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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

New Galleries of Dutch and Flemish Art

Nov 20, 2021 – July 1, 2022
465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA

Seven recently renovated galleries are now home to the M.F.A.’s collection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art. In the 1600s, the Netherlands emerged as a center of global commerce: new people, new ideas, and new goods came into the country. To examine a culture in flux, the nearly 100 paintings on view in these M.F.A. galleries (works by Anthony van Dyck, Frans Hals, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Peter Paul Rubens among them)—along with drawings, ceramics, and silver pieces—are grouped thematically. From rooms dedicated to women artists and patrons, to still life paintings and the sugar trade, the galleries track the influence of commerce on art. This opening also marks the beginning of the museum’s Center for Netherlandish Art, which is dedicated to researching Dutch and Netherlandish work. —J.D.

Carel Fabritius, “Mercury and Aglauros,” 1622–1654. Courtesy of M.F.A. Boston.