Rijksmuseum rounds off historic year
Publication date: 14 December 2023 - 09:23
It’s been a historic year at the Rijksmuseum, thanks in part to the Vermeer exhibition, which ran for four months this spring. It was the best-attended exhibition in the history of the museum. For those who would love to enjoy Vermeer one more time, today sees the launch of Vermeer, experience the exhibition from home, an online 360° tour of the exhibition.
We thank all visitors for coming to the Rijksmuseum and all the museums in the Netherlands and abroad where the Rijksmuseum collection was on display last year. Thanks to all the collaborations, millions of people were able to enjoy and be inspired by art, history and creativity.
Taco Dibbits, General Director Rijksmuseum
Visitor numbers
2.7 million people visited the Rijksmuseum in 2023, and their average rating for their experience at the museum was 8.5. More than 1 million of the total were based in the Netherlands, while the largest proportions of international visitors came from the United States (12 per cent of all visitors), followed by France and Germany (both 7 per cent). The number of children who visited the Rijksmuseum in 2023 was 473,000. The figure for online visits is many times higher, with 8.2 million people visiting the website plus a social media reach of 77 million.
Vermeer
Our visiting public gave us very high ratings for the Vermeer exhibition: the average visitor rating was 8.7. It also garnered rave reviews worldwide. More than 650,000 people were able to see it, thanks partly to our extended opening times. The online experience Closer to Johannes Vermeer, with Stephen Fry and Joy Delima, allowed an additional global audience of 900,000 to enjoy Vermeer’s work. And, starting today, everyone is welcome to take the 360° online tour of the new virtual Vermeer exhibition.
The Vermeer exhibition was made possible in part by Ammodo, Blockbusterfonds, the Rijksmuseum Fund, Rijksmuseum International Circle, Rijksmuseum Patrons and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). Closer to Johannes Vermeer is made possible by KPN. The 360° tour is made possible in part by Ammodo.
United Nations
Early this year the Rijksmuseum exhibition Slavery. Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery ran for a month at the Visitors’ Lobby of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The Rijksmuseum also hosted a programme of events at the UN to explore the subject of the exhibition. It featured speakers from the US, the Caribbean region and Europe. The exhibition then toured to Geneva, the UK and other destinations in 2023 and will visit more places around the world in 2024. This display is based on the Rijksmuseum’s 2021 exhibition Slavery.
Match
The Rijksmuseum intensified its collaborative activities with fellow Dutch museums in 2023. Alongside the existing M6 partnership of six regional museums, this year saw the start of Match, a new initiative through which 12 museums around the Netherlands presented a masterpiece from the Rijksmuseum collection. In each case, the museum matched the masterpiece with a work from its own collection. Half of the participating museums experienced a marked increase in visitor numbers as a result. Match attracted more than 140,000 visitors.
The Standard Bearer
The arrival of The Standard Bearer was another historic moment for the Rijksmuseum this year. This masterpiece painted by Rembrandt in 1636 was purchased by the Dutch state with support from the Rembrandt Association, the VriendenLoterij (Friends Lottery) and the Rijksmuseum Fund. Hundreds of schoolchildren welcomed the painting to the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour at the celebratory event on 14 June. It is now on permanent display in that gallery, having toured to museums in all 12 provinces of the Netherlands for one month each throughout the year. More than 155,000 people visited The Standard Bearer on Tour.
Purchased by the Dutch State with support from the members of the Rembrandt Association, the VriendenLoterij, the Rijksmuseum Fonds.
More exhibitions
Mission Masterpiece was the Rijksmuseum’s first ever ‘activity exhibition’ for children: we transformed the Phillips Wing into a gigantic laboratory where young visitors were invited to work with microscopes, UV light and X-ray scanners. When summer came it was time for an exhibition of the work of world-famous British land artist Richard Long, and autumn saw the start of an exhibition of 90 major works from the collection of Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
Largest-ever private donation
In 2023 the Rijksmuseum received a pledge from a private individual for a donation of €12.5 million, designated for the annual sculpture exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Gardens. This largest-ever private donation to the Rijksmuseum will enable us to stage the annual sculpture exhibition for the coming ten years.
