The story
At the end of a long gallery hangs Rembrandt's 'Night Watch', a militia company bursting into movement as their captain steps forward, painted in 1642. It is not quite the picture Rembrandt made. In 1715 the city moved it into the town hall, found it too wide for the wall, and trimmed strips off all four sides, cutting away two figures on the left for good. The museum has been studying and cleaning it inside a glass enclosure in full public view, a project it calls Operation Night Watch.
The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands, built to tell the country's story as much as to hang its paintings. Pierre Cuypers gave it a cathedral-like brick front in 1885, so crowded with Dutch history that critics at the time grumbled it looked more like a church than a museum. A ten-year renovation closed it almost completely, and it reopened in 2013 with the old picture halls restored.
The heart of it is the Golden Age, the 17th century when this small trading nation was briefly the richest in Europe and its citizens wanted themselves and their world painted. Vermeer's 'Milkmaid' pours her thin stream of milk in a plain room, still and exact. Around her hang the militia portraits, the sea battles and the frozen-canal scenes that these merchants and burghers commissioned of their own world.
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Collection
400 works
The Naval Battle against the Spanish near Dunkirk, 18 February 1639Willem van de Velde the Elder, 1659
The Nave and Choir of the Mariakerk in Utrecht, Seen from the WestPieter Jansz. Saenredam, 1641
The Nieuwe Kerk and the Town Hall on the Dam in AmsterdamIsaac Ouwater, 1785
The Outer Moat of Amsterdam, with the Leidse Poort, seen from the Town TheatreJohannes Jelgerhuis, 1813
The Quack, from the Dolls' House of Petronella OortmanManner of Cornelis Dusart, 1700
The Quay de Paris in RouenJohannes Bosboom, 1839
The Raampoortje in AmsterdamWouter Johannes van Troostwijk, 1809
The Ratification of the Treaty of MünsterGerard ter Borch, 1648
The Reis Effendi, Head of the ChanceryJean Baptiste Vanmour, 1728
The Rising of the Women of Rome on the Capitol on Account of PapiriusPieter Isaacsz, 1601
The Saint Elizabeth’s Day FloodMaster of the St Elizabeth Panels, 1492
The Sick WomanJan Steen, 1664
The Siege of RhenenMaster of Rhenen, 1512
The Stone BridgeJan van der Heyden, 1666
The Street Seller, from the Dolls' House of Petronella OortmanManner of Cornelis Dusart, 1700
The Studio of the Haarlem Painter Pieter Frederik van OsAnton Mauve, 1856
The Sultana-MotherWorkshop of Jean Baptiste Vanmour, 1718
The Tailor’s WorkshopQuirijn van Brekelenkam, 1661
The Three DrovesNicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, 1656
The Tomb of Michiel de Ruyter in the Nieuwe Kerk, AmsterdamEmanuel de Witte, 1683
The Tree of JesseCircle of Geertgen tot Sint Jans, 1500
The Trekvliet Shipping Canal near Rijswijk, known as the ‘View near the Geest Bridge’Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch, 1868
The Virgin and Child with Four Holy VirginsMaster of the Virgo inter Virgines, 1497
The Watercourse near ’s-GravelandPieter Gerardus van Os, 1818
The Waterfall at TivoliAbraham Teerlink, 1824