Isabella B.
Yelp
The Mauritshuis is one of The Netherlands' premier art museums that focuses on Dutch art made during the Golden Age of painting (Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Steen). Between this museum and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam a lot of the country's famous pieces can be identified. Personally I preferred the Mauritshuis to the Rijksmuseum due to the smaller size and its more in-depth focus on the Dutch Classics. Unlike the Rijksmuseum I never felt overwhelmed, and while I only used the audioguide in this museum it was easy to navigate and provided more understandable explanations than what my tour guide provided for the "Highlights of Rijksmuseum" tour.
LOGICSTICS
- Location: The Hague (about an hour train ride from Amsterdam), a 5 minute walk from Binnenhof.
- Admission: €15.50, multimedia guide €3.50 (or download the free app from your phone). No advance ticket purchase necessary.
- Allow 1-2 hours for your visit
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In Dutch, "Mauritshuis" is literally "the house of Maurits", referring to Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau-Siegen. His most prominent position was the governor-general of a Dutch colony in northeast Brazil, which was captured from the Portuguese. The colony was a lucrative source of sugar so plantations were created to harvest that sugar, with the slaves doing all of the manual labor. It is due to this that he was able to amass enough wealth for his house.
The Mauritshuis' is also referred to as the "Royal Picture Gallery" as the earliest paintings from its collection were previously from the private collection of Prince William V, whose son donated to the Dutch state following his father's death. The son, King William I, also had a hand in purchasing a few artworks solely to expand the gallery. Nowadays the museum is privatized and many private donors have significantly contributed to the museum's collection of over 800 pieces.
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The collection is spread across 2 floors and 16 rooms. Portraits are arranged in a roughly chronological order. For those that are visiting this museum as part of a larger exploration of the Benelux, the Mauritshuis also contains a small selection of Flemish Primitives.
In 2 hours I was able to get through the museum using their app. Two themes make the visit more significant to the not-so-art-savvy traveler: "Highlights" and "Golden Age". The app contains not just information on it pieces, but for some of the more important pieces, audio and video commentary add supplementary information.
Highlights
- The tronies, Vermeer's famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and Frans Hals' "Laughing Boy". Some people go to the museum just to look at "Pearl Earring" and much of the shop's merchandise is based on this painting.
- The landscapes, Vermeer's "View of Delft", "View of Harlem".
- Significant Rembrandts including his last self-portrait and "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp".
- "The Goldfinch", which was the subject of another famous novel.
- Still life with strawberries and with cheeses, almonds and pretzels.
- Some Rubens, including a "Model of the Assumption of the Virgin", in which the final version hangs in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp.
In retrospect I should've first gone here to get my first look into Dutch Masters paintings before taking on the behemoth that is the Rijksmuseum. Surprisingly I enjoyed my museum experience here and would recommend this over the Rijksmuseum to anyone passionate about art.