10 things to know about the lights of the Rijksmuseum

Pretty clever, don’t you think, the way artist Gerard Dou (1613-1675) used no fewer than four light sources to illuminate the room for this painting? He specialised in these kaerslichten, or ‘candlelights’, as they were known, and they were incredibly popular.

As well as being used to illuminate dark places, lamps have played a big part in religious rituals. Like in Hindu temple services, or pujas, where moving a lamp in front of an idol of a god is an essential part of worship. In ancient India, lamps were one of the most popular gifts made to temples.

Nowadays we are totally accustomed to electric streetlights switching on automatically, but things were very different in the past. Back then, it was the job of lamplighters to light the street lanterns, which burned either gas or oil. This miniature shows just such a lamp lighter, with an oilcan in his right hand – just about to illuminate the streets!

Pretty clever, don’t you think, the way artist Gerard Dou (1613-1675) used no fewer than four light sources to illuminate the room for this painting? He specialised in these kaerslichten, or ‘candlelights’, as they were known, and they were incredibly popular.

The arrival of new inventions and technologies brought big changes to 19th-century life. This modern type of oil lamp was introduced in France in 1836, and soon found its way into Dutch living rooms. This version in the Rijksmuseum collection is a miniature, made of silver.

Lighthouses sweep a bright beam of light over the sea to help ships navigate safely at night. This reflector was made in the United Kingdom. In 1818, the Westkapelle Lighthouse became the first in the Netherlands to have 15 of these ‘catoptric’ (reflective) lamps installed.

This model of the lighthouse on the Dutch island of Ameland may only be 1.5 metres in height, but at 55 metres the real lighthouse is one of the tallest in the Netherlands. It was designed by Quirinus Harder, the most important lighthouse architect of the second half of the 19th century. The outer wall of the tower is made of prefabricated cast-iron segments that were assembled on site.

The woman in this picture is carrying a chôchin lamp. Chôchins are made of paper stretched over a bamboo frame, and they are collapsible. People would carry them by hand to light their way in the dark, and they were also often seen hanging from the eaves of restaurants. In the background of this Japanese print – part of a triptych – at ground level you can see round lanterns hanging from restaurant roofs, and decorative pictures of flowering irises. The floor above is illuminated with smaller red lanterns.

Light can be used to create spellbinding effects. Magic lanterns like this one were actually an early type of slide projector. With its light source and special lens, it could be used to project fanciful images. Particularly in aristocratic circles, it was common for people to marvel at these projected pictures while listening to enchanting stories.

Take a good look at this candleholder. You might suppose it’s real, but nothing could be further from the truth. This Ansbach porcelain object was manufactured in The Hague and then painted to achieve a very realistic effect. The items you see lying in the candleholder all contribute to this realism. There is a stick of red sealing wax and a letter seal, as well as a pair of scissors that might have been used for trimming the wick.