We wanted to see how mustard is made so we drove to the tiny town of Doesburg about 90 minutes east of Amsterdam near the German border. We traveled for the mustard but ended up being totally charmed by the 13th century Hanse village of Doesburg. (Keep reading and I’ll share a mustard soup recipe, below.)
The Hanseatic League (now referred to as “Hanse”) was a group of merchant guilds and merchant towns in nothern Europe that banded together for commerce and defense beginning in the 1400’s. They had their own armies and legal systems but they were not a government. Their trade routes extended from London to Scandinavia to Estonia. They fought pirates, built ships, and controlled trade in the region for more than 300 years.
Because they belonged to the Hanseatic League, little Doesburg became a prosperous medieval town until the River IJssel silted over. Today about 12,000 people live in the beautifully preserved town. Doesburg is popular with Europeans and more than 4,000 camping spots are located just outside of town for visitors.
City street in Doesburg, the Netherlands.Pretty house. Doesburg, the Netherlands.Love these window well covers. Doesburg, the NetherlandsCity street. Doesburg, the Netherlands.Shoes displayed in a store-front window. Doesburg, the Netherlands
Right in the middle of town you’ll find the Doesburg Mustard Factory. They’ve made mustard in Doesburg since 1457 and still sell it in grocery stores today. According to their website, “Mustard is offered at every meal and is used with most vegetable and potato dishes” in Doesburg.
The Doesburg Mustard Factory. Doesburg, the NetherlandsThe mustard museum’s collection of this and that formerly used for mustard making. Doesburg, the Netherlands
Mustard seed. Doesburg, the Netherlands
We dashed into the factory in the late afternoon and joined the last tour of the day with an entrance cost of about $3. A mustard maker explained how the seeds are removed from the dried bushes and soaked in a mixture of vinegar and water and spices for several days. The seeds soak up all that goodness and then they are ground into mustard.
Grinding mustard by hand with a small stone in a bowl. Doesburg, the Netherlands
The factory uses millstones that are hundreds of years old to grind the mustard. Here’s a video I made of our tour. Not the greatest quality, but you’ll get to see how mustard is made.
Here’s the mustard as it leaves the grinding wheels. Doesburg, the NetherlandsThis machine used to be used to fill the jars. You can see in my video that a different machine is now used. Doesburg, the NetherlandsThese are the precious little pots used to package the mustard at the factory. Doesburg, the Netherlands
The best part, of course, was the tasting at the end of the tour. We were so busy gobbling up fresh mustard and Gouda cheese that I forgot to take photos! Here’s the Mustard Soup recipe I promised earlier.
Doesburgsche Mosterdfabriek Mustard Soup
200 grams smoked bacon (1/2 pound)
40 grams butter (2.5 tablespoons)
1 onion
60 grams flour (1/2 cup)
1/2 litre milk (2 cups)
1/2 litre water (2 cups)
3 tablespoons Doesburg mustard
1 leek
Cut the bacon into small cubes; slice and finely chop the onion and leek. Melt the butter in a soup pan and gently fry the bacon, onion and leek until soft. Add the flour, stirring all the time so that it does not burn. Let this cook for a few seconds. Gently add the milk and the water. When this has been thoroughly sitrred, add the mustard and season to taste. For an extra luxurious soup: Add a couple of tablespoons of cream with the mustard.
First you drive an hour east of Amsterdam past green fields and creamy cows, sharp industrial parks, and ever-changing speed zones. You arrive in the dense Hoge Veluwe National Park and abruptly stop at a gate with a small tourist booth. Believe it or not, you’ve arrived at the second largest collection of Van Gogh paintings in the world: The Kroller-Muller Museum.
A canopy of trees leads you to the the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
The gate keeper explains that you are in a national park and that while your Museum Kaart gives you free admission to the museum, you have to pay 9 Euros for admission to the park (the museum is in the middle of the park) and 6 Euros to drive into the park. You can save the parking fee by parking at the gate, borrowing one of the free white bicycles, and peddling four kilometers to the museum.
We chose to spend the six euros and drive the four kilometers into the park but you can see that many, many people chose to ride the park’s free bicycles into the De Hoge Veluwe National Park. Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands.
