Exhibition programme 2026

6 February - 25 May 2026

Passion and desire, lust and jealousy, cunning and deceit — few classical texts have stirred the imagination of artists as deeply as Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In the eponymous exhibition artists as Titian, Correggio, Cellini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rodin, Brancusi, Magritte, and Bourgeois rival the imaginative power and artistic vision of one of Antiquity’s greatest poets. Over 80 masterpieces will be brought together from museums and collections worldwide. This exceptional exhibition has been developed through close collaboration between the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and Galleria Borghese in Rome.

The exhibition Metamorphoses is made possible in part by The Bennink Foundation, Blockbusterfonds, Rijksmuseum International Circle, Rijksmuseum Patrons and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Press release

6 February - 25 May 2026  

At a time when image manipulation using AI is attracting widespread attention, this exhibition demonstrates that altering images is nothing new – from the very beginnings of photography, images were being altered using scissors and glue. Featuring more than 50 historical photographic images from the museum’s own collection, the exhibition shows how photo manipulation developed from the birth of the medium up to the Second World War – and reveals the motives behind it.

The photography collection of the Rijksmuseum has been established with the generous support of partners, and private and institutional benefactors.

Press release

5 June - 25 October 2026

The 2026 edition of the annual exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Gardens is the first to be dedicated to a Dutch artist: Carel Visser (1928–2015). The artist was at the forefront of Dutch sculpture in the second half of the twentieth century. Initially drawing on the pioneering work of artists such as Constantin Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti, he gradually forged a distinctly personal style marked by ever more pronounced abstraction. Over fifteen works will be coming from different Dutch museums, private collections and public space. Visser’s Eight Stacked Beams (1964) is on display at the Rijksmuseum, and in 2024 his Signal 1 and Signal 2 (1964) were given a permanent place in the Rijksmuseum Gardens.

The exhibition Carel Visser in the Rijksmuseum Gardens is made possible in part by the Don Quixote Foundation/Rijksmuseum Fonds, Pon and the Rijksmuseum Club

19 June - 13 September 2026  

In summer 2026, the Rijksmuseum will offer a unique perspective on Ed van der Elsken, the foremost Dutch photographer of the 20th century. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to explore his life, his career and the postwar period through a selection of well-known and never-before-seen photographs, contact sheets, letters, notes, book designs and film clips from his own archive.


Ed van der Elsken (1925–1990) was a pioneer of street photography who consistently made his own life the subject of his work – a highly unusual practice for the time. He worked intuitively and experimentally, and frequently engaged directly with the people in front of his lens. Van der Elsken took a bold and innovative approach in both his focus on everyday subjects and his extensive darkroom experiments.

In 2019, the Rijksmuseum and the Nederlands Fotomuseum acquired the photographer’s complete archive, encompassing four decades of material. This now allows us to illuminate the key moments of his career ‘from within’: from his decision to become an independent photographer to recording the final phase of his life on film.

The exhibition Ed van der Elsken is made possible in part by the Familie Krouwels Fonds, Jan and Trish de Bont and a private donor through the Rijksmuseum Fonds.

9 October 2026 - 17 January 2027 

The Rijksmuseum presents Willem de Kooning at work, a landmark exhibition that places the artist’s creative process at its core. Featuring around 120 works, it offers a comprehensive overview of his drawings, alongside selected paintings and sculptures. A century after leaving his hometown of Rotterdam as a stowaway bound for the United States, de Kooning returns to the Netherlands in this ambitious collaboration between the Rijksmuseum and the Art Institute of Chicago, in close consultation with The Willem de Kooning Foundation.

Tracing de Kooning’s artistic evolution, the exhibition follows his journey from the Netherlands to New York where his work showed a startling lack of adherence to stylistic norms as he shifted between figuration and abstraction while creating bold works that defined Abstract Expressionism. It continued with decades of vital energy in his Long Island studio that led this colorist through to the perfect integration of drawing and painting. Through his drawings, audiences gain unprecedented insight into an artist constantly searching for renewal - a modern master whose restless line forever reshaped the language of art.

 The exhibition Willem de Kooning at work is made possible in part by The Willem de Kooning Foundation, Stichting Ammodo, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, Rijksmuseum International Circle and Rijksmuseum Friends.

Visitors to the Night Watch Gallery will see the Operation Night Watch team working in the glass chamber on the biggest ever research and restoration project devoted to Rembrandt’s masterpiece. They are currently working – with microscopic precision – to remove the old varnish from the painting. This phase marks the start of the treatment that will ultimately ensure the painting is preserved in the best possible condition for future generations.

Operation Night Watch is made possible by main partner AkzoNobel, along with funds and private donors through the Rijksmuseum Fonds.

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