The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located at the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts and history.
The Rijksmuseum contains the world's largest collection of paintings by the Dutch masters, including the most famous of all, a single work that all but defines the Golden Age. The painting is Rembrandt's The Shooting Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, 1642, better known as The Night Watch.
Beside the large collection of paintings, dating from the Dutch Golden Age, the Rijksmuseum also offers a substantial collection of Asian art. Visitor figures obtain 1,400 000 every year.
Foundation
The museum was founded in The Hague in the year 1800, to exhibit the collections of the Dutch governors. By then it was known as the National Art Gallery. In 1808, the museum moved to Amsterdam on the orders of king Louis Napoleon, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte.
In 1863 there was a design contest concerning a new building for the Rijksmuseum, but none of the submissions was considered to be of sufficient quality. Pierre Cuypers also participated in the contest and his draft reached the second place. In 1876 a new contest was held and this time Pierre Cuypers won.
The design was a combination of Gothic and Renaissance elements. The construction began on October 1st, 1876. On both sides, the inside and the outside, the building was richly decorated with references to Dutch art history. The museum was opened at its new location on July 13th, 1885.
The front of the museum is located at the Stadhouderskade and the reverse has a prominent position at the Museumplein, nowadays among the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and the Concertgebouw.
In 1890 a fragment building was added to the Rijksmuseum. This building was made out of fragments of demolished buildings, that together give an overview of the Dutch history of architecture. In 1906 the hall for the The Night Watch of Rembrandt was rebuild.
In the 1960s exposition rooms and several floors were built into the two courtyards. As from 2003 until 2010 the Rijksmuseum will be restored and renovated based on a design by the Spanish architects Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz. During the restoration and renovation process only a few paintings of the permanent collection are on display, in an exhibition called The Masterpieces, which takes place in the already renovated Philips wing.
Library
The Rijksmuseum Research Library is part of the Rijksmuseum, and is the largest public art history research library in the Netherlands.
Opening hours
Rijksmuseum, The Masterpieces
Every day from 9:00 to 18:00, on Fridays from 9:00 to 22:00; Closed January 1st
Infocentre (The New Rijksmuseum)
Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 16:00
Library, Print Room and Reading Room
Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00
Address
Jan Luijkenstraat 1
Amsterdam 1070 DN Netherlands
+31 20 674 7000
info@rijksmuseum.nl
http://www.rijksmuseum.nl