It turns out the 4-kilometer drive into the park follows a pretty but circular route through the forests with a stop at the museum. When you leave it’s only about 1/2-kilometer back to the main gate. So it’s an easy walk or peddle to the museum if you go backwards from the gate rather than follow the long, circuitous route prescribed.
The museum, itself, is sleek, a modernist’s dream nested into a rich, green sculpture garden.
Meneer Jacque greeted me in front of the Kroller-Muller Museum.
The sculpture gardens are located behind the museum but you get a taste of the art as you approach the front door.
The inside of the museum is just as beautiful as the exterior with clean, fresh lines and – unusual for most museums – lots of seating.
Inside the museum.That’s a Calder hanging from the ceiling, Henry Moore peeping over the wall and fresh flowers in the foreground next to big, empty benches. Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands.
The Potato Eaters, Vincent Van Gogh
These are a few of the paintings Van Gogh created as he studied the local field workers. He was interested in how they worked and how they moved but he did not fill in or closely detail many of their faces. He was more interested in the light, the color, the motion of the moment.
Peasant Women Digging up Potatoes, 1885, by Vincent Van Gogh. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Head of a Woman, 1885, by Vincent Van Gogh. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
And here is Van Gogh’s masterpiece.
The Potato Eaters, Vincent Van Gogh, 1885. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
I know you are reading this because you are interested in Van Gogh – and there are more photos at the bottom of this blog. But so many other greats are featured at this museum! The best part of viewing paintings at the Kroller-Muller is that there are not hordes of people crowding around a tiny painting. You don’t feel pressured to move on after three seconds (think The Mona Lisa in the Louvre). You can almost smell the paint as you take a side-ways look at the artist’s brushstrokes and a guard doesn’t come running up to tsk-tsk you away. Visiting the Kroller-Muller is an extraordinarily delicious experience!
Impressionists
Here’s Georges Seurat’s La Chahut, a neo-impressionist artwork that Seurat created using the pointillist technique of painting with tens of thousands of dots of paint. Close up you might only see pink or green but at a distance, the colors blend and you’ll see brown. This painting was a huge hit when it was introduced in Paris in 1890. It led the way for new art movements such as my daughter Christie’s favorites, the Fauves.
Georges Seurat’s La Chahut, 1889. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Here are close-ups of two sections of this painting. See what I mean about getting close without being rushed?
This is a close-up of the lower left corner of Georges Seurat’s La Chahut, 1889. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.This is a close-up of the lower right corner of Georges Seurat’s La Chahut, 1889. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Here’s another side of Georges Seurat with A Corner of the Harbor at Hornfleur, 1886. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Many more impressionist artists are also represented at the museum. Here are a few of the paintings that attracted me such as this painting by Renoir of the Clown John Prince. Renoir was commissioned to paint this full length portrait by the owners of the cafe at the Circus d’Hiver in Paris.
We can usually quickly recognize a Renoir painting, but this one took me by surprise. It’s only of his early portraits created for the owners of a circus. Renoir’s Le Clown, 1868. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.A more traditional Renoir, Au Cafe, 1877. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Because I’m in the Netherlands, I was drawn to this Paul Signac painting of Rotterdam, 1906. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.I love this very tall canvas of Mata Hari created by Isaac Israels in 1916. You can feel her power and dignity. I imagine she attracted attention wherever she walked. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.This painting attracted me just because it’s pretty. It was created by Maurice Denis for a young girl’s bedroom. He calls the 1892 painting April. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Camille Pissaro, whose work is below, is the artist who encouraged Van Gogh to paint with more color and to paint more freely. Pissaro was fascinated with the interplay of light and color, according to information provided by the Kroller-Muller Museum.
Camille Pissarro’s Bazincourt, 1893. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Van Gogh
As promised, here are more Van Gogh’s.
