Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam history of creation. Amsterdam landmark: Rijksmuseum. Museum for the curious
(literally translated as “State Museum”) - uh The art gallery, with more than 200 years of history, is the largest and most significant museum in the country. It contains 1,200,000 exhibits and to understand the scale of the collection, you need to mentally combine the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery with the Pushkin Museum.
National Museum "Rijksmuseum"
The uniqueness of the Rijksmuseum is not only the world's largest collection of masterpieces of Dutch and world art, accumulated over the centuries, but also the richest exhibition of Asian art, Delft porcelain, an extensive collection of engravings, drawings and classical photography.
The history of the main museum of the Dutch kingdom dates back to 1800, when the National Art Gallery opened. It contained about 200 paintings, but the museum’s ever-growing collection was forced to move from place to place several times, until finally, by order of King Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, it settled in.
Since 1885, the Rijksmuseum has been housed in an imposing building, built in a mixed Gothic and Renaissance style, designed by the famous Dutch architect Pierre Kuipers, which looks more like a fairy-tale castle than a museum.
Since 2003 State Museum was undergoing a large-scale reconstruction, which lasted a total of 10 years and cost the country 375 million euros. The reconstruction was completed only by the spring of 2013, but even the incomplete collection of the museum, exhibited in a separate wing, was one of the main attractions.
"Night Watch", Rembrandt In the heart of the renovated museum is the Gallery of Fame., which contains the best works of artists of the Dutch Golden Age, such as Johannes Vermeer, Jan Stein. The main pearl of the museum is, of course, the world famous painting "The night Watch".
The Rijksmuseum offers visitors several audio tours in English and Dutch, as well as mediators for mobile devices and phones, available in several languages, including Russian.
Practical information for visitors:
As a rule, the largest influx of visitors is on weekends, so it is better to choose a weekday to visit the museum.
The museum allows photography and video shooting without using flash.
Long umbrellas, backpacks and suitcases larger than 55x35x22 cm are prohibited from entering the museum.
Museum address: National Museum Rijksmuseum, Museumstraat 1,
The museum is open daily from 9:00 to 17:00, including weekends and holidays (including Christmas and New Year). Oh, but the museum garden, gift shop and cafe are open until 18:00 and you don’t need an entrance ticket to visit them.
Ticket prices:
adults – 17.50 euros, children under 18 years old inclusive – free. Museum Card holders also have free entry to the museum.
To significantly save on waiting time in line at the ticket office, you can buy tickets or directly on my website by filling out the form below and receive tickets by email:
Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - exhibitions, opening hours, address, phone numbers, official website.
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Every morning, residents of the historical center of Amsterdam see a huge queue of people wanting to get into the Rijksmuseum, the state art museum of the Netherlands. In the list of the hundred most visited museums in the world, it is in 19th place (for comparison: the Hermitage is in 13th).
The King of Holland, Louis Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I, took part in the creation of the museum.
The museum's collection moved to different rooms until the current building was erected in the neo-Gothic style in 1885. Since then it has been rebuilt many times, for example to display Rembrandt's large-scale painting The Night Watch in 1906. The latest renovation was completed in 2013, and the Rijksmuseum is now so vast that it would be impossible to see all its treasures in one day.
The museum's exhibition is a chronicle of the history of the Netherlands from 1100 to the present day in a wide variety of art objects, from fine porcelain utensils, plaster busts, antique furniture and ending with the works of famous artists.
The basis of the museum's art collection consists of paintings by Dutch artists - Rembrandt, Hals, Steen, Vermeer, but there are also works by other painters - El Greco, Van Dyck, Veronese, Goya, Rubens, Tintoretto. The museum's most famous exhibits are displayed in three small rooms. Tourists from all over the world flock to the gallery of fame on the second floor to see Rembrandt's famous Night Watch. The painting belongs to the city of Amsterdam and is in temporary storage at the Rijksmuseum. By the way, its real name sounds less romantic - “Performance of the rifle company of Captain France Banning Cock.” The collection of Rembrandt's paintings is quite large - 20 works - and is second only to the Hermitage (26).
You can ride a bike through the museum along a designed bike path.
