CLEVELAND, OH.- The Cleveland Museum of Art today announced the opening of its reimagined Northern European galleries (213–15) featuring art of the Netherlands, Germany, Central Europe, and France from about 1600 to 1725. The completely redesigned galleries feature a selection of beloved masterworks from the permanent collection as well as several important new acquisitions on view for the first time. The installation also explores the context in which these works might originally have been displayed: an upper-middle-class Dutch home; an ecclesiastical setting, such as a church or private chapel; and an aristocratic French collection. The re-installation of the Northern European galleries is made possible with support from the newly created Sally and Sandy Cutler Strategic Opportunities Fund, established by CMA trustee Sally Cutler and her husband, Sandy Cutler.

“The refurbishment of our Northern European galleries is an exciting initiative undertaken in connection with our new strategic plan, which calls for us to reimagine the installation of selected galleries in the coming years,” said William Griswold, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. “Featuring significant recent acquisitions, the renovated spaces have a fresh, new look and will enrich our visitors’ experience by provide them with greater context.”

The Harold C. Schott Foundation Gallery (213) focuses on the types of paintings and decorative arts that might have been found in the home of a wealthy Dutch family around 1650. Much of the art produced and collected during this period consisted of portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and genre scenes. New acquisitions on display for the first time include Dirck van Baburen’s Violin Player with a Wine Glass and Jacob van Hulsdonck’s Still Life with Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Fruit. Acquired in June 2018, Violin Player with a Wine Glass depicts an exuberant figure who seems to burst into the room with an infectious smile. Jacob van Hulsdonck’s colorful and enticing Still Life with Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Fruit, acquired in December 2018 as generous gift from Janice Hammond and CMA trustee Edward Hemmelgarn, is among the largest and most elaborate of the artist’s table-top still lifes. The global reach of the Dutch mercantile and seafaring empires is suggested in the presence of blue-and-white ceramics imported to the Netherlands from China and Japan, as well as the local Delft earthenware they inspired. Evocative landscapes by Jan van Goyen, Meindert Hobbema, Jacob van Ruisdael, and their contemporaries celebrate the subtle pleasures of the Dutch countryside. The new installation also incorporates a number of works that had previously been in storage, emphasizing the richness and depth of the CMA’s collection.

“The new paintings by Baburen and Hulsdonck enliven the CMA’s already outstanding collection of seventeenth-century Netherlandish art,” said Marjorie E. Wieseman, Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. Curator of European Paintings and Sculpture, 1500–1800, and chair of European art from classical antiquity to 1800. “They’re colorful, dynamic, and demonstrate the incredible quality and diversity of painting in the Netherlands during the so-called ‘Golden Age,’ when artists were continually inventing new themes and new approaches to appeal to discerning collectors.”

In the Walter and Jean Kalberer Foundation Gallery (214), the museum’s remarkable collection of wood sculpture from Germany and Central Europe is on display, with the presentation refined to provide a clearer understanding of the works’ original setting in chapels, churches, and devotional spaces. Also featured here is another important recent acquisition: a vivid and dynamic painting on copper of Christ’s resurrection by Johann König, the most important artist active in Augsburg and Nuremburg in the early 1600s.

The Samuel Rosenthal Family Gallery (215) has similarly been reconfigured and features a new, historic wall color and a new arrangement of works to evoke the private spaces inhabited by the French aristocracy during the period around 1725. The esteemed royal cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle is represented with a stunning cabinet, richly ornamented with his signature technique of metal marquetry (brass or pewter inlaid on tortoiseshell) and gilt-bronze mounts. A remarkable suite of furnishings from the Savonnerie textile manufactory is represented by a magnificent wall hanging and four upholstered chairs. The suite, ordered as a royal gift to honor the marriage of two noble families, depicts the four seasons, scenes from ancient fables, and the coats of arms of two families. Complementing the decorative arts is a selection of paintings that probably once adorned the homes and palaces of French aristocrats. These works include flamboyant portraits like that of Cardinal Guillaume Dubois by Hyacinthe Rigaud; elegant historical or mythological scenes, like Jean François de Troy’s sensual depiction of Pan and Syrinx; and a selection of fine seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, which were highly valued and assiduously collected by elite French connoisseurs.

“The combination of extraordinary furniture, silver and paintings against a rich, historically accurate color creates an ambiance of luxury and refinement typical of courtly circles in the time of Louis XIV, the great ‘Sun King’ of France,” said Stephen Harrison, curator of decorative art and design. “These galleries once again sing with full voice!”