This painting features both the sun and the moon. Researchers learned that this painting was created on the first day of a new moon so it’s quite possible that both the sun and the moon were in the sky. Van Gogh’s Country Road in Provence by Night 1890. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Here is detail of the painting, above, Van Gogh’s Country Road in Provence by Night 1890. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Here is detail of the painting, above, Van Gogh’s Country Road in Provence by Night 1890. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Here is detail of the painting, above, Van Gogh’s Country Road in Provence by Night 1890. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.This is one of Van Gogh’s very first oil paintings. It is asw much an experiment of how to use the medium as it is a still life study of light and shape. Van Gogh’s Still Life with Straw Hat, 1881. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, “You know Jeannin has the peony and Quost has the hollyhock, but I am in a way the one who has the sunflower.” (Taken from the wall of the The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.)
Van Gogh’s 4 Sunflowers Gone to Seed, 1887. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Detail of Van Gogh’s 4 Sunflowers Gone to Seed, 1887. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.I read that lavender fields only became popular about 100 years ago, yet…..Van Gogh’s Saintes-aries-de-la-Mer, 1888. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Van Gogh’s Olive Grove, 1889. This reminds me so much of our view out the window during our wonderful two weeks in Provence. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Van Gogh’s Moulin de la Galette, 1886. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.One of my very, very favorite paintings. I bought a print for my home to remind me of this extraordinary painter. Van Gogh’s Bridge at Arles, 1888. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.This wildly popular painting of Van Gogh’s Terrace of a Cafe at Night, 1888, is available in purses, napkins, table cloths, mouse pads, calendars….just about anything you can think of at the fine gift shop. The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Flowers
The beautiful floral arrangements throughout the museum made this museum even more delightful. Here are a few snaps:
Fresh floral arrangement at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Fresh floral arrangement at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.Fresh floral arrangement at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Make the trip to the Kroller-Muller Museum. It’s well worth the visit and a great break from the frenzy of Amsterdam. There are easy bus and train connections and the drive is interesting.
The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
This has nothing to do with this visit to the Kroller-Muller, but you must watch this trailer for the upcoming movie Loving Vincent, just because it is such an original. Breakthru Films has taught 100 painters to paint in the style of Vincent for the movie. Cannot wait! Read more about the world’s first fully painted film here.
There’s also an interesting video about Van Gogh’s life here from 1Media if you’d like to know more about Vincent’s life.
The pretty little towns and harbors of The Netherlands are the real magic of the lowlands. Hoorn, founded in 1300, became a VOC (Dutch East India Company) by the 1600’s. “Merchants, traders, seamen, dignitaries and authorities populated the then capital of West-Friesland” (Tourist Brochure, Mooi Hoorn 2016, Toeristisch Magazine). They created a harbor-side city of quaint brick buildings that are now embellished with the iconic Dutch trims and rooftops that let you know in an instant that you are in The Netherlands. It is neat-as-a-pin beautiful.
Houses along the shore in Hoorn lean against each other for support. Notice how the houses in the distance lean forward? That is so that owners loading goods into their attics would not have their stuff smacking the front of the house as they hoisted up the load.Pretty cottages line the streets of Hoorn, the Netherlands.When in doubt of your direction, look for a church steeple. It’s usually near the center of town.This is one of the very narrow streets we drove down with cars parked on one side of the road and two way traffic maintained. We pulled our side mirrors in and held our breath…… Notice the brick buildings on the brick streets with the brick sidewalks? It felt like I was driving in a brick canyon.
Because the town is situated next to the water, when our GPS said to go right, it was really telling us to take a swim. Since we didn’t want to sink the car, we headed around the block and tried to find a new way to get to a small quay where we wanted to park. After several long and loopy right turns, we found a parking spot only to be waived off by a woman who said firmly, “No, no, you cannot park here.” Sher showed her our handicapped parking pass and with a large smile she pointed, “this way!” and we drove across a narrow bridge to one of two parking spots. The Dutch make space for the handicapped, but not many. Three cars squeezed into the two spots. But by some kind of GPS luck, we were right next to our destination: The Museum of the 20th Century.
This was our view as we ate our lunches next to the harbor. The benches in the front of the photo were part of a monument complete with silver suitcases and bags of goods. I think the monument may be about immigration. Hoorn, The Netherlands.
