Between the late nineteenth century and the 1930s, P.A.B. Widener and Andrew Mellon donated numerous seventeenth century Dutch masterpieces to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. As a result, the Gallery has one of the best collections of seventeenth century Dutch art in the world. In 2014, curator Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. made the collection available online. Visitors to this online collection can browse over 100 paintings, including works by Rembrandt Van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer. In addition, the website includes a video interview with Wheelock about how the Gallery has continued to grow and curate this impressive collection. Wheelock notes that Widener and Mellon believed that the years 1630-1660 comprised the apex of seventeenth century Dutch art, ignoring work produced during the early or latter years of the seventeenth century. Furthermore, these donors overlooked still lives and maritime paintings, two important artistic movements. In the past few decades, the Gallery has made an effort to incorporate additional diversity into its collection, providing visitors with a more complete representation of Dutch art in the seventeenth century.
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