Rembrandt to Goya: Masterpieces from the Toledo Museum of Art brings works from the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio to ALT.1, the exhibition space on Level 6 of The Hyundai Seoul department store. I have been following the recent run of exhibitions in Seoul drawn from overseas museum collections. With European paintings from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, this one takes me a little further back in time.

The six sections explore painting and power, myth and memory, the business of art, beauty in everyday life, the depiction of nature, and European art in the wider world. The arrangement moves between these contexts rather than simply following a chronology. Looking into it afterwards, I found that the exhibition appears to continue from Seoul to Taipei.

Period City / Venue Exhibition
March - July 2026 Seoul, The Hyundai Seoul ALT.1 Rembrandt to Goya: Masterpieces from the Toledo Museum of Art
July - October 2026 Taipei, Fubon Art Museum Old Masters from Rembrandt to Goya: Treasures from the Toledo Museum of Art I

Works That Stayed with Me

I seem to have a preference for paintings with cities or buildings in them. Standing in front of Canaletto's view of Venice, I find it merging quite naturally with memories of a visit long ago. In Bernardo Bellotto's view of Rome, the water and textures, and the damp riverside air around those old buildings, set me thinking about journeys past and still to come.

Canaletto's View of the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice on display
Canaletto, View of the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, late 1730s. Toledo Museum of Art collection.
Bernardo Bellotto's view of the Tiber and San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Rome on display
Bernardo Bellotto, The Tiber with the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Rome, c. 1742-1744. Toledo Museum of Art collection.

John Constable's Arundel Mill and Castle is said to be based on sketches made during his travels in southern England. The handling of the paint is particularly memorable. The Toledo Museum of Art describes quick touches of light and thick strokes of paint, reworked in places with a palette knife. Constable himself called the effect “broken ruggedness”.

John Constable's Arundel Mill and Castle on display
John Constable, Arundel Mill and Castle, 1837. Toledo Museum of Art collection.

I also enjoyed the stories about Constable and Turner. Turner was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1799 and a full Royal Academician in 1802; Constable became an Associate in 1819 and a full member in 1829. Turner seems to have made his name much sooner. His view of Venice has a dreamlike mixture of light and moisture. The Toledo Museum of Art recalls Constable's remark that Turner seemed to paint with “tinted steam”. Personally, I find Constable's handling of paint a little more appealing. I hear Tate holds a good many works by both. I wish I had known that on my earlier visit, and find myself vaguely sketching out the next trip.

J. M. W. Turner's The Campo Santo, Venice on display
J. M. W. Turner, The Campo Santo, Venice, 1842. Toledo Museum of Art collection.

This painting brought to mind Infanta Margarita in a Pink Gown at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, Velázquez's pupil and son-in-law. According to the Toledo Museum of Art, the sitter's identity is uncertain, though the figure appears to be male and dressed as a Catholic cardinal. There is no record of a child cardinal from the period, so it may be a court entertainer in costume. Mazo became Philip IV's chief court painter in 1660, following Velázquez's death.

Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo's A Child in Ecclesiastical Dress on display
Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, A Child in Ecclesiastical Dress, c. 1660-1667. Toledo Museum of Art collection.

Goya's later images confronting the society around him have left such a strong impression that the bright, playful Children with a Cart comes as a surprise. The Toledo Museum of Art dates it to 1778 and explains that, early in his career, Goya painted more than sixty large designs for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara near Madrid. This was one of twenty models for tapestries intended for the private rooms of the Prince and Princess of Asturias, the future Carlos IV and María Luisa. For an exhibition called Rembrandt to Goya, finding just the one Goya gave me a small smile.

Francisco de Goya's Children with a Cart on display
Francisco de Goya, Children with a Cart, 1778. Toledo Museum of Art collection.

Looking for a Checklist

A complete checklist proved difficult to find on the official websites. I put together the following list of 52 works using photographs from my visit, my own memory, press releases, material from the overseas venue, and the Toledo Museum of Art's eMuseum pages.

