Monday, May 15th, 2023 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Today we visited the Rijksmuseum to see the Vermeer exhibition, in fact it was this exhibition that originally attracted us to finishing off our world voyage with a trip to Amsterdam. The exhibition brought together the largest collection of Vermeer paintings ever in one place, many of the major galleries around the world loaned their works to this very prestigious show; 28 of the known 35 Vermeer paintings were in the exhibition – we booked the tickets months ago.
Sandra and I visited the Rijksmuseum several years ago and have fond memories of a very well-organized museum with outstanding works superbly curated – we had high expectations for the special Vermeer exhibition. Founded in 1798, the collection of the Rijksmuseum was housed in several locations before moving to the current purpose-built museum in 1885 – it’s a beautiful red brick structure with an inviting arched entryway through which we proceeded at our appointed time.
The Vermeer exhibition was arranged in several large rooms and segregated from the main museum, entering the first room it became immediately obvious that the exhibition was very busy – there were enormous crowds around each painting. Even though the rooms were large I found it a bit claustrophobic. Going elbow to elbow with other excited visitors is not my idea of a pleasing art exhibition. I didn’t realize how many Vermeer paintings followed the same basic composition, light streaming through a window onto a subject; while Vermeer is the undoubted master are capturing light in this special way it became somewhat repetitive after a while. I have to say that I found the Vermeer exhibition a bit of a disappointment; the crowds were gigantic, and you have to blame the organizers for over-selling the event, the monotonous compositions and the absence of the star attraction – “The Girl With The Perl Earring” had been sent back to its owning gallery for some reason.
I consoled myself with the fact that we could visit the magnificent Gallery of Honor in the main part of the museum; the Rijksmuseum does a great job of pulling together all of its most famous items and displaying them in one gallery – this is a great way to see the best of the museum all in one room. We remembered the Gallery of Honor from our last visit, and I was especially looking forward to seeing the Rembrandt’s Night Watch – perhaps my most favorite painting. However I was dismayed to find the Night Watch was under repair, enclosed within a glass room with lots of computer equipment blocking the view – ahh!
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