This splendid edition depicts and describes more than 230 painted portraits from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, belonging to the renowned Mauritshuis Collection in The Hague. Aside from portraits by the three great masters of seventeenth century Dutch painting, Rembrandt, Hals and Vermeer - including such famous works as The anatomy lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp and Girl with a Pearl Earring - the book explores many other paintings from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. An introductory essay by R. Ekkart, an authority in the field of portrait painting, describes the genesis of the collection and explains the links between various portraits in the Mauritshuis collection.