Tips 1 - 10 of 16 Amsterdam Things to Do
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Rijksmuseum: Rijksmuseum III - Beautiful child portrait.
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I discovered this portrait from Johannes Cornelsz. Verspronck "Portrait of a Girl dressed in Blue" (1641) at my first visit at the Rijksmuseum at the beginning of the nineties.
I got very much impressed by her gentle somewhat melancholic smile.
This girl about ten years old must be of a wealthy family according to her dress and jewels. It should be noted that in that time children were considered as mini adults and girls dressed like adult women.
J. Verspronck, as always in his portraits, painted with a perfect depiction of the tissues and the details. Look at the very fine blond hair of the girl, the dark blue eyes and the red cheeks.
I always found that this portrait expressed much tenderness and emotion.
When I saw that the museum curator had chosen a large reproduction of my favoured portrait of a "Girl dressed in Blue" to hang on the façade of the Rijksmuseum building I felt very pleased.
I don't know who she is. This wonderful portrait hangs in room 7.Open each day 9 - 18 h., Friday 9 - 20.30 h. Price: free up to 18 yr. From 19 yr : 11 €. With Museum card : free Tickets can be bought online.
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Phone: +31-20-6747047
Address: Stadhouderskade 42
Website: http://www.rijksmuseum.nl
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No doubt this museum has the largest Van Gogh collection but… - here I might sound somewhat iconoclast - the dark paintings of his early period in Den Haag or Drenthe are not necessarily his highlights. Not everybody has to be fond of his potato subjects.
It is clearly written in the welcome leaflet of the museum: "His evolution from an inept but impassioned novice into a truly original master…" and "as a painter, he was largely self-taught."
This is evident from this chronological exhibition. Van Gogh experimented a lot and his experiments were not necessarily successful.
His art improved when Vincent reached Paris and assimilated the style of the Impressionist trend.
It appears that the talent of Van Gogh developed in the same proportion as the intensity of the sunlight. The summit is reached under the sun of the Provence.
The highlights of this Van Gogh collection are therefore to be found in the works of Arles (1888-89), Saint-Rémy de Provence (1889-90) and Auvers-sur-Oise where he committed suicide in July 1890.
Among the best works here on display are the "Yellow House", "The Bedroom", the 3 orchard paintings and my favoured ones "The Irises" and the quiet and peaceful landscape "The Harvest".
Impressive and disturbing is that extraordinary "Wheatfield with Crows" painted shortly before his dead (*).
On the third floor are a good number of French impressionists among which Monet and Pissarro.
There are often queues and crowds at this museum which is on the list of group visits. There are separate fast lanes for e-tickets and museum cards.
As this was my second visit I arrived around 17 h. when there was no queue anymore and I rushed through the early period of van Gogh to concentrate on the best paintings from the Provence period.
Open daily 10.00 to 18.00 h, Friday 10.00 to 22.00 h. Admission fees: Adults: € 12.50, 13-17 years: € 2.50
0-12 years: free admission. Free with Museum Card.
Tickets can be ordered online.
NEW: Special exhibition ALFRED STEVENS from 18/09/2009 till 24/01/2010.
Alfred Stevens was a Belgian painter (1823-1906) who met a lot of success in Paris with a modern form of realistic paintings showing elegant and intriguing women. I discovered him at the Musée d'Orsay and recommend very much this special exhibition showing 64 works.
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Phone: +31-20-5705252
Website: http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl
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Visiting Amsterdam? Read reviews about Amsterdam Hotels Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
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Maritime museum
The Scheepvaart Museum is closed since Januari 2007 for renovation works.
The museum is expected to reopen in summer 2011.
It was a very interesting museum which I visited some years ago.
The replica of the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) commercial ship "Amsterdam" can still be visited at the Nemo Science Centre.
The original Amsterdam sailed up the North Sea in 1749. In a raging storm the East Indiaman soon sank on the south coast of England. The wreck has provided archaeologists with valuable information about the construction of VOC ships, their cargoes and life on board.
Connoisseurs of maritime construction are not enthusiast about this replica.
In order to allow demonstrations of gun shooting the gun deck with 16 replicas had its height increased. The Dutch visitors from now are about 25 cm taller than the 18th. c. crew. But to keep the overall height of the ship correct the height of the upper deck with the captain's cabin has been decreased so that only children can enter the cabin!
Interesting are the details of the life on board for the eight months trip to Asia.
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Phone: +31-20-5232222
Address: Kattenburgerplein 1
Directions: NEMO Oosterdok 2 1011 VX Amsterdam Near Central Station
Website: http://www.scheepvaartmuseum.nl
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This is a quite interesting museum especially now that the Rijksmuseum shows only one fifth of its collections.
The Historic Museum combines history and arts over 3 periods in 24 rooms of the former Civic Orphanage:
Period 1350-1550 at rooms 1-3 showing the story of the small settlement on the river Amstel.
Surprising are the excavated objects found in cesspits such as clay pipe fragments. The AHM has 200.000 archaeological objects of all kinds found in Amsterdam.
Period 1550-1815 is certainly the most interesting with rooms 4-12 who show a large number of art works of this period which includes the Golden Century.
Most interesting are models of shipyards and maritime paintings showing the Dutch maritime power of that age. Famous is the painting of Willem van de Velde the Younger "The Gouden Leeuw on the IJ at Amsterdam", (1686). This was once the former flagship of Admiral Cornelis Tromp.
