Dutch painting of the 17th century shares roots with that of the Spanish Netherlands. Holland, however, was independent, rapidly prospering, and almost entirely Protestant. In the last decades of the 16th century the great port of Haarlem was the most active artistic centre, and the remarkable flowering of Mannerist painting there, as exemplified by Cornelis van Haarlem and Hendrik Goltzius, is without a parallel south of the border. In the later pictures of Abraham Bloemaert, Mannerism gave way to the much more straightforward realist style characteristic of the earliest phase of Dutch 17th-century painting. The influence of the figure paintings of Adam Elsheimer on this generation of artists was considerable; his particularly Italianate style, with sharply delineated forms painted in rich, deep colours and with a pronounced element of fantasy, is reflected by the early paintings of Leonard Bramer and, even more importantly, Pieter Lastman, the master of Rembrandt. Elsheimer’s poetic little landscapes were also extremely important for the group of Dutch artists active in Rome about 1620. This group was headed by Cornelis van Poelenburgh and Bartolomeus Breenbergh, and back home it provided an additional source of Italian influence. The most striking influence of Italy was provided, however, by the Dutch followers of Caravaggio, who had seized eagerly upon the harsh dramatic lighting and coarse plebeian types they had seen in his paintings during their stays in Italy and brought the style to the north to form the so-called Utrecht school. Gerrit van Honthorst, Hendrik Terbrugghen, and Dirck van Baburen were leading champions of this style, but after 1628 Honthorst turned away in the direction of Van Dyck.

Frans Hals was born in Antwerp, but almost all of his life was spent in Haarlem, where he evolved his characteristic bravura style of portraiture. The stiff solemnity of earlier Dutch portraits gave way to the capture of fleeting changes of expression and superb textural effects, though Hals never succeeded in attaining the degree of psychological penetration characteristic of the portraits painted by Rembrandt.

The early works of Rembrandt van Rijn, painted in Leiden (1625–31), show a progressive lessening of the influence of Lastman, and Rembrandt, together with his associate Jan Lievens, evolved an increasingly Baroque style, with strong contrasts of light and shade derived from the “Caravaggists.” After he moved to Amsterdam in 1631, these tendencies developed to an opulent and highly Baroque climax in the late 1630s. Following the death of his first wife, Saskia, in 1642, difficult times and the changing tastes of art collectors culminated in his bankruptcy in 1656. In his later works the dramatic Baroque panache gives way to a deep introspection and sympathy for his subjects, and his series of about 60 self-portraits reveals this process in intimate detail. Parallel to his development as a painter is that of his style as an etcher; Rembrandt is considered by many to be the greatest etcher of all time (see printmaking: Printmaking in the 17th century: European etching: The Netherlands). During the years of his financial success, Rembrandt had the largest and most successful painting and printmaking studio in Holland.

The increasing use at this time of portable easel paintings as domestic ornaments, many of them made for sale by dealers rather than on commission by the consumer, is related to the extraordinary range of subjects in which Dutch painters specialized. Nevertheless, certain basic changes in style and taste occurred during the course of the 17th century, and, although many painters long persisted in outdated styles, the same fundamental changes can be traced in the various specialities. The earliest phase of simple realism held sway until the early 1620s; and the characteristic bright local colours, lack of spatial unity, sudden transition between different planes, and tendency toward high viewpoints are to be found in the genre paintings of Willem Buytewech, flower pieces of Jacob II de Gheyn and Roelant Savery, and marine paintings of Hendrick Cronelisz Vroom and Adam Willaerts. This gave way to a much more limited palette in the early 1620s when, by reducing the strength and range of the colours, an atmospheric unity was obtained. In landscapes and marine paintings the horizon tended to drop, and a continuous and coherent recession into depth was attained, particularly in the paintings of Esaias van de Velde, Jan van Goyen, Hercules Seghers, and Jan Porcellis. The same change is seen in still lifes by Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz Heda, in which the colours are almost monochrome. Atmospheric unity having been mastered, the change to the heroic classical phase of the middle of the 17th century was gradual, but there was a tendency toward ever-increasingly dramatic Baroque contrasts, be they the leaden skies or great oaks of Jacob van Ruisdael, the vast panoramas of Philips de Koninck, the luminous pastures of Aelbert Cuyp, or the heavy gray seas of Simon de Vlieger. The monumentality of these scenes is paralleled by the rich splendour of the still lifes of Jan Davidsz de Heem, Abraham van Beyeren, and Willem Kalff and the classical calm and simplicity of the scenes by Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch painted in Delft. In the landscapes of Meindert Hobbema, Claes Berchem, and Adam Pijnacker the majesty of Jacob van Ruisdael’s landscapes gives way to a much lighter, more picturesque style. Similarly, the vigorous social realism of Adriaen van Ostade yields to a much lighter and more frivolous treatment in the paintings of his younger brother Isack and Jan Steen and the elegant hunting scenes of Philips Wouwerman.

With the French invasion of 1672 and the subsequent Dutch economic collapse, the demand for paintings dropped heavily, and in the last decades of the 17th century many Dutch painters either stopped painting or, like the van de Veldes Willem I and Willem II, left the country to work in England or Germany. Late 17th- and 18th-century taste tended toward the almost enamel-like brilliancy and intricate detail of the still lifes by Rachel Ruysch and Jan van Huysum; the same slightly dated flavour is characteristic of the marine paintings of Ludolf Backhuysen and of the hard figure subjects of Willem van Mieris and Adriaan van der Werff.