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In the Rijksmuseum print cabinets

Until 30 November 2025

The collection of over 750,000 prints and drawings at the Rijksmuseum is one of the largest in the world. Spanning from 1440 to the present day, these works on paper include engravings, etchings, woodcuts, lithographs and photographs. Due to the fragility of the medium, we change the displays in the Print Room every six months, which also allows us to carry on telling new stories. This time our focus is on the vast archive of the Dutch Swellengrebel family, as well as a rare 19th-century condom.

Print cabinet for the 19th century: 200-year-old condom

The Rijksmuseum recently purchased a most intriguing historical artefact: a condom made in the 1830s. Probably made from the appendix of a sheep, this almost 200-year-old contraceptive device features an erotic print depicting a nun and three clergymen. Thought to have been a souvenir from a brothel, only two such objects are known to have survived to the present day. An object such as this testifies to the variety of contexts in which printing was already used. It also offers an insight into sexuality and sex work in the 19th century. The condom is on view alongside erotic engravings and etchings from the same period. The display in the cabinet for the Middle Ages is also devoted to erotic prints.

Print cabinet for the first half of the 17th century: Jacques Bellange

The artist Jacques Bellange (c. 1575-1616) worked at the court of the House of Lorraine in Nancy, France. He was celebrated in his own lifetime, and despite the unfortunate loss of his paintings to history, the survival of his spectacular etchings permanently secured his reputation. Most of Bellange’s etchings depict biblical or mythological scenes, sometimes in everyday settings. What strikes the viewer most powerfully is the technical execution. The artist’s stylistic choices make his etchings instantly recognisable: he worked with hatched lines for the shading of everything but human skin, for which he used individual points.

Print cabinet for the second half of the 17th century : Papercutting

Papercutting is a unique form of paper-based art. Rather than drawing or painting on the paper, the artist cuts out pieces from it using scissors or a razor-sharp knife. This technique was hugely popular in the Netherlands of the 17th and 18th centuries. One Dutch papercutting artist, Johannes van Achelom (c. 1640 -1703/1711), was even called to work in Florence by Cosimo de’Medici III. The Rijksmuseum acquired the best-known piece by Johanna Koerten (c. 1650 -1715) in 2024. Works by these two artists are on view in the 17th-century print cabinet alongside others made by amateurs.

Print cabinet of the 18th century: The Swellengrebel family collection

The Rijksmuseum and the National Archives of the Netherlands recently acquired the vast archive of the Dutch Swellengrebel family. To celebrate this acquisition we are devoting an entire display to this collection. We focus particularly on the travelogues of Hendrik Swellengrebel the Younger, in which he documentd his journeys to the Dutch Cape Colony, and the watercolours he commissioned from Johannes Schumacher (?-1792). The watercolours capture the landscapes, wildlife and people described by Swellengrebel in his journals. Another object of particular interest is a drawing made for Swellengrebel by an Oeswana San artist. It depicts animals including ostriches, rhinoceroses and a buffalo. The display also features a diary and a drawing by the sisters Johanna (1730-1753) and Helena Swellengrebel (1733-1798). They kept a journal together on their voyage from the Cape to the Netherlands in 1751. It is one of the few written records of women passengers aboard a VOC ship.
Gezicht op Sint-Helena Gezicht op Sint-Helena

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In the Rijksmuseum print cabinets
Until 30 November 2025

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  • Adults: € 25
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