Frits Lugt was mainly a collector of works on paper, but the paintings currently on display in the rooms of the Hôtel Turgot are equally representative of his taste and his talent. Unlike his collection of drawings, which also highlights the work of Italian and French artists, his paintings are almost exclusively Flemish and Dutch. Frits Lugt was not only a canny collector, he was also an excellent art historian, whose publications are still works of reference. The paintings he acquired are usually signed and dated, and often represent important building blocks in the construction and comprehension of the works of the artists. For instance, the Fondation Custodia owns the only example in the output of the Flemish painter Jan van Kessel the Elder of a shell composition, in a design of festoons and faces. The portrait of the famous jurist Hugo Grotius is similarly the first painting recorded by the painter Jan van Ravesteyn, a celebrated portrait painter in The Hague in the early seventeenth century.
Frits Lugt was mainly a collector of works on paper, but the paintings currently on display in the rooms of the Hôtel Turgot are equally representative of his taste and his talent. Unlike his collection of drawings, which also highlights the work of Italian and French artists, his paintings are almost exclusively Flemish and Dutch. Frits Lugt was not only a canny collector, he was also an excellent art historian, whose publications are still works of reference. The paintings he acquired are usually signed and dated, and often represent important building blocks in the construction and comprehension of the works of the artists. For instance, the Fondation Custodia owns the only example in the output of the Flemish painter Jan van Kessel the Elder of a shell composition, in a design of festoons and faces. The portrait of the famous jurist Hugo Grotius is similarly the first painting recorded by the painter Jan van Ravesteyn, a celebrated portrait painter in The Hague in the early seventeenth century.