Amsterdam 750: Rembrandt Home Again

The question has echoed repeatedly over the past few years—and just last week again: “How did the love for Rembrandt begin?” The answer is always the same: “When my parents asked me where I wanted to go on my first trip to Europe, I said Amsterdam. They asked why, and I said, because that’s where Rembrandt lived.”

This glimpse into the story of renowned art collector Thomas Kaplan reveals a lifelong passion that began at age six, when he first encountered a Rembrandt painting at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Today, Kaplan and his wife Daphne possess one of the most impressive private collections of Dutch masters—a true “art bank” that museums worldwide frequently turn to.

Entrance to the exhibition “From Rembrandt to Vermeer”, H’Art Museum Amsterdam. photo: Claudia Marcu

In just two decades, Kaplan has amassed 250 paintings and drawings by celebrated 17th-century artists such as Pieter Codde, Frans Mieris, Caspar Netscher, Gerrit Dou, and Jan Steen. At the heart of this collection lies Rembrandt himself, whose works form the largest private holding of the master’s art in the world. Aptly named after Rembrandt’s birthplace, The Leiden Collection has become a beacon for scholars and enthusiasts alike.

To mark Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary, 75 pieces from The Leiden Collection—including 18 Rembrandts—are on display at the H’Art Museum until August 24. This generous loan is both a privilege and a statement, as Kaplan himself acknowledged. Journalists seemed equally captivated by the exhibition and the fact that Kaplan guided the tour personally. It raises an intriguing question: is this a celebration of the city, or a showcase of the collection?

Having covered Kaplan’s collection two years ago, this article focuses on the exhibition itself—an event not to be missed. Rarely do so many Rembrandts appear together in one place. The curators carefully selected works to tell part of Amsterdam’s 17th-century story, but the narrative also reaches beyond city limits to other artistic centers of the era such as Haarlem, Utrecht, Delft, Dordrecht, and The Hague.

Woman with White Bonnet, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1640, photo: The Leiden Collection

The exhibition’s themes spotlight daily life and the citizens of these cities, whether familiar names or anonymous figures like Woman with White Bonnet, the first Rembrandt painting Kaplan acquired. “She was the first, and the first is never forgotten,” Kaplan said.

The show opens with expressive characters from Rembrandt’s universe, followed by portraits of Amsterdam’s elite figures, lesser known internationally but pivotal to the city’s history. Among these is a striking 1629 self-portrait by Jan Lievens, Rembrandt’s early friend and collaborator from Leiden. It echoes the words of Constantijn Huygens, secretary to the Prince of Orange, who praised Lievens’ mastery of portraiture a year earlier: “Lievens works wonders when painting the human face.”

“Selfportrait”, Jan Lievens, 1629, The Leiden Collection 

Lievens’ self-portrait is featured in the “Picturing the Artist” section, alongside self-portraits by Rembrandt’s students including Gerrit Dou, Govert Flinck, and Ferdinand Bol.

The exhibition also ventures beyond Amsterdam’s borders with the “Fashioning Identities” section, exploring identity formation across Dutch society. Here, works by Frans Hals in Haarlem, Gerard ter Borch in Deventer, Gerrit Dou and Frans van Mieris in Leiden, and Caspar Netscher in The Hague, demonstrate the era’s rich artistic diversity.

The exhibition culminates with Johannes Vermeer’s “Young Woman Seated at a Virginal,” the sole Vermeer painting in Kaplan’s collection. While undoubtedly a masterpiece, its connection to Amsterdam’s history is tenuous at best. Nevertheless, Vermeer’s name is part of the exhibition’s title: “From Rembrandt to Vermeer.”

Whether curators Birgit Boelens of H’Art Museum and Elizabeth Nogrady of The Leiden Collection have fully captured Amsterdam’s history is left for visitors to decide. Personally, I was thrilled to encounter several extraordinary works and to revisit a Rembrandt I fell in love with two years ago: the delicate “Bust of an Old Man with a Beard,” painted on paper mounted on wood.

„Bust of an Old Man with a Beard”, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633, The Leiden Collection, photo: Claudia Marcu

This small painting—no larger than the palm of your hand—is displayed in a special case with a remarkable story shared by Kaplan himself. Once owned by American collector Andrew Mellon, founder of the National Gallery of Art, Mellon donated his entire collection except for this Rembrandt, which he refused to part with. To keep it close during his travels, Mellon commissioned a special case for the painting. It was his personal icon.

“This was a painting I desired greatly,” Kaplan confided, “and after many years, I convinced the owner to sell it. It’s still in the same case, but now it no longer travels with me. In fact, our entire collection doesn’t live with us.”