The Hermitage collection of Dutch painting consists of more than 1,000 items, among them some of the most important works in the museum. The exhibition of Dutch artists' works occupies six rooms in the New Hermitage, the largest of them, the Tent Hall, containing an excellent display of 17th-century genre works by leading masters: landscapes by Jan van Goyen and Jacob van Ruisdael, genre pictures by Jan Steen, Gerald ter Borch, Pieter de Hooch, Adriaen, and Isaac van Ostade, animal paintings by Paulus Potter, probably the greatest representative of this genre, still lifes by Willem Claesz Heda and Willem Kalf.
One of the most prominent and daring Dutch artists of the period, Frans Hals, is represented by two marvellous works: Portrait of a Young Man with a Glove in His Hand (about 1659) and Portrait of a Man (before 1660).
Over 20 works by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, one of the greatest artists in the history of world art, hang in a special room devoted to him and his pupils. The master's portraits, compositions on mythological and biblical subjects, enable us to trace all the stages in his career, from his early canvases through to his last works. Among early notable works by Rembrandt are Flora (1634), and The Descent from the Cross (1634), and Abraham's Sacrifice (1635). The first painting by Rembrandt to be brought to Russia by Peter I was David and Jonathan (1642); with Danae (1636/1640s) and The Holy Family (1645) it forms a group of masterpiece from the artist's late period. The last two decades of Rembrandt's life are represented by such prominent works as Portrait of an Old Man in Red (1652-1654) and The Return of the Prodigal Son (1668-1669).
