Rijksmuseum (State Museum)

Rijksmuseum (State Museum) Review

Designed by P. J. H. Cuypers in the late 1880s, the Rijksmuseum is a magnificent turreted building that glitters with gold leaf and is textured with sculpture—a fitting palace for a national art collection. It is home to Rembrandt's The Night Watch, Vermeer's The Kitchen Maid, and world-famous masterpieces by Steen, Ruisdael, Brouwers, Hals, Hobbema, Cuyp, Van der Helst, and their Golden Age ilk. During renovations (until 2012-13), there's a highlights exhibition in the Philips Wing where you can see all these. When the museum reopens, you can look forward to more than 150 rooms of paintings, sculpture, and objects with Western and Asian roots, dating from the 9th through the 19th century. The bulk of the collection is of 15th- to 17th-century paintings, mostly by Dutch masters, as well as drawings and prints from the 15th to the 20th century. Take your entrance ticket to Café Cobra on Museumplein (the Rijksmuseum has no catering) for a 15% discount on the menu. Don't leave the country without visiting the mini-museum at Schiphol Airport (Holland Boulevard between piers E and F behind passport control 020/653-5036 Free Weekdays 7 am-8 pm).