Don't miss the exhibition of dollhouses, the oldest of which was made in 1676. In this miniature town, it’s hard not to feel like a bumbling Gulliver. Interesting collections of Delft and Meissen, Chinese porcelain, a collection of ship models, exhibits from Asian countries.
Amsterdam Reichmuseum(Rijksmuseum) is the largest in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. Its huge area displays paintings and objects from various countries and eras. 260 halls house 30,000 sculptures, 5,000 paintings, engravings, drawings, household items and archaeological objects. You will find the museum plan in the attached file below, in pdf format.The most famous paintings of the Amsterdam State Museum
The most famous painting exhibited here is considered "The night Watch" Rembrandt (1642). It is also the largest painting on display, although it was partially trimmed in the 18th century. All the characters depicted are very symbolic, and still contain many mysteries. Exhibition hall "Nacht wacht zaal".
The second most popular among visitors is the Vermeer. It is difficult to assess which of his 4 remaining paintings attracts more viewers: “ Thrush", "Love Letter", "Little Street", "Girl Reading a Letter"" They, as well as sketches for these creations, can be seen in the Eregalerij hall.
One of the first exhibits of the museum was the creation of Jan van Eyck "Gothic temple with figures" Now, going to the “Gothic” wing, you can admire this rarity.
Several works by Luke of Leiden, a famous Dutch artist of the early 16th century, are exhibited in the halls. In particular, his brushes belong to"Sermon in Church".
Goya's paintings, for example, "Portrait of Don Ramon de Posado" can be seen in room 1.13. Recent X-ray studies have revealed another master's creation under a layer of paint.
Original statue "Sitting Cupid"(1757), also known as “L"Amour Menaçant” - “The Threatening Cupid” by Falconet is exhibited in the Reichmuseum in room 1.9.
Of course, the State Museum is not a museum of eroticism or a museum of sex. But here, too, there is an exhibition “Immoral Women” that is similar in theme. This includes the picture "Lot and His Daughters"(Hendrik Goltzius, 1616). You can see the plot of the biblical legend in hall 2.1.
The museum also displays images of Asian gods, for example buddha figurine sitting in a niche. This composition was carved from a single piece of black limestone over 1000 years ago. The creation of an unknown author can be appreciated in the Asia hall.
Quite modern jewelry in the Art Nouveau style also found its place in the halls. For example, "Comb in the shape of two dragonflies"(1904) is located in room 0.9 – Z8.04.
One of the most interesting places in Amsterdam is the building of the Rijksmuseum, whose name in Dutch sounds like Rijksmuseum. It is included in the list of the largest art museums in the country, and is also popular in the world community, as it houses a large collection of works by the famous artist Rembrandt. In addition, about 5,000 paintings and 30,000 sculptures, drawings and engravings that cannot be found anywhere else are on display to the public, the main collection being works representing contemporary art.
Before the Rijksmuseum took on its modern form, it had to undergo many changes: initially it was 200 works of historical value that remained after the Netherlands was defeated by France in 1794. They formed the National Art Gallery, which opened in 1800 in the suburbs of The Hague. During the reign of Louis Bonaparte, in 1808, Amsterdam became the capital, and he named the gallery the Royal Museum and moved it to the city hall. Afterwards the museum was still called the Great Dutch Museum, and when the French were completely expelled from the country, it acquired a name that it never changed - the Rijksmuseum or the State Museum. This happened in 1817. But for a long time they could not find a building for the museum: it was located in Trippenhaus, but due to the constantly increasing number of exhibits, this became inconvenient, and the proximity of kerosene warehouses also played a role. As a result, a building was erected according to Kuipers' design, and the opening took place in 1885, but this structure has also undergone many changes to this day.
Museum exhibits
The museum houses a rich art and historical collection, as well as a collection of engravings, drawings and photographs, which are housed in 260 rooms.
The art collection is represented by sculptures, paintings and works of decorative art, including those of Asian origin. It is based on the works of Dutch masters dating from the 15th to 19th centuries.
Among the most valuable paintings, works by Dutch artists took their place of honor: Remrandt, van Scorel, Jan Steen, Frans Hals, Vermeer, van der Gelst.
