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paintings by Thomas de Keyser, Gerard Honthorst and Hendrik Avercamp that together introduce several different genres – portraiture, still life and nature. Room 7 contains several superb canvases by Frans Hals (1582–1666), most notably his Merry Drinker and the expansive Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix Laen. Relaxing beneath a tree, a portly Isaac glows with contentment as his new wife sits beside him in a suitably demure manner. An intimate scene, the painting also carries a detailed iconography; the ivy at Beatrix’s feet symbolizes her devotion to her husband, the thistle faithfulness, the vine togetherness and in the fantasy garden behind them the peacock is a classical allusion to Juno, the guardian of marriage. In the same room, look out for the cool church interiors of Pieter Saenredam (1597–1665), whose Old Town Hall of Amsterdam is a characteristically precise work in which the tumbledown predecessor of the current building (now the Royal Palace) witnesses the comings and goings of black-hatted townsmen in the stilted manner of a Lowry.

In Room 8, examples of the work of Salomon van Ruysdael (1602–70) – a Haarlem artist with a penchant for soft, tonal river scenes – share space with the brightly coloured canvases of Pieter Lastman (1583–1633). Lastman’s most famous apprentice was Rembrandt and there are examples of the great man’s early work here in this room too, most notably his portrait of Maria Trip, an Amsterdam oligarch kitted out in her pearls and gold lace finery. Room 8 also features some of the work of Rembrandt’s better-known pupils, including Nicholas Maes (1632–93), whose caring Young Woman by the Cradle is not so much a didactic tableau as an idealization of motherhood. Another pupil, Ferdinand Bol (1616–80), painted Portrait of Elizabeth Bas in a style so close to that of his master that it was regarded as a Rembrandt until the director of the museum proved otherwise in 1911. Perhaps the most talented of Rembrandt’s pupils was Carel Fabritius, who was killed in 1654 at the age of 32, when Delft’s gunpowder magazine exploded. His Portrait of Abraham Potter, a restrained, skilful work of soft, delicate hues, contrasts with the same artist’s earlier The Beheading of St John the Baptist, in which the head is served on a platter in chillingly grisly style.

The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark | Museumplein | The Rijksmuseum |

Room 9

Room 9 has several fine examples of Rembrandt’s later work, notably the celebrated Members of the Clothmakers Guild and a late Self-Portrait, with the artist caught in mid-shrug as the Apostle Paul, a self-aware and defeated old man. Also here are the artist’s touching depiction of his cowled son, Titus, and The Jewish Bride, one of his very last pictures, finished in 1667. No one knows who the couple are, nor whether they are actually married (the title came later), but the painting is one of Rembrandt’s most telling, the paint dashed on freely and the hands touching lovingly – as the art historian Kenneth Clark wrote, in “a marvellous amalgam of richness, tenderness and trust”. In marked contrast to these paintings are a number of landscapes by Jan van Goyen and Jacob van Ruisdael.

The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark | Museumplein | The Rijksmuseum |

Rooms 10 and 11

Room 10 holds some examples of the small, finely realized works of Gerard Dou (1613–75) and Gabriel Metsu (1625–67), flashes of everyday life that sit well with the work of Johannes Vermeer (1632–75). The latter is well represented; The Love Letter reveals a tension between servant and mistress – the lute on the woman’s lap was a well-known sexual symbol – while The Kitchen Maid is an exquisitely observed domestic scene, right down to the nail – and its shadow – on the background wall. Similarly, in the precise Young Woman Reading a Letter, the map behind her hints at the far-flung places her loved one is writing from. What you won’t get, however, is Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring – this is on display in the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague. Gerard ter Borch (1617–81) also depicted apparently