Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam's museum about its past (Rijksmuseum)

Member Name: julwhite

Product:	Rijksmuseum
Date:	07/03/08 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Definitely of interest to those who appreciate Rembrandt's works

Disadvantages: Maybe a little expensive given the rebuilding work

The Rijksmuseum is a museum near to the centre of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I visited in February 2008 on a cold day at 9am in the morning, just as it was opening.

The first thing to note is that the museum is under heavy amounts of re-construction, and after five years of work, it is estimated to re-open in full in 2009. At the moment the best of the museum's exhibits have been moved to what is called the Phillips wing of the museum.

The museum is split into various sections, starting with a look at the early wealth of the Netherlands, then a doll's house display, diusplay of Delftware and a comprehensive set of paintings including well known artists such as Rembrandt and Karel du Jardin.

You enter via a side entrance and security is tight, having to pass through a security system and metal detector. This is no doubt partly because over the last twenty five years there have been attacks on paintings in the collection. Indeed on my visit a tourist attempted to touch the frame of one of the paintings and was swiftly escorted from the building by one of the museum guides.

Entry to the museum is 10 Euros, with a small free guide in English to the museum given at the same time, and they also gave me a guide to the artist Karel du Jardin.

The displays are both in Dutch and English, which makes them very accessible. I went during a quiet period of the year, but it was still reasonably busy, but there were a large number of museum guides in the rooms looking after the collections.

The most famous painting in the collection was the "Night Watch" by Rembrandt, which is displayed well in what is nearly its own room in the museum. There were also many other paintings by Rembrandt in the collection, more than I had expected there to be.

There was a separate gallery of works by Karel du Jardin (1626-1678) who I must admit to not having heard of before. The small guide book they gave me at the entrance to the museum though provided a good introduction to the artist. With paintings I always like guides like this to help me understand what I'm looking at and what context it has generally.

The museum is well signed and easy to find and is in Amsterdam's museum square, which was noted on all the maps of the city which I saw. It opens all year round from 9am to 6pm, including on Sundays, with longer opening until 8.30pm in the summer months.

The building itself is large and airy, being built as a museum in the mid 1800s, although the imposing size of the building makes it look more like a palace sort of building. Certainly very impressive to look at from the outside.

So this is well worth a visit to understand a little more Amsterdam, the Netherlands and the history of the country. If I had to make a complaint at all I suppose it was a shame that few of the exhibits that are normally on display could be shown due to the rebuilding work, and maybe the entrance fee could have been reduced a little bit more to reflect that.

Summary: A good mix of Amsterdam's past including a good selection of paintings