The Leiden Collection, the most important private collection of Rembrandt School paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, is named after the city of Leiden, the birthplace of Rembrandt.
This catalog is the first to highlight more than thirty of The Leiden Collection's masterpieces executed by some of the greatest artists of the seventeenth century. This survey comprises ten paintings by Rembrandt himself and an additional beautiful oil sketch recently attributed to the Master, as well as numerous paintings never before exhibited in France. Brilliant examples abound of the most famous Leiden "fine painters," Gerrit Dou and Frans van Mieris, in addition to masterworks by Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Carel Fabritius, and Jan Lievens.

Outstanding among the images and stories is that of a masterpiece by Ferdinand Bol, one of Rembrandt's greatest pupils: Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well. This painting, generously donated by Thomas S. Kaplan and Daphne Recanati Kaplan, is the first gift by Americans of a Dutch painting to The Louvre.