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| Rembrandt Portrait of a Young Man ca. 1639 oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Reyer Jacobsz van Blommendael Young Woman in Arcadian Costume ca. 1650 oil on canvas Yale University Art Gallery |
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| Ferdinand Bol Portrait of a Man 1663 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jacob van Campen Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and his wife Suzanna van Baerle ca. 1635 oil on canvas Mauritshuis, The Hague |
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| Adriaen Hanneman Portrait of a Gentleman 1658 oil on canvas Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull |
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| Jan Lievens Portrait of a Bearded Man wearing a Beret ca. 1630 oil on panel National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Lodewijk van der Helst Portrait of Willem van de Velde the Younger ca. 1665-70 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck Portrait of Willemina van Braeckel 1637 oil on canvas Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem |
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| Hendrik Cornelisz van Vliet Girl holding a Fan 1645 oil on panel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Johannes Voorhout Portrait of a Gentleman 1686 oil on canvas Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
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| workshop of Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn Portrait of Philipp Ernst, Count of Hohenlohe zu Langenburg ca. 1620 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Godfried Schalcken Girl eating Sweets ca. 1680-85 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Matthias Stom Young Man with Violin ca. 1640 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Werner van den Valckert Portrait of a Man with a Mannequin 1624 oil on canvas Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky |
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| Werner van den Valckert Portrait of a Man with a Mannequin (detail) 1624 oil on canvas Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky |
"The Englishman Peter Mundy, visiting Amsterdam in 1640, wrote, "As for the art of painting and affection of the people to pictures, I thincke none other goe beeyond them, all in generall striving to adorne their houses with costly peeces. Butchers and bakers, yea many tymes blacksmiths, coblers, etts. will have some picture or other by their forge and in their stalle. Such is the generall notion, enclination and delight that these countrie natives have to paintings." Another English witness, John Evelyn, wrote, "pictures are very common here, there being scarce an ordinary tradesman whose house is not decorated with them." The figures given by historical documents confirm the travelers' amazement. In the middle of the seventeenth century some Dutch homes had thirty to fifty paintings per room – rooms which, it should be noted, were not all that spacious. It has been estimated that between five and ten million works of art were produced during the century of the so-called Golden Age of Dutch art. Very few of these, perhaps less than 1%, have survived."
– adapted from text by Jonathan Janson (Essential Vermeer)