No. Artist Work
1 Francesco Salviati The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist
2 Domenikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco The Agony in the Garden
3 Pietro da Cortona Saint Peter Damien Offering the Rule of the Camaldolese Order to the Virgin
4 Jacques-Louis David The Oath of the Horatii
5 Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun The Comtesse de Cérès
6 Anthony van Dyck Portrait of a Man
7 Antoine-Jean Gros Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau
8 Claude Lorrain Landscape with Nymph and Satyr Dancing
9 Francisque Millet Landscape with Christ and the Woman of Canaan
10 Sebastiano Ricci Christ and the Woman of Samaria
11 Giovanni Paolo Panini Ruins with the Farnese Hercules
12 Giovanni Paolo Panini Architectural Fantasy with a Concert Party
13 Hubert Robert The Studio of an Antiquities Restorer in Rome
14 Francesco Primaticcio Ulysses and Penelope
15 Paolo Veronese Christ and the Centurion
16 Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto View of the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice
17 Bernardo Bellotto The Tiber with the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Rome
18 Frans Hals Van Campen Family Portrait in a Landscape
19 Dirck Hals Merry Company on a Terrace
20 Rembrandt van Rijn Young Man with a Plumed Hat
21 Rembrandt van Rijn Man in a Fur-Lined Coat
22 Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo Head of an Old Man
23 Thomas de Keyser The Syndics of the Amsterdam Goldsmiths Guild
24 Louise Moillon Still Life of Citrons and Curaçao Oranges in a White Polylobed Dish
25 Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo A Child in Ecclesiastical Dress
26 Francisco de Goya Children with a Cart
27 Jean-Honoré Fragonard Blind-Man's Buff
28 Abraham Bloemaert Shepherdess Reading a Sonnet
29 Jean-Marc Nattier Princesse de Rohan
30 Pieter de Hooch Courtyard, Delft
31 Jean-Siméon Chardin The Woman Drawing Water at the Cistern
32 Jean-Siméon Chardin The Washerwoman
33 Jusepe de Ribera Portrait of a Musician
34 Gerard ter Borch, the younger The Music Lesson
35 Master of the Games (formerly attributed to Mathieu Le Nain) The Family Dinner
36 Jan Miense Molenaer Allegory of Vanity
37 Pieter Claesz. Still Life with Oysters
38 John Constable Arundel Mill and Castle
39 Jacob van Ruisdael Landscape with Sluice Gate
40 Jan Brueghel the Elder Landscape with a Fishing Village
41 Thomas Gainsborough The Road from Market
42 Pierre-Étienne-Théodore Rousseau Under the Birches, Evening
43 Anne Vallayer-Coster Still Life with Lobster
44 Anne Vallayer-Coster Still Life with Game
45 Sir Joshua Reynolds Master Henry Hoare
46 Horace Vernet Portrait of a Young Woman
47 Jan van Goyen View of Dordrecht
48 Joseph Mallord William Turner The Campo Santo, Venice
49 Eugène Delacroix The Return of Christopher Columbus
50 Melchior d'Hondecoeter A Captive Diana Monkey on a Wall against a Landscape with Four Colorful Birds in the Sky
51 Maria van Oosterwijck A bouquet of flowers in a Rhine stoneware vase on an entablature with an arrangement of shells
52 Balthasar van der Ast Fruit, Flowers, and Shells
Where
ALT.1, Level 6, The Hyundai Seoul department store
Exhibition
Rembrandt to Goya: Masterpieces from the Toledo Museum of Art
21 March - 4 July 2026
Hours
Monday - Thursday, 10:30-20:00; Friday - Sunday, 10:30-20:30
Ticket
Standard adult admission: KRW 23,000 (about US$17)
KRW 17,250 with the 25% discount coupon in the Hyundai Department Store app

The dollar equivalent uses the Federal Reserve's 23 October 2026 rate of KRW 1,325.06 to US$1, as a guide to scale.