Louvre

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All great names of the Dutch painting are presented in the Dutch painting galleries. JEROME BOSCH, with a panel of end 15th century "La Nef des Fous", an almost surrealistic allegory where the "vices of time " are stigmatised. LUCAS VAN LEYDE with a fantastic landscape 

Bohemian (Frans Hals)

"Loth and his daughters", prefiguring, the Dutch "luminism" of next century. And what about FRANS HALS, with a strong character portrait "The Bohemian" (1628), almost like a Caravaggio picture in all its boldness and liberty.
The chouchou of all art lovers, Johannes VERMEER van Delft, with "La Dentellière" (1664) where the serenity of domestic life is wonderfully expressed by the subtle perfection of light, the colourand the exceptional touch "Vermeer".  

The Louvre obtained another Vermeer, by legacy duty giving, "The Astronome" in 1983. Another major masterwork.
Next one of the greatest landscape painters,JACOB VAN RUYSDAEL but it is mainly an impressive REMBRANDT series that is the glory of the Louvre's Dutch collection. Portraits, self-portraits like the very moving one, when the artist is about 54 years old (1660), represented as a broken man, mined by grief, ruin and solitude, but still confident in his art. Biblical scenes like the famous "Emmaus Pilgrims" (1648) where the magic of "clearly obscure" (clair-obscur) is used in a masterly way to show the simplicity of the composition with a rarely obtained intensity, to represent a divine presence.

Self portrait at 54 (Rembrandt)

And what about this "Bethsabée" (1654) holding a letter where David Hamelekh declares her his love. It's one of the rare nudes by Rembrandt and the model was no less then his second wife, Hendrikje Stoffels. 
The German collection is more modest, but has some important and glorious pieces of the end of the 16th century. A self-portrait by DURER when he was 22 years old, a very seducing "Venus " (1529) by LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER, and one of the most famous portrayers HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER made of this great Dutch humanist, "Erasmus"(1523).

As short and small the English collection may be in the Louvre, it is brilliantly represented by 18th century portraits by JOSHUA REYNOLDS, founder of theRoyal Academy, and his rival THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH. For the 19th century some romantic landscapes by John Constable, Bonnington and Joseph M.W. TURNER. 
 Before attacking the important Italian section, lets finish here with Spain. One of the most typical EL GRECO's is "Christ on the Cross" (1580), a typical witness of the Spanish "golden age" is the "Club-foot" by RIBERA (1642), a splendid ZURBARAN, "Funerailles de Bonaventure" (1630), a "Young beggar" by MURILLO, the "Infante Margarita" attributed to VELASQUEZ. Finally a few portraits by GOYA of which the wonderful "Marquise de Solana"(1791-1794) 

Bibliography

The Louvre, Seven Faces of a Museum-The Louvre (Collection Guides Gallimard)-Dawn of the Golden Age : Northern Netherlands Art 1580-1620 by Ariane Van Suchtelen (1994) -The Rustic Landscape from Breughel to Ruisdael, by Walter S. Gibson-German and French Paintings of fifteenth and sixteenth Centuries by Julien Chapuis (June 1997)-Romantic Horizons : Aspects of the Sublime in English Poetry and Painting, 1770-1850 by James B. Twitchell-The double lives of Francisco de Goya by Noel Bertram Gerson.