Author Description

The Harold Samuel Collection, comprising eighty-flour seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, has been described as the finest private collection of such works to be formed in Britain this century. It includes paintings by such masters as Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael and Nicolaes Maes, acquired by Lord Samuel for his personal pleasure and to hang in his home, Wych Cross. The Collection was bequeathed to the Corporation of London in 1987 to be hung permanently. In the Lord Mayor's residence, Mansion House. The refurbishment of Mansion House has provided the unique opportunity for an exhibition tour, during which the Harold Samuel Collection will be seen by many for the very first time. Coinciding with the exhibition, a complete catalogue of the Collection has been compiled by an acknowledged expert, Peter C. Sutton. Dr Sutton is well known for his many publications in this field and through exhibition such as Masters of. Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, shown in Philadelphia, Berlin and at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1984, and Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, shown in Amsterdam, Boston and Philadelphia in 1987-8. This book is not simply the catalogue of an exhibition; it is the permanent record of a small but extremely important collection of paintings and one which will be of great interest to art lovers and scholars alike.