Haarlem Things to Do Tips by breughel Top 5 Page for this destination

FRANS HALS MUSEUM - III. Dutch Landscapes. Frans Hals Museum Review

There is no museum in the Netherlands without landscapes. They were one of the major themes of the 17th c. paintings.
Indeed the Dutch Golden century produced hundred thousands of landscapes of all kinds:
river views and seaside landscapes, "green" landscapes often with a cottage under some trees, winter landscapes usually with skaters on a frozen river or pond, town landscapes and these interiors of churches which were a Dutch speciality.
These thousand of landscapes were painted not on order but to be sold to anybody who wanted to decorate his interior. Many Dutch families owed such small sized paintings for decoration. These paintings are most often of good quality but do not necessarily show much originality.
In rooms 20 and 21 are some very good fluvial and seaside landscapes full of atmosphere by Jan Van Goyen, Jacob van Ruisdael, with a view of the dunes near Haarlem (photo 2), and Salomon van Ruysdael with beautiful riverside landscapes.
There are also winter landscapes, for example Isaack van Ostade who smoothly painted this skating scene on a frozen river with an inn (photo 1). Remarkable with him is the limited range of brown and grey hues as well as the white horse drawing a sleigh which is found in several of his winter landscapes. Isaack van Ostade, brother of Adriaen, died when he was only 28 years old.

Open : Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 17 h
Sundays and public holidays 12 - 17 h

Admission rates (2011) Adults 10 €; 19 - 24 yr 4,50 €; children (0-18) free.
Museum Card free .

Address: Groot Heiligland 26

Directions: From Houtplein walk towards Grote Houtstraat, turn right on Raamvest which continues in Gasthuisvest. Turn left into Groot Heiligland.

Phone: 023-5115775

Website: http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/

Claude Lorrain special exhibition. Teylers Museum Review

My good VT friend and amateur of art Lou / Alza informed me that there is a special exhibition on the French painter Claude Lorrain from 29 September 2011 till 8 January 2012 at the Teylers Museum.

Claude Gelée dit Claude Lorrain (1600 - 1682) is one of my favoured landscape painters which I discovered some years ago at the Louvre Museum where they have nine of his paintings.
I wrote this in one of my first tips on VT:

Once you have seen a painting of Claude Lorrain you can't miss his works in any museum over the world.
His paintings are so typical with ideal landscapes and a poetic rendering of light. His landscapes contain classical ruins, often a coastal scene with boats in a seaport. It are idealized harbour scenes flanked on one or both sides with palaces. Tall ships ride at anchor. Light, however, is the key feature of the seaport pictures. Its source is often a visible sun just above the horizon or sometimes hidden behind a vessel or building at dawn or at sunset; his paintings are illuminated by the orange, gold shining sun. Claude Lorrain for the first time in art used the sun as the means of illuminating a whole picture. This use of light from the sky above the horizon enforces the effect of recession in depth.
In the 17th c. landscapes were a minor art in Italy (on the contrary of the Netherlands); prized subjects were religious or mythic scenes. To feed the need for noble themes Claude Lorrain included mythological or biblical personalities but they are small, almost lost in the landscape which was his main interest.

On this special exhibition one can see 13 paintings and 78 drawings.

Open: Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 17 h; Sunday 12 - 17 h.
Closed on Mondays, 25/12 and 1/01/2012.
Price : Adults 12,- €, 6 - 17 yr 2,- €,

Address: Spaarne 16

Phone: 023-5319010

Website: http://www.teylersmuseum.nl/

TEYLERS MUSEUM . III - Scientific instruments Teylers Museum Review

This seemed to me the most interesting part of the museum (rooms 3 - 6). The collection of about 1200 instruments mainly from the 18th and 19th c. belongs mostly to physics.
These instruments are not only witnesses of the scientific discoveries of these past centuries but the way they have been manufactured often from brass, glass and wood show the expertise and aesthetic sense of the craftsman who manufactured them accoding to the blueprints of the scientist.
A large number of these instruments were used for experiments on electricity, especially static electricity.
Amusing is the fact that in the 18th c. discoveries on optics and static electricity were used by magicians for their tricks. There was in that time a so called "physique amusante"; scientific experiments for family entertainment.

Open: Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 17 h (closed on Mondays), Sunday 12 - 17 h.
Price : Adults 10,- €, 6 - 17 yr 2,- €, Museum Kaart free.

