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Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague

Mauritshuis Museum It might seem a bit self-indulgent to fly all the way to Holland to go to a museum, but the Mauritshuis in The Hague (Den Haag in Dutch) is worth it.

It is home to some of the greatest masterpieces of Dutch painting in the world, including Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and the View of Delft (which ripples with light and texture on canvas but defies reproduction). I loved the way that Vermeer’s girl catches your eye across the room. “Don’t look at that painting of a Goldfinch,” she says. “Look at me.” Michiel Sweert’s eyes down, demure painting of a young maid is the perfect companion.Girl with a Pearl Earring

When I visited there was also an exhibition of Dutch portraiture which had displaced much of the permanent collection. I was delighted to see it, however, because I had missed it in London, despite buying tickets in advance and generally intending to go for weeks on end. This exhibition ends on 13th January 2008 so I just caught it.

Besides the Vermeers, there are some world-famous paintings – some Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp or Fabritius’s Goldfinch, for example – but the less familiar (but equally noteworthy) paintings are not ashamed in their company. I enjoyed them more because of the joy of discovering something beautiful for the first time. Who knew that paintings of church interiors or people skating on the ice could be so enchanting?

image It is a compact museum. The basement contains the obligatory shop and cafe and there are just two floors of exhibitions. With so little space, every painting has to be a masterpiece and they don’t disappoint.

The museum doesn’t overwhelm. The modest scale of the rooms and the well-judged organisation of the paintings mean that you can go to the Mauritshuis and emerge a couple of hours later without feeling like you’ve run a cultural marathon (as at, say, the Louvre or the Met in New York). It’s art without the pain barrier.

Information

Website: www.mauritshuis.nl

Address: Korte Vijverberg 8, The Hague

Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday 10am-5pm, Sundays and holidays 11am-5pm

Admission: €9.50

Nearest airport: Rotterdam

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  1. Rotterdam (EHRD) — Golf Hotel Whiskey says:
    January 7, 2008 at 19:41

    […] Mauritshuis Museum. Fantastic and delightfully compact museum of Dutch painting in The Hague. Read the Golf Hotel Whiskey review. […]

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  2. Reviews — Golf Hotel Whiskey says:
    January 7, 2008 at 20:40

    […] Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague […]

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  3. Bad Language / Art for Geeks says:
    January 23, 2008 at 19:10

    […] of the National Gallery. Priceless time to myself. (You may also want to read my review of the Mauritshuis Museum in The […]

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  4. Ten awesome days out for pilots | Golf Hotel Whiskey says:
    April 9, 2009 at 18:26

    […] masters at the Mauritshuis via Rotterdam If you enjoyed the article, why not subscribe? Posted to » BlogShare and […]

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  5. Visiting the Netherlands by plane - Golf Hotel Whiskey says:
    July 8, 2012 at 08:32

    […] Mauritshuis museum in The Hague (to see the Girl with the Pearl Earring) […]

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Matthew Stibbe
Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He has an FAA CPL/IR and an EASA PPL/IR and sometimes flies a Cirrus SR-22. He also writes about wine at Vincarta and being a better manager at Geek Boss.
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