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The Seven Works of Mercy
Master of Alkmaar, 1504, painting, SK-A-2815
A town in Holland is the setting for a narrative strip showing how a good Christian should help the needy. In almost all the scenes, Christ appears among the onlookers. The scenes give a sense of town life around 1500. This is one of the many art works severely damaged when Protestants cleansed…
On display in room 0.4
Self-portrait
Vincent van Gogh, 1887, painting, SK-A-3262
After he heard his brother Theo describe the new colourful style of French art, Vincent decided in 1886 to move to Paris. He soon began experimenting with the new idiom in a series of self portraits. This was mainly to spare the expense of using models. Here he painted himself as a debonnaire…
On display in room 1.18
The Art Gallery of Jan…
Adriaan de Lelie, 1794 - 1795, painting, SK-A-4100
In 1792, Gildemeester, a merchant, turned two large rooms at his house on Amsterdam’s Herengracht into an art gallery. Here he stands proudly at the centre of the front room, speaking with one of his guests. Visitors are examining famous paintings, including a Rembrandt - above Gildemeester’s head.…
On display in room 1.10
The Battle of Waterloo
Jan Willem Pieneman, 1824, painting, SK-A-1115
Emperor Napoleon met his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This painting – the largest at the Rijksmuseum – shows the moment when the tide turned: the British general Wellington hears that the Prussian army is approaching. Victory, and an end to twenty years of war, is at hand. The…
On display in room 1.12
Isabella van Bourbon & Pleurants
Borman workshop (attributed to), Renier van Thienen (I) (attributed to), c. 1475 - c. 1476, tomb figure, BK-AM-33-B
Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, Brabant and Limburg and count of Flanders, Holland and Zeeland, died in 1465. He had a superb tomb made for her at St Michiel’s Abbey in Antwerp. Around it stood 24 figures of grieving relatives and ancestors - called weepers. They…
On display in room 0.4
The Meeting of Joachim and Anna
Master of Joachim and Anne, Master of Joachim and Anne, c. 1470, sculpture, BK-NM-88
Joachim and Anna were childless for many years. Until Anna’s prayers were answered and she miraculously conceived a daughter, Mary. Joyous at the news, they embrace each other tenderly. This intimate, almost timeless scene was once part of a large altar depicting stories about the life of the Virgin…
On display in room 0.1
Self-portrait
Johan Gregor van der Schardt, 1573, bust, BK-2000-17
On display in room 2.3
Roemer with a poem to Constantijn…
anonymous, 1619, BK-1983-15
Anna Roemers Visscher engraved one of her own poems in a wineglass as a gift for Constantijn Huygens. The verse contains a complaint and an exhortation: her pen has dried up, her brain has rusted. She asks Huygens to fetch her some water from the Helicon – where the Muses live – so her ink will flow…
On display in room 2.8
Dolls’ house of Petronella Oortman
anonymous, c. 1686 - c. 1710, furniture, BK-NM-1010
The exterior of this dolls house is a work of art in its own right, with its mother-of-pearl and pewter veneer. The owners’ initials - Petronella Oortman and her husband Johannes Brandt, a cloth merchant in Amsterdam - are inlaid on both sides. Remarkably, all the domestic furnishings were made…
On display in room 2.20
Desk
Abraham Roentgen, c. 1758 - c. 1760, BK-16676
This desk has numerous secret compartments and drawers and even includes a fold-out prie-dieu. It was made for Johann Philipp von Walderdorff, archbishop and elector of Trier, and is decorated at the top with his portrait and heraldic arms. The desk is the most expensive showpiece ever made by…
On display in room 1.9