Rijksmuseum

By Morgan Vukicevich

On day three of the Study Tour, the group split up between the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum. While most of the group went to see Van Gogh's art, there were a few brave souls who went to see the famous Rembrandt paintings as well as some modern art. The Rijksmuseum was massive. There were four levels. The zeroth (or ground) floor was where we entered the museum and the gift shop was also located on that floor. Also, on the zeroth floor there was a section that was all glassware. Then the first floor included artworks made in 1700-1800 and the second floor included artworks made in 1800-1900. The third floor included artworks made in 1900-2000, which was all modern art. The famous Rembrandt, “Nightwatch” was located on the second floor. For this painting there were two security guards protecting the painting because in the 1900s the painting was slashed. For the more popular paintings, the museum had cards which gave explanations of the background of the paintings. For another Rembrandt painting the museum believed the painting may have been unfinished. They also had a radiograph done in order to see if he had painted over anything. There was actually a head that was painted over. Looking at the painting it was hard to decipher what exactly he was attempting to paint. The card helped me understand the purpose of the paintings more. Even better, there were English translations for each painting and each card. There was also an app you could download to listen to the audio descriptions that were available for certain paintings. If the Louvre is anything like this museum, I will never have enough time to fully appreciate it.