Rijksmuseum

Beginnings

The museum was founded in The Hague in 1798 and moved in 1808

The Rijksmuseum was founded in The Hague on 19 November 1798 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808, first to the Royal Palace and later to the Trippenhuis. Its origins were modest: the collection fitted into five rooms at the Huis ten Bosch palace in The Hague.

Napoleon

Napoleon carried off the stadholder's collection to Paris

Napoleon had carried off the stadholder's collection to Paris. The paintings were returned in 1815 but housed in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, not the Rijksmuseum. After the museum moved to Amsterdam in 1808, paintings owned by the city, such as The Night Watch by Rembrandt, became part of the collection.

Cuypers

Pierre Cuypers won the second contest, and the building opened in 1885

A design contest in 1863 produced no submission of sufficient quality. In 1876 a new contest was won by Pierre Cuypers, with a design that combined gothic and renaissance elements. Construction began on 1 October 1876, and the museum opened at its new location on 13 July 1885.

Renovation

A renovation planned for five years took almost ten

In December 2003 the main building closed for a major renovation, based on a design by the Spanish architects Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz. About 400 objects stayed on show in the fragment building, including The Night Watch. Queen Beatrix reopened the main building on 13 April 2013.

The collection

8,000 objects are on display from a collection of one million

The museum has 8,000 objects of art and history on display, from a total collection of one million objects from the years 1200 to 2000. More than 2,000 paintings are from the Dutch Golden Age. Unusual items include the royal crest from the stern of HMS Royal Charles, captured in the Raid on the Medway.

8,000objects on display, from a collection of one million