What You Will Actually See
Why the Dutch Golden Age still matters
The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands, with around 8,000 objects on display in 80 galleries, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Its heart is the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age, when a newly rich merchant class paid for portraits, landscapes, still lifes and scenes of daily life rather than church altarpieces. No museum holds a finer collection of that period.
The Night Watch
Rembrandt’s Night Watch (1642) is the visual climax of the building, at the far end of the Gallery of Honour. It shows a militia company in movement rather than posing, with light that pulls figures out of the shadow — a revolution for a group portrait. Since 2019 the painting has been the subject of a long public restoration project, Operation Night Watch, so depending on the stage of the work it may be seen behind a glass enclosure.
What most visitors miss
Vermeer’s small, still paintings, including The Milkmaid, reward a few quiet minutes. The Delftware collection and the 17th- and 18th-century dolls’ houses — cabinet-sized models of canal houses, furnished in miniature — are among the most unusual objects in any European museum. The museum gardens, around the building, are free to enter.