Художественные музеи Голландии

In the view of foreigners, Holland is a country of canals, tulips and Rembrandt. Rembrandt's work is an exceptional phenomenon, in many respects opposed to the flow of works of his Dutch contemporaries. And yet it constitutes the pinnacle, the crest of an extraordinarily wide wave. Perhaps nowhere and never did painting become as widespread as in Holland in the 17th century. In all the museums of the world devoted to Western European art, the Dutch section is one of the richest.

To this day, Amsterdam is one of the international centers of antique trade. For three and a half centuries, huge art treasures were sold here, magnificent collections were created and again disintegrated. However, Dutch museums, with their remarkable collections, only emerged in the 19th century. The reasons for this should be sought in the history of the country and in a kind of "domestic" attitude towards antiquity and art. If in other European countries paintings were primarily the property of a royal or princely palace, then in Holland of the 17th century the finest, highly professional paintings found their way into the homes of not only wealthy burghers, but also artisans and even peasants.

Permanently being in Dutch homes, paintings educated people's eyes and taste, shaped their attitude to art.

Masterpieces of the national school of painting are the contribution of Dutch museums to the treasury of the world's artistic heritage. People from different countries come to their halls to see paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer, Frans Hals and van Gogh. These paintings are the pride of the Dutch people, the greatest treasure of their culture.

B/W and color illustrations:

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Museum Mauritshuis in The Hague

Frans Hals Museum in Harlem

Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam

National painting of the 19th–20th centuries in Dutch museums