Conducting your own research
The Rijksmuseum offers several ways of access into primary and secundary sources, in multiple forms, on location in Amsterdam, online and at other institutions. We make these resources and the support available so you can start or deepen your own research.
The Rijksmuseum Archive
The archive of the Rijksmuseum and its predecessor institutions is housed at the Noord-Hollands Archief in Haarlem. It forms a rich source of information on the history, management and acquisition of the museum’s collections. The documentation in the archive spans from the early 19th century to 1995, and includes correspondence with donors, information on exhibitions and acquisitions, as well as the archive of the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities. A large portion of the archive has been digitised and is searchable online using the archive website, while more recent archives are available for direct access at the Rijksmuseum. These materials are used extensively for scholarly research and, together with the inventory cards, constitute an important primary source for documentation and provenance research.
The collection
The current Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, founded in 1885, arose out of the merger of several 19th-century Dutch collections. The Rijksmuseum collection includes artworks from the former Royal Cabinet of Curiosities, for example. The collection is accessible to everyone online. The advanced search feature, under ‘search options’, allows users to locate specific objects. On the individual object pages, you will also find information that may be useful for provenance research, including related publications and thematic pages such as the one on colonial provenance.
Collections Research Library
The Rijksmuseum Research Library is one of the world’s leading art libraries. Housed in the Cuypers Library at the Rijksmuseum, it holds an extensive collection of books, journals and catalogues on the subject of colonial history. The library collection also includes around 130,000 auction catalogues spanning from the 17th century to the present – a significant portion of the catalogues are available digitally via the online library catalogue. The library also offers access to digital databases such as Art Sales Catalogues Online, which holds more than 20,000 historical auction catalogues dating from 1600 to 1900, containing information on the provenance and previous owners of art objects.
Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands
Founded in 1918, the Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands (KVVAK) has assembled a collection of around 1,850 high-quality Asian art objects, including sculptures, Japanese prints and ceramics. Since 1952, the entire collection has been housed at the Rijksmuseum, which manages the Society’s archive and makes it available for provenance research. The KVVAK collection is exceptionally important to the Rijksmuseum in multiple ways, including for the purpose of research into collections with a colonial background. If you wish to consult the archive, please contact the KVVAK by email: info@kvvak.nl.
Colonial Collections Datahub
The Colonial Collections Datahub is a digital platform and website that aggregates, enriches and provides access to data on collections with a colonial context. It includes information on objects with connections to Suriname, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the Dutch Caribbean islands. The datahub provides a facility that allows researchers and communities to contribute to it by adding their input. It also offers search aids and tips for conducting research into objects with a colonial background, such as those in the collections of Dutch museums – including the Rijksmuseum. You will also find brief entries on the context and history of these objects. Via the research aids you can also explore the history and collections of the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities (Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden, KKZ), and the Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands (Koninklijke Vereniging van Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst, KVVAK) which are part of the Rijksmuseum.
Contact
If you have a question for the provenance researchers about the history of any object(s) in the Rijksmuseum collection, please contact us here.