<P> While Dutch portrait painting avoids the swagger and excessive rhetoric of the aristocratic Baroque portraiture current in the rest of 17th - century Europe, the sombre clothing of male and in many cases female sitters, and the Calvinist feeling that the inclusion of props, possessions or views of land in the background would show the sin of pride leads to an undeniable sameness in many Dutch portraits, for all their technical quality . Even a standing pose is usually avoided, as a full - length might also show pride . Poses are undemonstrative, especially for women, though children may be allowed more freedom . The classic moment for having a portrait painted was upon marriage, when the new husband and wife more often than not occupied separate frames in a pair of paintings . Rembrandt's later portraits compel by force of characterization, and sometimes a narrative element, but even his early portraits can be dispiriting en masse, as in the roomful of' starter Rembrandts' donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York . </P> <P> The other great portraitist of the period is Frans Hals, whose famously lively brushwork and ability to show sitters looking relaxed and cheerful adds excitement to even the most unpromising subjects . The extremely "nonchalant pose" of his portrait of Willem Heythuijsen is exceptional: "no other portrait from this period is so informal". The sitter was a wealthy textile merchant who had already commissioned Hals' only individual life - sized full - length portrait ten years before . In this much smaller work for a private chamber he wears riding clothes . Jan de Bray encouraged his sitters to pose costumed as figures from classical history, but many of his works are of his own family . Thomas de Keyser, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Ferdinand Bol and others, including many mentioned below as history or genre painters, did their best to enliven more conventional works . Portraiture, less affected by fashion than other types of painting, remained the safe fallback for Dutch artists . </P> <P> From what little we know of the studio procedures of artists, it seems that, as elsewhere in Europe, the face was probably drawn and perhaps painted at an initial sitting or two . The typical number of further sittings is unclear - between zero (for a Rembrandt full - length) and 50 appear documented . The clothes were left at the studio and might well be painted by assistants, or a bought in specialist master, although, or because, they were regarded as a very important part of the painting . Married and never - married women can be distinguished by their dress, highlighting how few single women were painted, except in family groups . As elsewhere, the accuracy of the clothes shown is variable - striped and patterned clothes were worn, but artists rarely show them, understandably avoiding the extra work . Lace and ruff collars were unavoidable, and presented a formidable challenge to painters intent on realism . Rembrandt evolved a more effective way of painting patterned lace, laying in broad white stokes, and then painting lightly in black to show the pattern . Another way of doing this was to paint in white over a black layer, and scratch off the white with the end of the brush to show the pattern . </P> <P> At the end of the century there was a fashion for showing sitters in a semi-fancy dress, begun in England by van Dyck in the 1630s, known as "picturesque" or "Roman" dress . Aristocratic, and militia, sitters allowed themselves more freedom in bright dress and expansive settings than burghers, and religious affiliations probably affected many depictions . By the end of the century aristocratic, or French, values were spreading among the burghers, and depictions were allowed more freedom and display . </P>

Who is considered the most important painter in the netherlands in the seventeenth century