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EXHIBITION

Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer

Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer

Detail from Vermeer's Music Lesson
This exhibition is in the past. View our current exhibitions.
  • This event is in the past
    Daily (Friday, 4 Mar 2016 - Saturday, 23 Jul 2016)

The Dutch artists of the seventeenth century painted ordinary people doing everyday things. They offer us a glimpse into the rumbustious life of village taverns and peasant cottages, and the quiet domesticity of courtyards and parlours.

While the subject­-matter may be ordinary – the preparation of food, eating and drinking, the enjoyment of music or a family game – the painting is rich and jewel-like, with equal attention paid to a discarded clay pipe as to a fine silk drape. The meticulously documented details often allude to a work's deeper meaning or to moral messages that would have been familiar to the contemporary viewer. Presenting 28 masterpieces from the Royal Collection, the exhibition includes works by Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Jan Steen and Pieter de Hooch, and Johannes Vermeer's A Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman

Exhibition Highlights

    School sessions

    Early & 1st Levels
    I Spy Through the Masters of the Everyday

    Your class will explore the Masters of the Everyday exhibition through a game of I Spy - focusing on the objects and colours

    3rd & 4th Levels, Senior Phase
    Double Dutch: Decoding Symbolism in Art

    This session focuses on the symbolism of objects in the paintings of Masters of the Everyday .

    2nd, 3rd & 4th Levels
    Characters of the Everyday: A Creative Writing Workshop

    Pupils work with their own author in this Creative Writing Workshop

    2nd, 3rd & 4th Levels
    Telling Stories Without Words

    Pupils will explore how the objects represented in the paintings of Masters of the Everyday can be used to help tell a story.


    The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.