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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
The Night Watch Militia Company of…
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642, painting, SK-C-5
Rembrandt’s largest, most famous canvas was made for the Arquebusiers guild hall. This was one of several halls of Amsterdam’s civic guard, the city’s militia and police. Rembrandt was the first to paint figures in a group portrait actually doing something. The captain, dressed in black, is…
On display in Nightwatch gallery
Portrait of a Woman, Probably Maria…
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1639, painting, SK-C-597
Maria Trip, daughter of one of Amsterdam’s wealthiest merchants, was twenty when Rembrandt painted her portrait. The artist placed Maria against a stone arch and devoted particular attention to the reflected light, the fashionable dress and jewellery. The costly garments are trimmed with strips of…
On display in room 2.8
Interior of the Sint-Odulphuskerk…
Pieter Jansz Saenredam, 1649, painting, SK-C-217
Once a Catholic church, St Odulphus’s passed into Protestant hands at the start of the Dutch Revolt against Spain. The artist shows a service taking place. Worshippers are listening to the preacher on the right in the pulpit. Sermons are the main feature of a Protestant service. Saenredam came…
On display in room 2.14
Isaac and Rebecca, Known as ‘The…
Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1665 - c. 1669, painting, SK-C-216
It seems that Rembrandt painted his subjects as the biblical couple, Isaac and Rebecca. Its popular name, the Jewish Bride, is a later invention. The portrait is painted with an extraordinarily free hand, as in the sleeve, where the paint is especially thick and shaped to reflect the light.
On display in Gallery of Honour
Portraits of Giuliano and Francesco…
Piero di Cosimo, 1482 - 1485, painting, SK-C-1367
This diptych shows a leading Florentine architect, Giuliano da Sangallo with his late father Francesco, also an architect and a musician. These are early examples of portraits in which the subject’s profession plays a key role. Here a pen and dividers suggest architecture, a melody in note form…
On display in room 0.5
Mary Magdalene
Jan van Scorel, c. 1530, painting, SK-A-372
The woman is Mary Magdalen. A jar of ointment is her usual attribute, with which she is said to have tended Jesus’s feet. Van Scorel portrayed her as a seductive, lavishly dressed courtesan, a reference to her apparent origins as a prostitute. Her costume shows the influence of Italian painting on…
Still Life with a Gilt Cup
Willem Claesz Heda, 1635, painting, SK-A-4830
In forty years, Willem Heda only ever painted still lifes. His paintings differ from the still lifes of his contemporaries: the colours are gentler, cooler and more harmonious. The bright yellow lemon peel is the only colour accent. In this work, Heda shows his skill in rendering different…
On display in Gallery of Honour
The Well-stocked Kitchen, with…
Joachim Bueckelaer, 1566, painting, SK-A-1451
It is not the profusion of vegetables, fruit, meat, poultry and kitchenware displayed here by these housemaids that forms the main theme of this painting. It is Jesus visiting Mary and Martha, shown almost as an aside in the distance. The contrast between foreground and background contains the moral…
On display in room 0.6
A Windmill on a Polder Waterway,…
Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël, c. 1889, painting, SK-A-1505
‘Our country is colourful, juicy, fat. (...) I repeat, our country is not dull, not even in dull weather, the dunes are not dull either’, Constant Gabriël wrote in a letter. Unlike many artists of the Hague School, he preferred painting fine summer days. Here there are two: the grass, sky and…
On display in room 1.18