Rijksmuseum: The old Masters

 The second part of our day in Amsterdam, part duex finds us giving a couple of our hours to the world of art. The Rijksmuseum is located in the Museumplein along with the Van Gohn Museum and two others. It contains the works of the artists considered to be the Dutch Masters. The original museum was founded in 1800 to exhibit the private collections of some of the richest families. In 2000 it received a total restoration and was returned to its original glory. Al is excited to see Nightwatch by Rembrandt and I love Vermeer so we are looking for specific artists this visit. The museum is two complete three story buildings and can not be completely viewed in one day unless you have roller skates on and don’t take a break… having just a small time period to focus on means we will hopefully see exactly what we want within our two hour period of free time. 

Have no idea of the artist but to Albert this was a quintessential Dutch gentleman of the 17th century. He greeted us the minute we got into the gallery. After one quick turn we found ourselves in the midst of a throng of people—- all looking at The Night Watch

It was much bigger than either of us expected! There was plexiglass surrounding it about ten feet deep. It was Rembrandt’s largest painting and his most famous. The use of light to focus on the particular details is amazing. The painting would not be popular today as one of the details is the young girl who was the company’s mascot. At least I don’t think it would be accepted that the mascot should be a young girl for a company of watchmen .

Trying to get close up but the reflection of the stained glass behind me shown on the picture every time.Since we so quickly found the first treasure on our hunt we could casually wander through the galleries in search of Vemeer. Below are a few of our favorite finds..surprisingly to me, there were a number of women artists during the 1600-1700s!

Many galleries had physical pieces that were everyday items at the time but today are regarded as art today. The craftsman would decorate his work as a signature but today we realize the artistic element found. the stained glass gallery located near the gallery of Masters

The gallery of masters. Here we found Vermeer, Steen, and many of the Dutch artists considered Masters. Although we didn’t recognize all of them, it still boggles my mind that they worked on their art during a time when many worlds were just being discovered and color was still new in paints.

Treasure hunt item #2 Vermeer’s The Milkmaid

I love his use of color and light to give such depth to his paintings. The whites seem to jump out and grab you. His everyday pictures are elevated simple how he gives light to the dreary daily grind. 

There were three Vermeer’s and a few of his students work that show he was passing on the technique.

 

Since we still had time left and more importantly energy we headed out of the gallery to find the last item on our list: The Battle of Waterloo

Albert took a panorama of the painting. Even though the room was well lit, the painting is dark and notice the light used to point out the important feature of the picture. The picture vividly portrays the defeat of Napoleon ot Waterloo under the Duke of Wellington. I was not prepared for the size of this thing! It encompasses an entire wall. Below, Al tried to lighten up some detail so you can see it better.

Our trip looking at the masters finished with enough time to take a Quick Look at the impressionists that were one floor down in this part of the museum. Immediately upon entering the gallery we found Van Gogh.

Along with his self portrait that is familiar to every person on the planet we enjoyed these. 

Wouldn’t have guessed this to be a Van Gogh!

Field of wheat.. this is so similar to his other field pictures that we knew it was his immediately.

We glanced around the impressionists for a few more moments before we both decided that it was time to say goodbye. We had spent a good two hours and seen all that we hoped to plus more and our energy was spent. I think the secret to aging well is accepting your limitations and realizing when your energy is gone. With that in mind, we slowly walked to the center of the museum and found our way out. The exit area contained a caffe,the essentials of the museum and was so light and airy considering it was such an old building 

Saying goodbye to the Rijksmuseum for this visit.