Interesting is the model (1742) of an eastindiaman from the VOC (Dutch East India Company) being transported on a ship's camel. These were long caissons that encased the ship's hull. When full of air they raised the ship out of the water. The Amsterdam harbour was difficult for deep vessels to enter due to sandbanks.
From this period are also on display a large number of good paintings with landscapes, winter landscapes, town views, church interiors, still life and the famous civic guard paintings on which I will come back.
Period 1815-2000 with rooms 13-24 starts at the end of the French rule under Napoleon. The visitor will find here a beautiful doll-house as well as paintings from the very good Dutch Impressionist School.
It shows the happy times as well as the drama's (the terrible winter of 1944) of the modern Amsterdam.
There is a grand tour and a short one of the highlights.Open: Monday to Friday 10 - 17 h Saturday and Sunday 11 - 17 h Price : 7,00 € (65+ 5,25€) (6-18 yr. 3,50€) Free with museum card (can be bought here). Photos are allowed.
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Phone: +31-20-5231822
Address: Kalverstraat 92
Website: http://www.ahm.nl
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Militia guilds were first formed in the Middle Ages by the civic authorities to be called out in emergencies. Members of the civic guard were well-to-do burghers. They had to buy their own equipment and arms. They held firing practice in shooting galleries known as 'doelen' (= targets). Each civic guard was named after its weapon. There were crossbowmen and longbowmen, and harquebusiers. The latter carried firearms, the harquebus or 'klover' in Dutch.
The militias regularly commissioned group portraits, so-called militia paintings.
Today some 125 militia paintings survive. Amsterdam and Haarlem were the major centre of production.
The famous "Night Watch" of Rembrandt is one among many but is unique because it shows a Civic Guard Company moving, marching on, while the others are mainly static.
The members of these civic guards had to pay to be portrayed. It is known that in Haarlem the price was about 60 Florin of that time per person. For the "Night Watch "the price was about 100 Florin per person. In the 17th c. a weaver earned about 200 Florin per year.
Ordinary guardsmen did not appear in a civic guard painting. Having to pay for their own weapons was enough.
15 huge paintings of the Amsterdam Civic Guards are on (free) display in the "Schuttersgalerij" Civic Guards’ Gallery which is a glass-roofed walkway (closes at 17 h). Best known is "De Compagnie van kapitein Joan Huydecoper" (1648) by Govert Flick.
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Phone: +31-20-5231822
Address: Kalverstraat 92
Website: http://www.ahm.nl
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Being housed in the former civic orphanage, the Amsterdam Historical Museum kept the "Regenten kamer", where the governors of the "Burgersweeshuis" orphanage held their meetings, as it was at the end of the 19th.c. with furniture and paintings of the 17th.c.
The museum has a number of items, mainly paintings, on display concerning this aspect of the "social security" in Amsterdam some centuries ago. At this civic orphanage were only admitted children from "poorters" or burghers of the city.
Other children were accommodated in the many religious orphanages.
Plague epidemics in those times left many orphans. A numbers of paintings show how they were dressed in a red and black uniform, fed, their daily life.
Surprising is too see that children did drink beer at table. It was a beer with a very low alcohol degree, by the brewing process and cooking of the grain most bacteria's present in the water were destroyed so that it was less dangerous for health to drink beer than just water. The orphans' diet was generous and there was low mortality.
The orphanages were run by a set of regents or regentesses who were almost without exception individuals appointed from the Amsterdam elite. Matrons were responsible for the daily running.
A number of large paintings show the regents or regentessen. Remarkable are the paintings "Clothing the Orphans in the Deaconate Orphanage" 1657 by Jan Victors and "Regenten" by Cl. Moyaert.
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Phone: +31-20-5231822
Address: Kalverstraat 92
Website: http://www.ahm.nl
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Room 11 shows 5 anatomy lessons painted by some of the best Dutch painters.
In the 17th century, Amsterdam and the United Provinces were among Europe’s foremost scientific centres. The quest for knowledge and for anatomical knowledge in particular, was not seen to be in conflict with religion. Even so, the dissection of a human body was not seen as a natural act. Permission was granted only sparingly, and only to well-known members of the universities, who would be allowed to perform dissections for teaching purposes or as public demonstrations.
We can see "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Jan Deijman," (1656) by Rembrandt van Rijn.
Famous are the anatomy lessons of Dr. Frederik Ruysch by Adriean Backer (1670) and another of a child by Jan Van Neck.
Ruysch a prominent surgeon, obstetrician, and anatomist was the chief anatomist of the Amsterdam surgeons' guild.
Impressive these anatomy lessons!
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Phone: +31-20-5231822
Address: Kalverstraat 92
Website: http://www.ahm.nl
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Join a Discussion NYE parties
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 Comments for breughel about Amsterdam | | | | |
Nemorino Fri Nov 13, 2009 14:48 UTC
Me again, coming back to look at your fine updates since February 24, 2008. I've never been to the Amsterdam Historic Museum but will definitely go there on my next visit. Interesting that people are now 25 cm taller than in the 18th century. | septem Tue Jun 2, 2009 20:25 UTC
Great pages, great tips and great photos. Juliana | LoriPori Tue Apr 14, 2009 18:03 UTC
Hans and I love Amsterdam and you did a marvelous page on this wonderful city. I bet you were in museum heaven here esp. the Rijksmuseum. Enjoyed your updates. | TheWanderingCamel Sun Feb 22, 2009 06:36 UTC
I knew I'd enjoy this page! Thanks. leyle |
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