Here is yet another Amsterdam post! We were only there for like 4 days but we managed 5 museums. Not too shabby if I do say so myself!
I would like to note that we did not visit the Anne Frank House. For whatever reason it just didn’t really appeal to us enough. I still plan to go eventually but we just weren’t in the right state of mind to go to it.
Museum Het Rembrandthuis
Can you guess who lived here? Any Art nerds around?
It’s the famous Dutch Master Rembrandt van Rijn’s place! He’s the one that did the Night Watch painting I mentioned in my last post. Kind of a big deal.
His actual home is the one on the right while the shop, tickets and modern galleries are in the building on the left (don’t worry they connect!).
If you’ve been reading my blog for a bit you’ll know of my deep love of Heritage House Museums. My OTP of Museums if you will.
Look at that pump! In the house! How very swanky 🙂
The House is decorated as if Rembrandt was still living and working there. He actually went into a huge amount of debt and the contents of the home were sold off. Amazingly, there was an inventory done of the stuff in his house. That is the freaking golden ticket of museum/ heritage house/ historian’s work.
The bed! They look llike cupboards when closed. They knew how this one was meant to look because of a painting by Rembrandt of his wife Saskia. Scandalous! Real beds in the paintings.
Rembrandt would actually sell his newest paintings from his salon. He also was the dealer for his pupils. They lived and worked on the top floor of the house. It was their task to copy his works. So people could by a copy of a Rembrandt, one painted mostly by a student with the delicate bits by Rembrandt, Something mostly by Rembrandt (with help from his pupils on the backgrounds or clothing) or the most expensive of all, ALL by Rembrandt. He made quite a lot of money at it. Hence the fancypants house.
Some areas are unable to be accessed by those with mobility issues but the modern building does have a lift.
Also, there was a really cool demonstration in Rembrandt’s actual studio of how they made paints, prepped the canvas. It was lovely and super interesting!
Rating: 4/5
Pros: Amazing building, well done collections, helpful staff, interesting demonstrations, spaces for other exhibitions, cool shop (you buy the paint they make!), lovely art
Cons: It was very audioguide dependent, it’s quite a lot of stairs up a spiral staircase, not enough places to sit and rest
Liberté (formerly) of London 