See Dutch Masters in the Mauritshuis, the Hague

Top Vermeer and Rembrandt Paintings from the Royal Picture Gallery

May 4, 2009

The Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery in The Hague is a top art collection with famous paintings by Dutch masters including Vermeer, Steen, Brueghel, and Rembrandt.

The Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery (Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen) in The Hague (Den Haag) is one of the most important art museums in the Netherlands. The collection includes excellent works by all major Dutch masters including Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen, Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Brueghel, Frans Hals, Paulus Potter, Carel Fabritius, and Jacob van Ruisdael.

Dutch Masters in the Mauritshuis in the Netherlands

The art collection of the Mauritshuis consists of around 900 works of which the majority is paintings from the Golden Age. These mostly seventeenth-century works include some of the best-known paintings by Dutch masters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt.

The size of the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery art collection, and indeed the physical museum itself, is not as humongous as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This is to some extent a bonus – visitors can enjoy the quality of works on display without having to rush on to try and see it all. The Mauritshuis, which is housed in a formal seventeenth-century palace, has only 16 exhibition rooms spread over two floors.

Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt Paintings in the Mauritshuis, The Hague

The Royal Picture Gallery allows visitors to the Mauritshuis museum website to select the most popular paintings. The ratings are announced weekly and although the order varies, the top three spots are generally taken by Vermeer and Rembrandt works.

The Mauritshuis owns three undisputed Johannes Vermeer paintings. The Girl with a pearl earring is one of Vermeer’s best-known works. It is sometimes referred to as the Mona Lisa of the North while the museum claims it to be Vermeer’s most loved painting.

Johannes Vermeer’s View of Delft is also very famous in the Netherlands. It is considered one of the best townscapes in seventeenth-century Dutch art. Vermeer’s Diana and her nymphs is an earlier work and quite different in style and theme.

The Mauritshuis has eleven works by Rembrandt van Rijn, including a self portrait. However, the most famous Rembrandt in The Hague is The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, which often outranks Girl with a pearl earring as the most popular work in the museum.

Top Dutch Paintings in the Mauritshuis in Den Haag, South Holland

Rembrandt and Vermeer may be the most famous of the Golden Age painters but the Mauritshuis has a wealth of works by further Dutch masters. Subjects on display range from flowers (Willem van Aelst, Jan Davidsz de Heem) to cows (Paulus Potter) and birds (Carel Fabritius). Portraits (Rembrandt, Holbein) were popular during the seventeenth century as were biblical themes (Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens).

The Mauritshuis owns 15 works by Jan Steen but the most famous is the humorous The way you hear it, is the way you sing it, which shows how adults influence children when setting a bad example. Hendrick Avercamp’s On the ice similarly has humorous scenes although the emphasis is on ordinary Dutch life on a cold winter’s day.

Traveling with Children to the Mauritshuis Art Museum

The Mauritshuis makes a special effort to help children enjoy art. Not only is admission free to under 18s but a special audio guide aimed at children explains the Mauritshuis and around 10 paintings in detail.

Dutch art from the Golden Age is a great genre for entertaining children. Interesting details and social history in paintings are revealed to children such as why boys wore dresses, why some painted animals look different from how we know them, and most entertainingly why even polite women bared all when slipping on the ice.

Mauritshuis Opening Hours and Tickets

The Mauritshuis is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm (opening at 11 am on Sundays and national holidays). From April to August, the museum is also opened on Monday.

Admission tickets are €10.50 (or €12 when a special exhibition is staged). Admission is gratis for under 18s. Audio guides are free.

The copyright of the article See Dutch Masters in the Mauritshuis, the Hague in Netherlands Travel is owned by Henk Bekker. Permission to republish See Dutch Masters in the Mauritshuis, the Hague in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.