> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Rijksmuseum
- URL: https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2019/11/17/rijksmuseum/
- Published: 2019-11-17T17:00:54.000Z
- Updated: 2019-11-17T17:00:54.000Z
- Description: When visiting a large museum like the Rijksmuseum it is good to have a strategy so as not to drown in the abundance of works on display. On this visit I skipped the ground floor and the top floor and the 18th century wing. I also decided to pay special attention to Still Lifes and Landscapes.
- Author: Ivar Hagendoorn
- Tags: Blog, Art

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/c4/f7c4338c-1a69-4369-8416-8d74c9880bb6/content/images/2019/11/jan-toorop-de-zee.jpg)

Jan Toorop, *The Sea* (1887)

It's been years since I last visited the Rijksmuseum. I had completely forgotten how large it is. It is not as large as the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but you can easily spend a full day exploring the museum and still not see everything.

There's a lot more to the Rijksmuseum than Rembrandt, Vermeer and the other 17th century Dutch masters. The museum houses a small but exquisite collection of Asian art and a large collection of furniture, costumes, glass, ceramics, vintage photographs, weapons and ship models. Once again I was amazed by the stunning [model of the William Rex](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?p=8&ps=12&st=Objects&ii=6&ref=ivarhagendoorn.com#/NG-MC-651,87), a late 17th century Dutch warship, measuring 410 cm by 542 cm by 205 cm, which captivated me when I first visited the Rijksmuseum as a child. Because the collection of 17th century art is so good it is easy to overlook the collection of 19th century art, which includes a self portrait by Vincent van Gogh and works by the artists of The Hague School and the Amsterdam Impressionists Isaac Israëls and George Hendrik Breitner, for whom I've always had a weak spot.

When visiting a large museum like the Rijksmuseum it is always good to have a strategy so as not to drown in the abundance of works on display. On this visit I skipped the entire ground floor, which houses the special collections and art from 1100-1600, the 18th century wing and the top floor which covers the period from 1950 to 2000\. I also decided to pay special attention to Still Lifes and Landscapes.

Many Dutch landscapes have a low horizon dominated by a vast sky with billowing cumulus clouds. A good example is [View of Haarlem from the Northwest, with the Bleaching Fields in the Foreground](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/gezicht-op-haarlem-uit-het-noordwesten-met-de-blekerijen-op-de-voorgrond/BAGhNjUcIKTw4g?hl=nl&ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) (ca. 1650-1682) by Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael. About two thirds of the painting is sky and clouds. To get the view in this painting Van Ruisdael actually had to climb a dune in nearby Bloemendaal. What I find interesting about these type of paintings is that, if you leave out the foreground, you are left with a near abstract composition. It is the foreground that makes the sky recognisable as such.\*

The reason I find this interesting is that it shows that 17th century painters were technically capable of making abstract paintings. However, to do so required a conceptual leap that wasn't made until the 20th century. By the end of the 19th century various painters painted works that were near abstract, such as the amazing seascape [The Sea](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-4226?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) (1887) by Jan Toorop, also in the Rijksmuseum collection. Sure enough you can discern the horizon which marks the division between the sky and the sea. But the waves are a riot of brush strokes. Painted partly with a brush and partly with a palette knife the painting predates the technical experiments by 20th century artists.

It is discoveries like these that make visiting a museum like the Rijksmuseum such a joy. I plan to go back soon to visit the wings that I skipped.

### Links

\* In the 1970s Gerhard Richter painted a number of [cloud paintings](https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/paintings/photo-paintings/clouds-8?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com), which border on abstraction.