Room 26

A Gift to the National Gallery: Willem Baron van Dedem

Assembled in this room are four works that have been given to the Gallery by Willem Baron van Dedem (1929–2015). 

Baron van Dedem started collecting Old Masters in 1963. Through his expertise he managed to assemble one of the most important private collections of Dutch and Flemish paintings in Britain. From 1997 Van Dedem was the president of the Board of The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) at Maastricht. He also served on the Board of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, partly named after his great uncle whose collection it houses, and on the Board of the Vereniging Rembrandt, which supports acquisitions for Dutch museums.

It was the wish of Baron van Dedem that the four paintings on display here would one day complement the National Gallery’s collection. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to him and his family for this very generous gift.

The room also contains a display of smaller works by Rembrandt and his school.