Address: Spaarne 16

Phone: 023-5319010

Website: http://www.teylersmuseum.nl/

TEYLERS MUSEUM . I - Introduction. Teylers Museum Review

A museum freak like me could not miss the oldest museum (1784) in the Netherlands open to the public.
Pieter Tyler van der Hulst, active in the textile industry, was a representative of the "Enlightenment" and showed much interest for science and arts.
The unusual combination of science and arts makes this museum so interesting. Furthermore the building, the exhibition rooms with their display cabinets, have been preserved like they were in the 19th.c. Remarkable is the "Oval room".
Modern wings have been added to the museum.
I will detail further the three main sections of the collections:
1° The fossils and minerals.
2° The scientific instruments
3° Art works

Open: Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 17 h (closed on Mondays), Sunday 12 - 17 h.
Price : Adults 10,- €, 6 - 17 yr 2,- €, Museum Kaart free.
Photos allowed except in rooms 7 and 12.

Address: Spaarne 16

Phone: 023-5319010

Website: http://www.teylersmuseum.nl/

FRANS HALS MUSEUM - II. Civic Guard Frans Hals Museum Review

The Frans Hals museum is famous for its collection of 18 Civic Guard paintings of which 5 by Frans Hals, 5 by Frans de Grebber, 2 by Cornelis van Haarlem as well as others painters from Haarlem.

The town had two militias: The St-Adrian or Cluveniers (= musket) militia and the St-George militia, together about 400 men. They defended the city and provided order and safety. Night patrols were their most important task. Every citizen could join the militia but had to pay his weapon and equipment.
The officers, colonel, provost, captains, lieutenants, ensign-bearers belonged to the higher society and were appointed by the city council for a three year period. At the end of this period a banquet was organized which was also the occasion for a large group portrait called "schutterstuk" in Dutch. About 125 such paintings have reached us.

Frans Hals was himself a guardsman of the St-George militia. In his 5 militia pieces he painted 68 portraits. The officers wear sashes with the white, orange or blue colour from the company flag.
Remarkable with the militias of Frans Hals is that all these persons are depicted in such vivid manner that the visitor has the impression that the banquet is still going on.

These paintings were not for the normal guardsman wallet. The price was about 60 Florin of that time per portrayed person. In the 17th c. a weaver in Haarlem earned about 200 Florin per year.

Open : Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 17 h
Sundays and public holidays 12 - 17 h

Admission rates (2011) Adults 10 €; 19 - 24 yr 4,50 €; children (0-18) free.
Museum Card free .

Address: Groot Heiligland 26

Directions: From Houtplein walk towards Grote Houtstraat, turn right on Raamvest which continues in Gasthuisvest. Turn left into Groot Heiligland.

Phone: 023-5115775

Website: http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/

FRANS HALS MUSEUM - I. Introduction Frans Hals Museum Review

The Frans Hals Museum is internationally famous as the museum of the Dutch Golden Age (17th c.) although its collections start with the 16th c.
It is housed in the former Old Men’s Home, a picturesque 17th century building at Groot Heiligland, south from the Grote Markt. The collection has been gradually built up by the city of Haarlem starting at the "Prinsenhof" – part of the town hall - as early as the 16th century.
In 1862 a "Stedelijk Museum" (civic museum) was officially opened in the town hall with already more than one hundred paintings.

Presently the museum rooms with a 17th c. decor are arranged around a square courtyard with gardens. The decoration of the museum is therefore in full harmony with the exposed paintings.

The museum is famous for the five large civic guard paintings, three regent group portraits and various individual portraits by Frans Hals. But there is much more than Frans Hals. There are many of the best masters from the Golden Age: Jan Steen, the three van Ruysdael, Hendrick and Cornelis Vroom, Johannes Verspronck and Pieter Saenredam.
The 16th c. is also interesting. The art of painting in the Northern Netherlands started in Haarlem.
According to the museum they have about 80 works that can be considered as highlights. I will come back on some of them.

It was the first time I visited this museum and I regret I did not do it before when I was in Amsterdam, which is so close by train.
Before visiting the collection it is quite interesting to have a look at the "Introduction - Haarlem 1600-1700" about life in the town.

Open : Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 17 h
Sundays and public holidays 12 - 17 h

Admission rates (2011) Adults 10 €, 19 - 24 yr 4,50 €,
Children (0-18) free
Museum Card free

NOTE: THERE ARE RENOVATION WORKS GOING ON TILL BEGIN NOVEMBER 2011

Address: Groot Heiligland 26

Directions: From Houtplein walk towards Grote Houtstraat, turn right on Raamvest which continues in Gasthuisvest. Turn left into Groot Heiligland.

It is about 1,5 km southwards from the railway station.

