Gerrit Reynst

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Reynst (far right), with (from left) his fellow aldermen and contemporaries Cornelis Jan Witsen, Roelof Bicker, and Simon van Hoorn.

Gerrit Reynst (1599, Amsterdam - 29 June 1658, Amsterdam) (also known as Gerard Reynst) was, like his younger brother Jan (1601-29 June 1646), a Dutch merchant and art collector from Amsterdam. Gerrit's collection included Italian old-master paintings and antiquities, such as The Ecstasy of St Paul by Johann Liss. He was an alderman and member of the town council, entering it in 1646.

After Gerrit's death in 1658, drown in the Keizersgracht, the collection dispersed into English, German and other Dutch collections, including what is now the Antikensammlung Berlin, and some remained with his widow Anna. The Dutch Republic bought 24 of the best Italian paintings and 12 of the best Classical sculptures from Gerrit's widow in 1660 for 80,000 gulden, via Heer van Outshoorn.[1] This collection was given to English King Charles II (many of the paintings in it had previously been in Charles I's collection, and been sold to Reynst by the Commonwealth government) on his return from the Netherlands to England, and is known as the Dutch Gift. One of the paintings may have been Guercino's, "Semiramis Receiving Word of the Revolt of Babylon". (A series of engravings of pictures from his collection was made sometime before his death, including one by Jeremias Falk of Guercino's Semiramis.)