Art in the Netherlands - Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh

Art in the Netherlands - Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh

• A study of Dutch art, following the re-opening of the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art.
• The seventeenth-century Golden Age (Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer), Van Gogh and other major figures.
• The lecturer is an expert art historian specialising in the Northern Renaissance.
• Also architecture and design from mediaeval to modern, and several highly picturesque historic town centres.

INTRO

ITINERARY

DETAILS

GALLERY

PRE & POST

INTRODUCTION

The Five Syndics, engraving c. 1886 after Rembrandt.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, one of the world’s great museums, closed for major refurbishment for over ten years, reopening in 2013 and finally allowing us to offer comprehensive art history tours to the Netherlands once again. The Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art have also recently re-opened, to great acclaim.

The seventeenth century was the Golden Age in the history and art history of the northern Netherlands. (Much of this activity was concentrated in Holland, though that was but one of seven provinces which constituted the United Provinces, now the Kingdom of the Netherlands.) This was the time of Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer and innumerable other great masters.

The Dutch School is of universal appeal, with its mix of realism, painterliness and potency, though it is best appreciated in the excellent art galleries of their native country – and against the background of the well preserved and wonderfully picturesque towns and cities. With their canals, cobbled alleys and gabled mansions, many have changed little in three hundred years.

There is also focus on Vincent Van Gogh, the bulk of whose output is in the Netherlands. Painters of the Hague School of the nineteenth century have a presence, as do pioneers of modernism in painting and architecture, the architects Van der Velde and Gerrit Rietveld for example, and the abstract painter Piet Mondriaan. More recent art and architecture also features.

The base for the tour is a five-star hotel in Utrecht, whose central location means relatively short journeys to all places visited.

ITINERARY

DAY 1

Haarlem. Fly at c. 12.00 midday (British Airways) from London Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam Schipol. Haarlem was the chief artistic centre in the northern Netherlands in the sixteenth century and home of the first of the great masters of the Golden Age, Frans Hals, whose finest works are in the excellent small museum here. Drive to Utrecht, where all six nights are spent.

DAY 2

Amsterdam. With its rings of canals lined with merchants’ mansions, Amsterdam is one of the loveliest capitals in the world. Our first visit to the brilliantly refurbished Rijksmuseum concentrates on the major works in its unrivalled collection of 17th-cent. paintings, Rembrandt’s Night Watch and five Vermeers among them. A boat trip leads to the house where Rembrandt lived and worked for twenty years, well restored and with a display of prints. Also newly extended, the Van Gogh Museum houses the biggest holding of the artist’s works, largely from brother Theo’s collection.

DAY 3

The Hague, Delft. The Mauritshuis at Den Haag contains a superb collection of paintings including masterpieces by Rembrandt and Vermeer. Exhibited here also are 19th-cent. Hague School paintings, the realist milieu from which Van Gogh emerged, and works by the pioneer abstractionist Mondriaan. Visit also the illusionistic Mesdag panorama and the centre of city, seat of the court and parliament. Drop into Delft, the exceedingly attractive little town where Vermeer lived.

DAY 4

Otterlo, Het Loo. Located in gardens and surrounded by an extensive heath, the beautiful Kröller-Müller Museum has the second great collection of works by Van Gogh as well as an eclectic holding of paintings, furniture and sculpture. A leisurely visit here is followed by time at the 17th-cent. gardens of Het Loo, the former royal country palace. Brilliantly restored, they constitute the finest surviving garden ensemble of their time.

DAY 5

Gouda, Utrecht. Gouda is an exceptionally pretty town with an elaborate town hall of c. 1450 and a large Gothic church, Sintjanskerk, with 16th-century stained glass, the finest of its era. Utrecht is one of the best-preserved historic cities in the Netherlands, with canals flanked by unbroken stretches of Golden Age houses. The excellent art museum has a major collection of paintings of the 17th-cent. Utrecht School. See also the Rietveld House (1924), a landmark of 20th-century architecture.

DAY 6

Amsterdam. Return to Amsterdam. The Museum Willet-Holthuysen is a canalside patrician’s house furnished as in the 18th century, while the Museum of Amsterdam excellently presents the history of the city. There is free time in the afternoon for revisiting the Rijksmuseum (there is much to see other than the Golden Age paintings) or the Van Gogh Museum, or visiting the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art which has re-opened after prolonged closure for refurbishment.

DAY 7

Rotterdam. Rotterdam is a thriving city and a centre of contemporary architecture. The Boijmans van Beuningen Museum is the second largest art gallery in the Netherlands and has many important Dutch paintings and good decorative arts. Fly from Schipol and return to Heathrow at c. 4.30pm.