Amsterdam - June 8 at Rijksmuseum

Rather than cram all that we did on the 8th into one post I've decided to just post pictures from our visits to the Rijksmuseum, The Netherlands National Museum.

I'm not exaggerating when I say it takes more that a few hours to see.  We were there for 90 minutes on the 6th and 5 hours on the 8th and we still didn't see everything.  But our feet were done and we still had to walk back to the houseboat (it's about 2k from houseboat to museum I think).

I'm not going to pretend that I know all these artists and the names of the paintings.  But some are very famous and I remembered them from Art History.  Others I have the descriptions to go by, and still others are ones that I just truly liked, though I don't know the artist(s).  I'll label those I can and will just recommend that if you're ever in Amsterdam and you have the slightest interest in art, or even, if not art, you want to see what people wore, how they lived in the 1600's and such, do make plans to visit the Rijksmuseum.

Johannes Vermeer - Woman in Blue reading a letter

this one caught my eye - it's titled woman feeding a parrot...by Jan Havicksz Steen

 so I looked and sure enough, it's an African Grey!  Looks just like Sydney, doesn't it!

Loved the light and composition 

Landscape with a Cottage - by Salomon van Ruysdael - the light on the horses caught my eye

I just wanted to join in with this happy guy!  "The Serenade" by Judith Leyster

Piet Mondriaan - I've always been attracted to Mondriaan's work so I was really happy to see this

And of course we had to see the van Gogh Self-portrait - you could always tell which were the truly 'famous' works because they each had at least one guard, sometimes two.  

And of course Monet.  "La Corniche near Monaco" Who can see this and not be absorbed by the light, color and that cliff in the background.  I came back to this one a couple times.

This wall of art grabbed me, and I focused on the lower right corner, of course.  

But truly, how could I pass it up?  It is so "Beach Rider" to me, plus it's called "Morning Ride along the beach" by Anton Mauve - I think he's one of my new favorite painters.  I spotted his work many times in the museum.  

Then of course, there's Napoleon's pistols.....

and the FK 23 Bantam

Rembrandt's Nightwatch - as seen from the side - I couldn't ever get very close (and I have no excuse for mislabeling it - thanks to Nev Bradford for politely pointing out my mistake)

THIS is actually a detail of the painting "The Militia Company" - I was fascinated with the details)  - at least I hope it's a detail of that painting....I've done some double checking and it appears correct)

The Militia Company was actually painted by two artists - check out the story below:

This is a closeup of a naval battle scene - the detail on the ships is stunning - as Ken says "how does it not take them 40 years to paint this?"

Another painting with an African Grey - can you spot it?

"Wooded View near Barbizon" by Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch

And Whistler's "Arrangement in Yellow and Gray" - I just wish the lighting was better on the paintings that were higher up - a lot of glare that was hard to avoid

"Adriaan van der Hoop's Trotter 'De Vlugge' (The Fast One) in a Meadow" by Anthony Oberman - a portrait of the times

This is a "Reliquary in the form of a triptych" from the 1400's and I truly don't mean to sound blasphemous - but when I saw the figure in blue on the left the first thing I thought of was "The Scream" by Munch - now I realize it isn't the same, but it did flash through my brain that he could have seen this at some point in his life and it made an impression.  Maybe?

And these next few are for Bob

Ken thought you'd enjoy these

and would have been as impressed as he was in the weapons room.  Wall after wall of beautiful and functional weapons.

and this one is for Lloyd - I was thinking of you when I entered this room

When we were all done with the museum we walked back to the pub (are they pubs in Amsterdam?  They're pubs in London and Biergartens in Germany...hmmm I think more research is needed!!!) across the canal from our houseboat and waited for Mom and Dad and Greg and Yolanda to return from their explorations.  Doesn't look like we suffered, does it?  And we got to meet a delightful Amsterdamer couple who joined us at our table and we struck up a conversation for about 30 minutes.

Next up will be the houseboat, and our explorations of Amsterdam.....to be continued!