We hopped out and sat down on benches overlooking the scenic marina and a monument to – I think – immigration. As we dug into our hand-packed lunches a fine drizzle began to soak our sandwiches so we headed back to the car and huddled in the front seat as we watched the mist slowly turn into a deluge. Five minutes later, lunch was done, the rain had stopped, and we headed for the museum.
Our picnic view of the Harbor in Hoorn, The Netherlands.We even spotted a river barge docked up in port which explained the many visitors who swarmed the town about the time we arrived.
The Museum of the 20th Century is a nostalgic collection of stuff used by the Dutch during the last century. The treasures are gathered into decades to show how technology has impacted family life, as well as into big categories like school or toys or shopping. Walking through the museum was like talking to a favorite granny about “What was life like back in the day?”
The walkway leading up to the Museum of the 20th Century.The front door of the Museum of the 20th Century.
Visitors begin their journey through the 20th century by viewing typical rooms of each decade. A good narration on the free audio tour explains how technology freed women of hard manual labor and birth control helped downsize families from about nine children in 1910 to one child in 2000. Interestingly, most technology came to the Netherlands from the United States about 10-15 years after the US.
In 1910, homes were very small and families were very large with about 9 children. This family was well off and could afford an organ and a heating stove. Museum of the 20th Century, Hoorn, the Netherlands.By 1920’s, some families entertained themselves with a record player.In the 30’s, kitchens were rudimentary and cold running water was not introduced until the 50’s. The refrigerator was really an ice box – the salesman stopped by once a week with a block of ice – until well into the 60’s.Laundry, anyone? In a wooden tub!Television was introduced in the 50’s as famlies began to downsize after the war to about 5 kids. There was only one channel on television until the 60’s.
The Danish modern rage was adopted in the Netherlands and family time around the dining table began to fade in favor of lounging around the TV in the 70’s.The Dutch are proud of their thriftiness and apparently these banks were used by households to budget out the family expenses. The museum had several variations of this savings bankBy the end of the 70’s, the dining room had become smaller and conveniences such as transistor radios became popular.You say you want toast? Sorry for the blurry photo but, really!By the 80’s orange was the absolute rage and EVERYTHING was orange.
The museum acknowledges the challenges of two terrible wars during the 20th century which slowed down technological progress in homes. The museum also took a look at a typical shopping street in the early part of the 20th century. Families worked in shops, took a break at lunch time, and re-opened in the afternoon. Interestingly, people still love their small shops and there is no large grocery chain or big box store such as Walmart in the Netherlands. It’s been tried but never caught on.
The Dutch love their children and there was room after room of toys. It was so much fun to see what children played with and how it connected to the toys of my childhood!
It’s Holland, so of course kids had to learn to skate early. See the pillow strapped to this little guy’s backside?Barbie was huge in Europe. I loved seeing NASA Barbie and Ken and airline Barbie and Ken. Of course, Ken’s flying the plane because we knew full well women couldn’t fly a plane.Dutch Barbie & Ken.Didn’t every little girl want their own sewing machine? I did.I’m pretty sure my family owned this duckling jigsaw puzzle.Can you imagine putting your kid on this killer tricycle?
There were roomfuls of goodies – TVs, cell phones, appliances and dishes that never made it to the museum displays; they were just grouped under variety and stashed in shelves in rooms. It was fun to wander through these rooms and remember what similar items our families owned when we were growing up.
The beautiful town of Hoorn and the sweet Museum of the 20th Century are well worth the hour drive out of Amsterdam. The slower pace is a healing antidote to the frenzy of Amsterdam and truly soothes the soul.
We discovered a museum of automatic musical instruments in Ultrecht, the Speelklok Museum. Our family’s most special heirloom is an antique Eckhardt silver music box that my grandfather brought with him from Croatia. So this little museum of music box wonders was a delight for me.
Our family’s music box is also a tree stand.
Our old German music box plays Silent Night and Oh Sanctisima. My father used to put it out every Christmas with a small Christmas tree that would spin. Here’s a little video of the music box.
We took the excellent tour provided for free by the museum. Our guide easily switched between Dutch and English while giving children in the group the opportunity to operate the machines. If we had not taken the tour, we would not have seen so many machines operate.
