Dutch Masters From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Exhibition themes:
Genre painting

The word 'genre' is often used in a general way, to denote various types of painting, such as a still life, portrait, history painting or even a genre piece itself. In the latter sense, the term 'genre painting' refers to works in which people are portrayed as they go about their everyday activities in and around the house, in the tavern, or at work. Although many seventeenth-century Dutch genre pieces appear to be painted from life, they were actually done in the artist's studio. In many – but not all – cases, a moral message lies hidden within a seemingly realistic genre piece, which is not always easy to unravel. The tremendous popularity of these paintings in the seventeenth century suggests that people took considerable pleasure in solving these riddles, while revelling in the paintings' artistic qualities and the often amusing scenes depicted by artists. Some portraits from this period also have a genre-like quality, and in many of these works, there is more going on than immediately meets the eye.