The Leiden Collection

Founded by Thomas S. Kaplan and Daphne Recanati Kaplan, The Leiden Collection is among the largest and most important collections of seventeenth-century Dutch art in private hands. Named in honor of the city where Rembrandt van Rijn was born and began his artistic career, The Leiden Collection comprises history paintings, genre scenes, and portraits produced from the mid-1620s until around 1700. It has extraordinary depth and breadth in paintings by Leiden artists, ranging from some of the most outstanding works by fine painters (fijnschilders) Gerrit Dou and Frans van Mieris to masterpieces by Rembrandt and Jan Lievens, who moved on to other artistic centers early in their careers. The Collection also contains paintings by Rembrandt’s pupils and assistants in Amsterdam, including Govaert Flinck, Ferdinand Bol, and Carel Fabritius, in addition to important works by Frans Hals, Gabriel Metsu, Jan Steen, and Johannes Vermeer.

Since its founding over fifteen years ago, The Leiden Collection has served as a “lending library” of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art, having made loans to more than 75 major museums in Europe, the United States, and Japan. The Collection’s inaugural traveling exhibition commenced at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, in 2017, and continued over the next two years to institutions in China, Russia, and the Middle East, including the National Museum of China, the State Hermitage Museum, and Louvre Abu Dhabi. These exhibitions, which marked the first occasion that highlights of The Leiden Collection were presented together to the public, explored the Collection’s distinctive character and scope, as well as the multifaceted relationships among its artists.

In 2017, The Leiden Collection published its inaugural Online Catalogue, edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., which explores the Collection through scholarly entries of more than 175 paintings and drawings, artist biographies, and essays. With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars, the catalogue illuminates the major artists and themes of The Leiden Collection, which represents one of the richest periods of artistic creativity in European Art.

The selected highlights of the Collection shown below are linked to their respective entries in The Leiden Collection Catalogue. To explore further, please visit The Leiden Collection's website.