Family business

Painting Family: The De Brays, Master Painters of 17th Century Holland
Dulwich Picture Gallery, until 5 October


Cecil Collins — A Centenary Exhibition
Monnow Valley Arts Centre, Middle Hunt House, Walterstone, Nr Abergavenny, Herefordshire, until 14 September

I must say I admire museums and galleries that put on exhibitions devoted to the revival of lost reputations, in other words to a genuine spirit of reassessment. In these revenue-dominated days, exhibition organisers are driven increasingly in the direction of guaranteed best-sellers, and the crop of predictable subjects on the gallery circuit grows apace. So it is refreshing to be greeted by a relatively unknown name, and have a whole exhibition attached to it. I am an admirer of Dutch painting of the Golden Age — within certain limits. I can quickly surfeit on a diet of richly detailed still-life paintings and genre scenes. In a mixed exhibition, the Dutch tend to fare worst. In last week’s review of Love, the summer display at the National Gallery, for instance, the Dutch contingent didn’t get a look in, though in passing I was interested to note that the pale profile of Leah in Hendrick Ter Brugghen’s ‘Jacob reproaching Laban’ was strongly reminiscent of Balthus.