Auckland Castle hosts rare European masterpieces

1st July 2024

An intriguing new exhibition opening at Auckland Castle this summer will unveil rarely seen European masterpieces. 

From 6 July, paintings by Dutch and Flemish masters such as Rembrandt, David Teniers and Paulus Potter will feature alongside Spanish, French and Italian works in an exhibition that illuminates the surprising connections between artistic communities across the continent in the seventeenth century. 

The exhibition will take place in the Bishop Trevor Gallery, the sumptuous private apartments created by eighteenth-century Bishop of Durham, Richard Trevor. Known as ‘Saint Durham’, the bishop had a reputation for piety, but also enjoyed the finer things in life. He was an avid collector of art with a personal fortune which allowed him to indulge his passion. In 1756 he purchased the series of paintings of Jacob and his Twelve Sons by Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664) which still hang in the Long Dining Room at the castle today.  

Taking the Zurbarán paintings as a starting point, the new exhibition will lead visitors on a tour through seventeenth-century Europe showcasing works of art created by Zurbarán’s contemporaries. Still lifes of glistening fish will contrast with large-scale Biblical paintings and tiny scenes of everyday life in the Low Countries, giving a flavour of the differing national and regional schools of painting, while exploring their shared influences. 

“In an age before modern technology and modern transport, it is easy to assume that artists worked in isolation from their counterparts in the rest of Europe.” says Clare Baron, Head of Curatorial at The Auckland Project. “The reality was very different. The most successful artists of the seventeenth century were well travelled, moving between cities and across borders to seek work or fulfil commissions for powerful patrons. And if they could not travel themselves, artists exchanged ideas through prints, books, and letters.” 

“Many took the opportunity to seek inspiration whilst abroad, studying the works of art that filled the palaces of Europe: be that the collection of Philip IV in his new palace of Buen Retiro outside Madrid, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II in Prague, King Louis XIV in Paris or the great collections of popes and cardinals in and around Rome.” 

The European Masterpieces exhibition will open on July 6 and run until October 6. 

The Auckland Project tells the remarkable story of Bishop Auckland, from the powerful Prince Bishops of Durham to the town’s surprising connection to the Golden Age of Spanish Art.