Delights of the Rijksmuseum

While the hugeness of the main museum is being renovated, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has an excellent display concentrating on the 17th century - the Dutch Golden Age.

Photography isn't allowed in the galleries, so out came the sketchbook, a much better way to "see" an exhibition than though the lens of a camera -
The model ship in the fist gallery was amazing - about 3 metres high, the size of a small sailboat! And the ink drawings on canvas of battle scenes were so very detailed - apparently the artist, William van de Velde, would be on board ship, sketching the battles as they happened

This image is of the Battle of Bergen (1665) -

Also recorded in my book are comments about the wall treatment in the galleries - what looks like flocked wallpaper seems to be huge stencils of fleur-de-lys patterns, done in matte paint over a shinier background colour (or vice versa) - looks great. You start noticing the walls after you pass through a dark corridor, painted dark brown with lots of names stencilled on the walls in lighter brown paint - hard to read entire names because of their length, not completely lit up by the spotlights along the wall.

Emerging from the corridor you see people sitting and smiling, looking at something intently - this turns out to be a clock, and what a clock - a new take on 'digital' by Maarten Baas -

see it in action here.

Also on my sketchbook page is my drawing of 11-year-old Harmen ter Borch's drawing of his 4-year-old brother Moses - drawing. Moses (1645-1667) was a very talented artist but died young, shortly after the battle of Chatham. His brother Gerard and sister Gesina did a memorial portrait of him. Not much is known of Harmen (1638-?1677), who gave up painting in 1661 - best known in the family is Gerard (1617-1681). All the children were first taught by their father Gerard (1583-1662).

Yes, The Night Watch was on display, as were other paintings by Rembrandt.

Another fascinating display in the museum are the two doll's houses; see the one shown in the postcard here -

The shop was full of tempting goodies - I do wish I'd bought this set of stamps, silhouettes from Averkamp's Winter Landscape -