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| Collage of holdings at the Rijksmuseum |
I’m not much of an art connoisseur but my sister N’ku was hell bent on seeing iconic Dutch paintings. She was rattling off names like Vermeer and “Night Watch” and I felt like I must have missed some part of vital education somewhere along the line. I mean since when do I not know something?
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| Rembrandt van Rijn. The Night Watch. oil on canvas, 1642. Close-up of this 11×14 foot painting that is the altarpiece of the Rijksmuseum shows a barely there (eye/beret) self portrait. |
Luckily for us, the Rijksmuseum (state museum) reopened this year after years of renovations. We used a voucher from our Holland Pass to gain entrance on a Tuesday morning and did not meet a line.
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| Paul Gabriël. In the Month of July. oil on canvas, c.1889 |
It was not too crowded inside either. They provide an iPod with audio tours for an additional €5, but you can actually download the app itself for free like I did! (Android; iDevice). It requires WiFi to work, freely provided within the museum, and is available in multiple languages. A very lovely and functional app indeed.
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| Painting of Self-Sacrifice on the walls: a woman breastfeeds two babies simultaneously, and on her right is the Christian symbol of a pelican feeding blood from its breast to its young. |
It was a lovely collection of art housed in an amazingly grandiose building. There was also a bonus collection of Delft pottery and an Asian Pavilion. We basically spent all day there even though I followed the “90 minutes highlights guided tour”. These are my own highlights!
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| Dirck van Delen. Iconoclasm in a Church. oil on panel, 1630. Protestants basically destroying altarpieces and saintly statues in Catholic churches during the Alteration. |
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| Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem. The Fall of Man. oil on canvas, 1592. Close-up of these adorable animals. |
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| Jan Willem Pieneman, The Battle of Waterloo, oil on canvas, 1824. Details of the largest painting in the Rijksmuseum |
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| 14th century Japanese Buddhist temple guardians Ungyō and Agyō |
I also spent far too long playing in the water fountain out in the gardens and simply forgot to explore the Henry Moore exhibition.
The following day, I went to the Van Gogh museum. I only spent a couple hours here learning about the fascinating yet sad life of Van Gogh. Talk about someone with a lack of self-confidence but also with perseverance. This museum was far more crowded for whatever reason.
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| Collage of Van Gogh’s work with museum at the top |
A lover of mangoes. A woman - smart, without pretense, lefthanded, Afropolitan - navigating this thing called life. An unapologetic believer in social justice and karma. Choosing to radiate positive energy and be true to myself. Here, my musings.
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