Mauritshuis, The Hague

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The Mauritshuis has quite some histroy (like most of the buildings in The Hague). In a folder we were handed out we read that "in 1631, army officer John Maurice, Prince of Nassau (1604–1679), bought a plot bordering the Binnenhof and the adjacent pond named Hofvijver. The Mauritshuis was named after this Prince John Maurice and was built between 1636 and 1641, the period when he was the governor of Dutch Brazil. The Dutch Classicist building was designed by the Dutch architects Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post. The two-storey building is strictly symmetrical contained four apartments and a great hall. Each apartment was designed with an antechamber, a chamber, a cabinet, and a cloakroom. Originally, the building had a cupola, which was destroyed in a fire in 1704."

More than enough history lessons? LOL! Anyway, walking through the museum is quite joyful. I saw some paintings of famous Dutch painters from the Dutch Golden Age, including top-quality work by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Jan Steen and Frans Hals.

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Like I have said before, I have been to The Hague many times and is one of my favorite Dutch cities to visit. Still it took me several visits to actually visit the Mauritshuis by netering the museum. I have passed it many times, taken lots of pictures of the beautiful facade and finally entered it ... I wasn't sorry for it. The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis is an art museum in. Previously the residence of count John Maurice of Nassau, it now has a large art collection, including paintings by Dutch painters such as Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen, Paulus Potter and Frans Hals and works of the German painter Hans Holbein the Younger.

You could easily spend a day here, but a morning or afternoon provides a powerful impression of the wealth and breadth of a great art tradition. So, don't just walk by it, but do enter it ... it is worth while!

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On the second floor of this rather small museum is a room which contains two of the most beautiful paintings in the world.
On one of the walls hangs the "Het meisje met de parel - Girl with the pearl earring" (1666) on the opposite wall the "View of Delft" both by Johannes Vermeer.
If you stand in the middle of this small room you have just to turn around to go from one marvel, from one wonder of the world of art to another.

When I visited this museum I happened to be alone in the Vermeer room.

A Dutch art critic wrote: "Why is the Girl with the pearl earring Vermeer’s best-loved painting? It must have something to do with the fact that the girl looks over her shoulder, as though hoping to see who is standing behind her. This draws the viewer into the picture, suggesting that he is the one who has made the girl turn her head."

That's what I felt. A magic moment, but who is she? Nobody knows.

The "View of Delft" is the most renowned townscape of 17th-century Dutch art of the "Gouden Eeuw". It is the only townscape of Vermeer (with the exception of the "Little street" which is centred on a detail of a town). A cloudy sky so typical of the Low Lands (remember Jacques Brel and his song "Le Plat Pays"), the reflections in the water, the quietness. A look on Delft four centuries ago.

Open: Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 17 h; Sunday 11 - 17 h. Closed: Monday.
Price: 10,50 or 12 €; Free < 18 yr.

Visit the Mauritshuis with its wonderful art collection.
Johan Maurits of Nassau ordered this house built, it was completed in 1644. It was built by Pieter Post in the North Dutch Classical style but has italian Renaissance influences. It commands a lovely view over the Hofvijver. After Maurits died in 1679 the house passsed into state hands and became the home of the Royal painting collection in 1822. The collection is not large but it does have a very good collection of superior Old Masters and more are being added.
There are three floors of paintings and the collection changes regularly so you can go back again and again.
I especially love the Vermeer painting of the Girl with the Pearl Earring and Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson, but my favourites are the Jan Steens with the lovely comical details. I could look at them for hours.

In the same room as the two famous Vermeer I discovered a small painting made by Carel Fabritius "The goldfinch" (het puttertje or distelvink) birds which were popular house pets. The painting is conceived as a trompe-l'oeil to hang high on the wall. Viewers could think that a real bird was there.
From Fabritius (a pupil of Rembrandt) only 15 works are known. He died tragically young in the explosion of the Delft powder magazine (1654) which destroyed two hundred houses of the city of Delft and probably a large part of his works.

Open: Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 17 h; Sunday 11 - 17 h. Closed: Monday.
Price: 10,50 or 12 €; Free < 18 yr.

Not all Dutch painters had the prestige and wealth of Rembrandt in their lifetime. While Rembrandt could employ an entire studio of underlings to assist him with commissions or churn out copies, Johannes Vermeer lived a hand to mouth existence.

Vermeer had many children to support, but his perfectionist style meant he spent months producing one single canvas. Little is known about his life, but some say one of his finest works, The Art of Painting, was never sold in his lifetime. Instead, he left it on view in his home to convince patrons of his talent.

And such a talent he had! Cloth and tapestries on his canvasses look as though you could reach in and pluck a thread. Tiny details gather around his subjects and whisper of a mystery story as complex as any novel. His surpreme talent was in conveying delicate effects in light.

We know of only about three dozen complete works, so the three at the Maurithuis made the museum the top of our list (the Rijks in Amsterdam has another clutch of them). Here you can gaze on his sole landscape work, A View Of Delft; a unique early example of a mythological subject, Diana & Her Companions; and the exquisite Girl With A Pearl Earring.

Especially brought over for a brief time, which neatly coincided with our visit, was The Art of Painting!

The Mauritshuis is open daily April to August 10-5 (11-5 Sunday). From September to March it closes Monday, Xmas and New Year's Day. Admission in spring 2005 was 7.50 euros, but free with the Museum Card. AND it's free to youths aged 17 and under. Multilingual audio guides are only 1 euro. Non-flash photography allowed so get snapping!

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The Mauritshuis is one of the first and most beautiful examples of the Dutch classicist baroque, characterised by pilasters which run the full length of the facade and by frontons with various carvings. The Mauritshuis was built for Johan Maurits van Nassau, Governor of Dutch-Brasil. After a fire in 1704 the Mauritshuis was refurbished and in 1822 it became the 'Royal Cabinet of Paintings'. During extensive restoration work carried out between 1982 and 1987 a cellar was constructed under the forecourt, which houses the library and the storerooms. Artist Ger Lataster painted modern paintings on the ceiling of the upper hall. The colours he used are reminiscent of 18th-century ceiling paintings.

Originally the residence of Prins Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen (Prince John Maurice of Nassau), this 17th century palace is now the Mauritshuis museum. Although very small, the quality of the paintings by old Dutch masters (Rembrant, Vermeer, Potter) is high.