The Golden Age of Dutch Painting continues to fascinate historians and public alike. Hundreds of thousands of tourists each year visit the great museums of the Netherlands, such as the Rijksmuseum, the Mauritshuis, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, the Frans Halsmuseum and the Amsterdam Historical Museum. Paintings by artists such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Vermeer, Ruysdael, Jan Steen, Nicolaes Maes, Emanuel de Witte and Vincent van Gogh, remain as compelling for the modern viewer as for their contemporary audiences.

In a rare opportunity, one hundred works by some of these great artists and others, from the collections of the great Dutch museums, will be exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery on the occasion of the city's centenary in 1986.

The Dutch world of painting is not a 'survey' exhibition presenting unrelated works. It is carefully selected, curated specifically for the Vancouver context, leading us through the fascinating corridors of Dutch society from the 1540s to the time of Vancouver's founding in the 1880s.

We explore the art world and its links to government as well as the world of trade and commerce. We learn that the outpouring of creative activity that marked Dutch society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can be directly related to waves of immigration at that time.

Guest curator and art historian Gary Schwartz presents Dutch painting of this period, and its familiar masterworks, in a new and intriguing light. The worlds of government, religion, trade, learning and entertainment, were not merely visual sources for the painter. They gave the work its meaning and its market.

The Dutch world of painting, a special collaboration between the Netherlands Office for Fine Arts (Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst) and the Vancouver Art Gallery, brings the history of Dutch culture vividly to life.

It is appropriate that this collaboration should take place on the occasion of Vancouver's Centenary. The British explorer, Captain Vancouver, after whom the city was named, was of Dutch descent, his ancestral home, Coevorden.

As in seventeenth-century Holland, the vitality of Vancouver's cultural life during the past hundred years can be traced to waves of immigration interacting with a powerful indigenous culture. Indeed, one of Vancouver's largest and most active immigrant communities is from the Netherlands.

During the research for this exhibition, we learnt that this is the second centennial collaboration between Dutch museums and a Vancouver fine arts institution. In 1958, on the centenary of the founding of British Columbia, the Fine Arts Gallery at the University of British Columbia hosted The changing landscape of Holland for the Vancouver International Festival. Ninety drawings and watercolours were presented by artists such as Cuyp, van Gogh, van der Heyden, Rembrandt and Ruysdael.

Nearly thirty years later the Vancouver Art Gallery was able to expand on this project, further strengthening the cultural ties between Canada and the Netherlands.

An exhibition of this complexity would not have been possible without extraordinary effort, especially by the Director of the Netherlands Office for Fine Arts, Robert de Haas, and his staff. We are indebted to them and to the lenders to the exhibition for sharing with us The Dutch world of painting.

I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of His Worship, Mayor Michael Harcourt, Chairman of the Vancouver Centennial Commission, who has nurtured this exhibition since its inception; Mr. Bonar Lund, President of the Board of Trustees of the Vancouver Art Gallery, who worked tirelessly to ensure the exhibition became a reality, and Minister of Communications Marcel Masse, for supporting the exhibition through the Government of Canada's Insurance Program for Travelling Exhibitions.

Finally, I would like to express our particular appreciation to the sponsors of this exhibition, klm Royal Dutch Airlines, whose generous support has ensured a Centennial Celebration worthy of the occasion.

Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker
Director
Vancouver Art Gallery