Phone: 023-5115775

Website: http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/

FRANS HALS MUSEUM - VI. Sex or innocence?! Frans Hals Museum Review

This painting "the Monk and Nun" from 1591, by Cornelis Cornelsz van Haarlem, is the most looked at painting of the museum.

Two explanations: this scene is a satire of the dissolute life of monks and nuns of that time. The wine and the fruit are symbols of libertinage.

In the former catalogues of the museum the painting is referred to as the "Miracle of Haarlem". According to the legend a nun from Haarlem was accused of having secretly given birth. Her detractors wanted to prove her maternity by pinching her breast. If milk would come out her fault would be proved.
The painting shows a monk "expert in medical sciences" pinching her breast. No milk came out her breast but well wine! The devotion and the innocence of the nun became evident to all.
In this version the wine and the fruits evoke the virginity.

It's up to the museum visitor to decide what version he retains.

Open : Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 17 h
Sundays and public holidays 12 - 17 h

Admission rates (2011) Adults 10 €; 19 - 24 yr 4,50 €; children (0-18) free.
Museum Card free .

Address: Groot Heiligland 26

Directions: From Houtplein walk towards Grote Houtstraat, turn right on Raamvest which continues in Gasthuisvest. Turn left into Groot Heiligland.

Phone: 023-5115775

Website: http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/

FRANS HALS MUSEUM - V. Still Life Paintings. Frans Hals Museum Review

Still Life paintings were another speciality of the Dutch school.
The Dutch words "stilleven" was adopted into English as “still life”.

Among the various types of still lifes two types flourished in Holland:
The so called "Pronkstukken" luxurious still life showing tin, silver, sometimes gold plated beakers, cups, plates, a nautilus shell, Venetian glassware.The objects reflects each other and are posed on precious tissues. These still lifes often showed oysters, crab and a half peeled lemon
Willem Claesz Heda was a master of these "pronk" still lifes rendering different materials and fabrics and the reflections of light on them. Photo 1 shows a still life with pie, silver ewer and crab (1658) and photo 2 a banket piece with cheese and fruit by Pieter Claesz (1623).

The other type is the still life called "ontbijtgen" (breakfast), bread, fruit, various cheeses more or less old. In the 17th c. the Netherlands were already well known for their large export of cheese.
Photo 3 shows cheese en fruits by Floris Claesz van Dijck (1613).

Open : Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 17 h
Sundays and public holidays 12 - 17 h

Admission rates (2011) Adults 10 €; 19 - 24 yr 4,50 €; children (0-18) free.
Museum Card free .

Address: Groot Heiligland 26

Directions: From Houtplein walk towards Grote Houtstraat, turn right on Raamvest which continues in Gasthuisvest. Turn left into Groot Heiligland.

Phone: 023-5115775

Website: http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/

FRANS HALS MUSEUM - IV. Church Interiors Frans Hals Museum Review

One of the specialities of Dutch painters, a unique speciality I think, was painting church interiors. This is strange and a paradox because many churches in the Northern Netherlands had been stripped of their decoration when the Calvinists took them over from the Catholics.
In the history of the Northern Netherlands this is referred to as "beeldstormers" or iconoclasts. After taking away statues, paintings and other decoration elements the walls were just chalked white.

It were these very sober churches which were most often shown on these paintings of church interiors. It seems to me that these specialized artists like Pieter Saenredam (who lived in Haarlem), Emmanuel de Witte, Hendrick van Vliet were mainly interested in the geometrical and perspective aspects of these churches and the light effects. Gerard Houckgeest was the church interior specialist who showed most interest for optic experimentation.

Open : Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 17 h
Sundays and public holidays 12 - 17 h

Admission rates (2011) Adults 10 €; 19 - 24 yr 4,50 €; children (0-18) free.
Museum Card free .

Address: Groot Heiligland 26

Directions: From Houtplein walk towards Grote Houtstraat, turn right on Raamvest which continues in Gasthuisvest. Turn left into Groot Heiligland.

Phone: 023-5115775

Website: http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/

De Hallen. Museums Review

The Vleeshal as well as the Verweyhal are an annexe of the Frans Hals museum under the name "De Hallen Haarlem".
On the time of my visit in Haarlem, I was lucky that the temporary exhibition was on Isaac Israel a very good Dutch impressionist. The theme of the exhibition was "Israels on the beach". This exhibition stops already on 19/08/2007. I have joined some photos.
Another exhibition (19/06-19/08/2007) in the Hallen is that of Fréderic Boot and Kees Verwey both 20th c. impressionist painters.

Next exhibition from 01.09.2007 to 25.11.2007 will show works from 15 young artists from Europe and the USA with the theme "The present order is the disorder of the future".

Address: Grote Markt, Vleeshal.