Women of the Rijksmuseum
The past 12 months have brought the first visible results of the Women of the Rijksmuseum initiative. The eponymous fund has grown rapidly, thanks in part to the involvement of many private individuals and a new partnership with Chanel, enabling us to take on additional researchers. The focus of research this year was on female donors and testators to the Rijksmuseum. The Shattered Ceilings symposium in March 2023 saw the release of the first ever edition of the Rijksmuseum Bulletin to be entirely devoted to women. The Rijksmuseum also purchased numerous works of art by female artists, including a pastel self-portrait by Thérèse Schwartze.
This project is made possible in part by CHANEL, the Susi Zijderveld Fonds, the Familie Krouwels Fonds, the Machteld Vos & Willem Sijthoff Fonds, the Heleen Dura- van Oord Fonds, the Kind Courage Monique Maarsen Fonds, the Familie Staal Fonds, the Karin van Leeuwen Fonds and the 'Women of the Rijksmuseum' Fonds.
Acquisitions
The Rijksmuseum acquired more than 5,200 objects in 2023, through the generous support of numerous donors and benefactors. The objects include four gilt-silver salt cellars by the Amsterdam silversmith Johannes Lutma. Shortly before this purchase, the objects had been returned to the heirs of the German-Jewish collector Emma Budge, because she had been forced to sell them shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Other significant purchases this year include a 17th-century gold ruby glass by the German inventor, alchemist and glassmaker Johann Kunckel, and a painting and two drawings by the British artist Marlow Moss.
The purchase of the Lutma salt cellars was made possible by the VriendenLoterij, the Mondriaan Fund, the Rembrandt Association and private donors through the Rijksmuseum Fund. The gold ruby glass was purchased with the support of the VriendenLoterij, the Ambaum Haks Fund/Rijksmuseum Fund and a private donor. The purchase of the works by Marlow Moss was made possible by support from Pon and through the Rijksmuseum Fund: the Irma Theodora Fund, the ‘Women of the Rijksmuseum’ Fund and a private donor.
Sustainability
The Rijksmuseum again took various steps to further improve sustainability in 2023, for example by almost entirely ceasing use of gas for heating. All the central heating boilers in the main museum building were replaced with heat pumps, resulting in a 97 per cent reduction in gas consumption compared with 2019. We are also looking into ways of broadening the conditions for climate control in the galleries to enable further reductions to energy consumption. We have also initiated the GoGreen project, through which research will be conducted into the most environmentally friendly approaches to conservation and restoration.
Accessibility
During the Vermeer exhibition we instigated the Closer to Vermeer project, which will see actual-size replicas of the four Vermeer paintings in the Rijksmuseum collection touring to nursing homes and elderly centres throughout the Netherlands. It will mean that people who are unable to visit the Rijksmuseum will still be able to enjoy The Milkmaid, The Little Street, The Love Letter and Woman Reading a Letter. The project is made possible in part by Rijksmuseum founder Philips, the Elisabeth Art Foundation/Rijksmuseum Fund and Pon. And it is thanks to the Bartiméus Fund that the Rijksmuseum was this year able to launch a new navigation system for visitors with a visual impairment. The navigation system was developed in the eZwayZ app, so now everyone can find their way around the museum independently, safely and effortlessly.
2024
See what’s on at the Rijksmuseum in 2024; from a major exhibition devoted to Frans Hals to 4,000 years of Asian bronze art.
Vital support
The Rijksmuseum is grateful for all forms of support it receives. It is clear that government subsidies, corporate contributions and support from funds, as well as donations, legacies and Friends are, and will remain, essential to the Rijksmuseum.
