The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam...

Still life with cheese by FLORIS VAN DIJCK 1575-1651

copyright Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

I was again springkeening my bookshelves and stumbled upon this book of postcards I had picked up the last time I was at Schipol Airport Amsterdam on transit to Geneva. It had a collection of lovely paintings of Dutch Masters at the Rijks museum in Amsterdam, which I find too precious to rip it off the book and send it off to friends. So, I thought perhaps it would be better to select a few of those pictures, upload them on to my blog (of course mindful of not infringing any copyright laws..hehe) so I could share them with my loyal visitors (hehe). Which reminds me if my new common friend Dr Fiona Kerlogue, Deputy Keeper of Anthropology at the Horniman Museum London is still in Bali or has gone back to London? Common friend because we both know Professor King (former Pro-Chancellor of Hull University) who I mentioned in my earlier blogpost, took the whole logstock&barrel school of Asian & Anthropology Studies from the University of Hull to the University of Leeds.

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, set in its historic home designed by P.J.H. Cuypers, houses the largest collection of art and history in the Netherlands. The museum has an internationally renowned collection based around the paintings of the seventeeth-century Dutch Republic, the Golden Age, including twenty works by Rembrandt, four by Vemeer and numerous other paintings by artists such as Frans Hals and Jan Steen. Displayed at the very heart of the museum is Rembrandt's Nightwatch. But the museum houses more than just paintings: there are superb collections of silver, delfware, doll's houses, prints, drawings, the mysterious Asiatic art and a recent completely renovated presentation on Dutch history. Work of art on paper, prints and drawings and since 1996 the photographic collection are shown four times a year in different exhibitions. The Rijksmuseum is famous above all for its extensive collection of 17th century Dutch Masters, such as Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen and Albert Cuyp.

I wish we had internet when I was at school 40 years ago so no need to go to the libraries. I was reading the latest issue of The Edge this morning and they interviewed people who are 50, 52 & 53 and asked what were the significant things that were not available 50 years ago. With satellite photos, great google maps, anyone can be an armchair traveller these days..hehe. In a few hours it will be time to get to the office..for some, for others...it's always a great sunday...hahaha