rijksmuseum

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my last stop in amsterdam before heading to hamburg was the rijksmuseum.  this is yet another museum under construction with a completion date of sometime in 2013.  the museum is over 200 years old.
the rijksmuseum
they have whittled down a museum about the size of the louvre into eleven rooms of the masterpieces.  do not worry though, they are still charging full admission for the museum.  on one hand, i think the whittling down is great and therefore they should charge full price.  i could easily find the ten masterpieces that my guidebook recommended.  i was not exhausted after viewing the art.  on the other hand, the museum is usually so large, my guidebook warns "be prepared: this is a difficult museum to get to grips with in a single visit."  it did not even put that warning on the louvre!  how can you charge full price when i am seeing probably less than 10% of the entire collection?

so, i guess that is actually a wash. 

the museum was very crowded, but when i left the museum i could see the line outside.  i have a feeling we got very close to capacity.  

under renovations, the museum was very easy to get around.  it was 11 rooms, each numbered with a recommended order.  it was very easy to follow and they do have some beautiful pieces of art.  unfortunately, one of these rooms was dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between turkey and amsterdam.  i wish they would have been able to expand the permanent collection by just a few more rooms.  i did love this statue of cupid and his impish grin though greeting visitors as they enter the second floor of the museum.

it did also contain some beautiful carvings and porcelain.  i loved this table and intricate carvings.  notice the detail in the women's faces as well as on the garland in between them. 
  
i will question their logic on putting the two vermeer paintings next to each other.  at least, put them across the room from each other!  the crowd in front of those two paintings was the closest rival to the mona lisa of any paintings i saw on this trip. 


i was also able to mark a painting off the '1001 paintings' list!  it is the largest rembrandt painting, the night watch.  the scale was very impressive.  i had no problem seeing this painting, most because it was so big!  i found it pretty interesting that the museum board had argued for years over the best way to light the painting.  it is currently being lit by LED lights, but it has had a series of different light sources!  
it is hard to tell from this picture since there are no people in it, but this painting is the size of a wall, approximately 10 feet high and 15 feet wide!
this museum just barely scrapped by as an "A-."  if the museum had not been so croweded or the the vermeers weren't next to each other,  it would have been a very solid "A-."

time spent in museum: 1 hr
times visited: 1
overall: A- (pre-renovation)
Location: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Jan Luijkenstraat 1, 1071 CJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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