This machine was a highlight of a world’s fair in the mid-1800’s. It played the visible piano and violins with drums buried deep in the casing. Visitors actually thought children might be inside the box playing the instrument.
Here is the machine (above) operating. Many of the machines are so easy to play that even a child can play them. This child was asked to demonstrate during our tour.
You can easily see the diversity in design of these music boxes and clocks.
Here is a short video of the bird in the cage (photo above) performing. And here’s another short video of the operation of the small box to the far right.
This is the large calliope-type musical instrument that works perfectly, booming out tunes that fill the museum with sound.This music box/clock plays a sweet little tune as birds twirp in the trees.When you turn the handle on this little automaton, the spindles play music and the band members at the top play drums.
Here’s a video of the music box (above) in motion.
This heavily gilded clock is a typical music box in the museum.This is actually a juke box and plays a selection of several songs which the operator can choose.
Here is a little video of a bunny popping up mechanically – but he is shy and quickly disappears.
This video is about a huge automatic machine playing one of its tunes. (I do not have a photo of this machine but you can see it in the video.) This is what the dampers look like opening and closing when the huge machine is working.
These are the inner workings of an old large musical machine.
The entire museum is housed in a renovated old church. According to our Amsterdam tour guide, only about 40% of people in the Netherlands belong to a church and fewer than 10% worship regularly. That means there are a lot of churches throughout the country that have been decommissioned and are now used for new purposes such as the Speelklok Museum. The museum designers wisely chose to keep some of the heritage pieces on display in the church.
You can see the museums heritage as a church in its very walls.
For example, this old bread table for the poor dates from 1603. Back in the day, guilds would sponsor their own altar in a church such as this bread table for the poor sponsored by the Saint Eloy Forgers’ Guild. According to a plaque in the museum, guild members used an inheritance from a rich forger to hand out five cents worth of bread and five cents in coins to 20 less fortunate members of the guild every Sunday.
This is a guild bread board that once was used to provide help for the poor when this museum was a church.
The remains of a fresco on a wall in the upper loft shows the Tree of Jesse, a depiction of the lineage of Christ according to Jesaia II and Mathew I. This artwork was created by the Master of Evert van Soudenbalch about 1550. In 1600, the Netherlands was the richest country in the world and the great art of that period is seen as the result of those riches throughout the country.
This tapestry depicting Jesus’ lineage dated from the mid 1500’s.
Admission to this don’t-miss museum is covered by the Museumkaart. Here’s one more little video that is a bit of a fantasy of a summer night.
Our first stop in Amsterdam was the extraordinary Rijksmuseum, the Museum of the Netherlands. We made our reservations months ahead of time and were rewarded by a comfortable, early-morning visit with controlled crowds. What a treasure!
First off, the building itself is beautiful with a colorful brick exterior decorated with intricate designs of inlaid bricks. There is a feeling of graviats as you enter the building yet as you look up, the huge space fills with light and welcomes you to enter.
Secondly, the story of Dutch exploration and accumulated wealth is reflected in massive paintings of men at work and families at play, all richly dress and sporting elaborate jewelry. The Dutch lavishly support the arts so the museum has a bountiful display of great art as well as significant artifacts like furniture and boxes for storage of precious items. The entire museum is dedicated to arts, crafts and history.
The Wardens of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, 1662
You will see lots and lots of these kind of Dutch paintings across Europe. With no photography, back in the day, it was common for guilds and families to pose for portraits.
In this photo you can see how the painting looks on the wall at the Rijksmuseum. The painting on the left is the Drapers’ Guild; the painting on the right is The Jewish Bride.
The Nightwatch by Rembrandt, 1642
This painting filled a long wall at the museum where it’s been a mighty crowd pleaser since 1885 and it was difficult to get close – so I borrowed this image from Wikipedia which says this is the best known painting in the Rijksmuseum’s collection. My source says, “The painting is renowned for three characteristics: its colossal size (363 cm × 437 cm (11.91 ft × 14.34 ft)), the effective use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), and the perception of motion in what would have traditionally been a static military portrait.”
