ARThound talks with the van Otterloo’s about their collection of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters at the Legion of Honor through October 2, 2011

Gerrit Dou’s still life “Sleeping Dog” (1650), oil on panel, is just one of the van Otterloo treasures on display at the Legion of Honor through October 2, 2011. Measuring just 6½ x 8½ in. (16.5 x 21.6 cm), it exhibits such life-like brush strokes that you can see every hair along the dog’s back, hind quarters. This tender depiction of a sleeping mutt is clearly inspired by a Rembrandt etching, also on display at the Legion. Image Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“Crème de la crème” best describes the exquisite private collection of over 60 Old Master paintings now on display at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor through October 2, 2011.  Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection includes Rembrandt’s important Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh, Aged 62, and works by Jan Brueghal the Elder, Gerrit Dou, Franz Hals, Jacob van Rusidal, Hendrick Avercamp, and Jan Steen to name few.   What? You’ve never heard of the van Otterloos?    Rose-Marie and Eijk, originally from Belgium and the Netherlands respectively, and long term residents of Marblehead, Mass., are a rarity in flashy and boastful art world and have for the past 20 years been quietly amassing a collection of the finest exemplars of the Dutch Golden Age—paintings that are exceptional for their quality, condition, historical interest—and that speaks for itself.   The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo collection excels in every genre: portraits, still life, historical paintings, city, land and seascapes, and important works by female artists.  The collection comes to San Francisco from a tour that originated in Holland at the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis (Het Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen, in The Hague, and continued nationally at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts and will conclude in November, 2011, at the Fine Arts Museum of Houston.