Mauritshuis

The Mauritshuis is a small but exceptional art museum in The Hague, housed in a seventeenth-century town palace beside the Binnenhof, the centre of Dutch government, and overlooking the Hofvijver pond. It is known for its concentration of masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, and because the rooms are intimate in scale, visitors can enjoy the paintings without the crowds and exhaustion of a huge museum. For many art lovers it is the highlight of a visit to the city.

The building was constructed in the 1630s and 1640s for Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, a nobleman and soldier who had served as governor of Dutch Brazil. It was designed in a restrained classical style by Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post, two of the leading architects of the Republic. In the early nineteenth century the state bought it to house the royal cabinet of paintings, and it opened as a museum in 1822. A renovation completed in 2014 added a new wing and a link across the street to the neighbouring building, creating more space while preserving the old rooms.

The collection is famous for a few superstars. Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, the luminous portrait of a girl in a turban looking over her shoulder, is the best known, and his View of Delft is almost as famous. Rembrandt’s work is represented by The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, an early group portrait of surgeons at work, and by late self-portraits. The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, a tiny painting of a chained bird, is a favourite, and the huge Young Bull by Paulus Potter shows the range of Dutch landscape painting.

The museum also owns works by Jan Steen, Frans Hals and Peter Paul Rubens, among others, along with still lifes and flower paintings that reflect the Dutch passion for detail. Look closely at the brushwork and the treatment of light, and use the guides or the audio tour to learn what to look for.

Nearby are the Binnenhof, the Peace Palace, the Prison Gate, the Haags Kunstmuseum and the modern Amare cultural centre, all within walking distance. The Mauritshuis suits art lovers, history fans and anyone seeking a manageable museum visit. Book tickets in advance, especially for weekends, and plan on about two hours. Inside, the rooms are small enough to feel like a private collection. Whether you know a lot or a little about art, Vermeer’s and Rembrandt’s pictures reward slow looking, and the bull by Potter is bigger than you expect.