"Night Watch" by Remrandt
The main place in the exhibition belongs to Remrandt’s painting “The Night Watch”, the full title of which is “The Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg”. The canvas was painted by the master in 1642 (during the heyday of Dutch painting) by order of the Shooting Society. The painting, depicting 34 characters who seem to be stepping on the viewer, turned out to be so large (363 * 437 centimeters) that part of it with three characters had to be cut off.
Vermeer's surviving legacy
Four paintings by one of the original Dutch artists - Vermeer - are of great value, because they were saved from being sold at auction for debts, the fate of which befell about 30 other paintings by the great master. It is not for nothing that Vermeer enjoys the fame of the most mysterious artist of the Netherlands: his paintings, depicting the home life of the townspeople, breathe mystery and ambiguity. Particular attention is drawn to two paintings by Vermeer – “The Street” and “The Maid with a Jug of Milk”. However, “Girl Reading a Letter” and “Love Letter”, no less than the above-mentioned paintings, attract the attention of visitors.
The great portrait painter Frans Hals
A significant place in the museum’s collection is occupied by paintings by the famous 17th-century portrait painter Frans Hals, who depicted on his canvases the faces of people from different walks of life: from ordinary merchants to burghers and officers. “The Cheerful Drinking Buddy” is one of those paintings for which art connoisseurs come to Amsterdam.
Museum for the curious
By visiting the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, you will have a unique opportunity to discover a world of art, as beautiful and mysterious as the paintings of Remrandt, and amazingly accurate as the portraits of Hals.
Schedule:
Monday-Sunday: 9:00-18:00
The Rijksmuseum (Dutch Rijksmuseum, State Museum) is the largest in the Netherlands, the most visited and the richest - there are literally hundreds of masterpieces by the best masters of world painting. It is located on Museum Square (Dutch Museumplein).
The State Museum owes its creation to King Louis Bonaparte. In 1808 he moved the Hague National Gallery of Art to Amsterdam, creating a museum in the Royal Palace. In 1817 the collection moved to Trippenhuis, which now houses the Royal Academy of Sciences. Bonaparte actively bought famous paintings and works of art, so the question of building a separate building soon arose. In 1876, a competition was held for the best design, the winner of which was the architect Petrus Cuypers. In 1885, a new museum was opened, designed in the neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance styles. Ten years later, another wing was added to the building. The museum was rebuilt throughout the 20th century, but the work was mainly carried out inside the building.
Nowadays, the Rijksmuseum is a repository of a large number of exhibits: sculptures, paintings, engravings, photographs, medieval weapons, clothing and various archaeological finds. On display here are Rembrandt's The Jewish Bride and The Night Watch, Vermeer's The Street and The Milkmaid, as well as works by Potter, Hals and Steen. Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Jan van Scorel, Meindert Hobbema, Albert Cuyp, Hendrik Averkamp and other masters of the Golden Age of Dutch art are honored here with separate galleries (more than 8000 works!) - this is the largest collection of Dutch masters in the world!
There are about 150 rooms in total, which also house an extensive art collection, a collection of sculpture, antique furniture, silver, porcelain, arts and crafts, Asian art (including about 500 Buddha statues!), an archaeological collection, plus a rich collection of drawings , prints and photographs. In the park behind the northern wing (in the triangle of Hobbemastraat and Luijkenstraat) there is an open collection of sculpture; within the complex there is an interactive system ARIA (Amsterdam Rijksmuseum Inter-Active), which allows you to independently familiarize yourself with 1250 objects of the exhibition; it also takes an active part in various artistic events, including the already incredibly popular “Night of Museums”. In the spring of 2013, after a 12-year renovation, the Rijksmuseum reopened its doors and now receives more than 4 million visitors a year.
The famous letters "I amsterdam" in front of the museum building 
"Night Watch" by Rembrandt
Opening hours: daily from 9.00 to 17.00. Ticket price: €15 for adults, free for children under 18 years old. How to get there: the Rijksmuseum stop is nearby (buses 145, 170, 174, 197, 358, N97, trams 2, 5) Address: Museumstraat 1 1071 XX Amsterdam Website: