The National Gallery, London is home to a world-renowned collection of Dutch paintings that includes masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Cuyp and Ruisdael, among many others. Still lifes painted with painstaking attention to detail, sublime landscapes, vividly human portraits and intimate interiors: these beloved pictures tell the story of the Dutch Golden Age, when art, science and trade thrived. Now the National Gallery's popular 2007 guide to the collection has been revised, featuring an elegant new design and an extended introduction that examines why painting flourished in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, and why it is so enduringly popular today. Striking image details enhance the book, and updated, informative texts accompany each work. Accessible and illuminating, this guide is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Dutch painting.