Each district of Amsterdam had a guard unit made up of about 120 men. This, most likely, was a guard unit who kept watch on their area of the city. “There were some 120 men in Frans Banning Cocq’s company, but only 19 of them are shown in the painting…Depending on where they were positioned, (the subjects) paid up to 100 guilders each to be included, and the captain and lieutenant no doubt paid more than that,” according to Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen in “What Great Paintings Say – Volume 2.” This wasn’t a fighting unit – Amsterdam largely used mercenaries to fight their wars – it was really more of a guild of city leaders.
The next painting is one of my favorites. My little “bible” of art, Julian Porter’s “149 Paintings You Really Need to See in Europe” says, “When he saw this painting in 1885, Van Gogh said, ‘What an intimate, what an infinitely sympathetic painting. Believe me, and I mean this sincerely, I would have given 10 years of my life if I could sit for a fortnight before this painting with just a dry crust of bread to eat.‘” Yes, it’s that good.
The Jewish Bride by Rembrandt, 1667
In the book Rembrandt, Christopher White wrote, The Jewish Bride “is one of the greatest expressions of the tender fusion of spiritual and physical love in the history of painting.” No one is sure of who the people are in the portrait but some people think they were a couple posing as a biblical couple for this portrait.
The people of Amsterdam sometimes posed for portraits that depicted scenes from the Old Testament of the Bible. The Netherlands were a fairly new country when it became rich through trade in the 1650’s, so if painters wanted to paint history, some chose to paint bible history. This was a bit problematic because the country was heavily Calvinistic at this time and the religion placed restrictions on artistic subjects (paintings were even forbidden in Calvinist churches). Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen discuss this in “What Great Paintings Say – Volume 3”, writing, “Calvin did not want paintings to be worshipped, his teachings thus forbad works of art depicting God, Jews, Mary or the martyrs of the Catholic Church.” That pretty much left the Old Testament. The Netherlands “certainly had no heroes who could hope to compare with the famous figures of the Old Testament.”
Self Portrait by Rembrandt, 1628
The Rijksmuseum has curated their collection in such a way that it is easy to understand not just the item but the context of the item. The picture above is a tiny self portrait by Rembrandt. The curation notes, in both Dutch and English, take up more wall space than the painting. This is terrific! I can easily see the text and the image, making my visit easy and interesting.
Here’s a typical sign that appeared next to the Drapers’ Guild painting. See how easy it is to understand both the history and the art?
The Threatened Swan, Jan Assalijn, 1650
Isn’t this swan just magnificent? It fills a wall at the museum. This painting was so lifelike, I expected the swan to hiss at me.
The Feast of St. Nicholas by Jan Havicksz Steen, about 1650
This isn’t one of the “greats” but I love it because it kind of reminds me of Christmas at our house when the kids were growing up. Note the child who got coal from St. Nicholas. Not good.
Vermeer, The Milkmaid, 1658-1661
The Rijksmuseum is where I finally fell in love with Vermeer. I used to volunteer to teach art appreciation to students at my kids’ elementary school as part of a team of school docents. We introduced students to Vermeer but concentrated on his technique rather than content. Imagine my astonishment when I saw what the man could do beyond technique! The Milkmaid transforms the very space where it hangs with a rich butter-yellow tone that engulfs the room. Julian Porter writes, “The jumping blue of the balloon skirt against the flaxen yellow of the cloth blouse set under a gold pot against an ivory spotted wall flooded in light is a drawing room bravura act.” I already miss this painting.
Here is more great stuff at the Rijksmuseum showing the wealth made through trade.
There was an interesting exhibit of 21 Joan Miro sculptures in the Rijksmuseum Gardens, but we just ran out of time and didn’t visit. It was kind of funny that when we traveled to Barcelona to the Miro Museum, one of his sculptures was missing – it was back in Amsterdam and we had missed it there, too.
Personnage by Joan Miro, 1975
I did get to enjoy Miro’s Personnage 1975 as it was displayed in the Rijksmuseum lobby. I couldn’t find a sign telling me what I was seeing but people stopped and photographed the sculpture because it simply dominated the space.
So that’s the Rijksmuseum for this visit. I’ll be back again next summer 2016 and you can count on me adding to this page.
