question mark
This is also the reason the exhibition title ends with a question mark. Traditionally, the 17th century is regarded as the ‘Golden Age’. However, this understanding has become fragile in the Netherlands.
Jochen Sander, deputy director of the Städel and curator of the exhibition, explains the attempt to therefore “also give — at least indirect — visual representation to those who lived in these institutions and who nevertheless do not appear at all in the group portraits, or if they do, then only in shadowy and typified form, literally on the (pictorial) margins”. Sander added that in order to visualise some of the people who were not considered worthy of being portrayed in their time, the artists had “played with the boundaries” and resorted to works that were not strictly speaking portraits.
Paintings from the Aalmozenierhuis and the diaconal orphanage in particular are directly connected to the older, still Catholic pictorial tradition of “works of mercy”, as can be seen in a painting by Pieter Aertsen. They depict scenes from everyday life, such as the distribution of clothing and food, as well as home visits to the needy sick. The needy are only shown in a standardised form. Incidentally, over 200 years later, Max Liebermann created another painting of an orphanage.
Jan Victors, The clothing of the orphan children in the diaconal’s orphanage, 1659/60
Rembrandt's view of social outsiders
The contrast in the exhibition is therefore set by Rembrandt’s prints — if only due to their formats of just a few centimetres in some cases. Rembrandt captured Amsterdam’s beggars, sick people, street vendors and street musicians on paper with an extraordinary eye for reality. The etchings by Rembrandt and his collaborators of the corpse of Elsje Christiaens, who was executed in 1664 for manslaughter in the heat of passion and put on public display, are touching.
As emphasised by Sylvia von Metzler, Chairwoman of the Board of the Städel museum association e.V., it shows “Rembrandt as a brilliant storyteller, Rembrandt as an outstanding portraitist and as an incorruptible observer of social reality”. A look at Rembrandt’s life confirms this, as his glamorous beginnings were followed by a fall into bankruptcy and artistic isolation. For the Städel museum association, supporting the exhibition is the highlight of the association’s 125th anniversary.
Information
The exhibition at the Städel Museum is open until 23 March 2025, Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 am to 6 pm (Thursdays until 9 pm), with special opening hours at Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The extensive educational programme naturally includes guided tours, a catalogue and the free Digitorial, sponsored by Deutsche Börse Group. More information at www.staedelmuseum.de.
Text and photos: Dr Wolfgang Gerhardt. Most of the photos show details of the respective artwork.
