Helena Bonham Carter brings famous Rijksmuseum doll’s house to life

Online

This collaboration with Helena Bonham Carter brings Petronella Oortman’s world-famous doll’s house to life in a new way – online. You’ll feel like you’re standing in the middle of each room as she guides you through Oortman’s miniature world. Every detail, every object and every painting is crafted exactly as it would have been in a real house – from scissors to a sewing kit, from a mousetrap to the water pump in the kitchen. The Doll’s House joins the Rijksmuseum’s series of online tours, following Closer to Johannes Vermeer and Frans Hals: Strokes of Genius.

The Doll’s House of Petronella Oortman: Unlock the Secrets of a Model Home is available from 17 October 25.

Oortman’s Doll’s house

Petronella Oortman designed and commissioned this doll’s house at the end of the 17th century, and it was immediately acclaimed as a masterpiece. In that time, doll’s houses were seen not as toys but as representations of the ideal household, filled with hundreds of meticulously crafted miniature objects. Today, this spectacular showpiece offers invaluable insights into life in the 17th century. No other object could bring you closer to daily life in a 17th-century home, or make the past feel so tangible.

At Home in the 17th Century

The Rijksmuseum exhibition At Home in the 17th Century recreates a typical day in the life of people in the era of Rembrandt, Vermeer and Frans Hals. The personal stories it tells reveal how all sorts of people – young and old, rich and poor – lived, worked, ate, played, bathed and mourned in the 17th century. The exceptional, scenographic exhibition design by artist and theatre practitioner Steef de Jong allows visitors to move through nine life-size ‘dioramas’, following the day from the first light of morning to the moment the candles are extinguished. Highlights of the applied arts are presented alongside everyday objects found in every household.