Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam ([ˈrɛi̯ksmyˌzeːjʏm], translated in English as " The State Museum of Amsterdam"), commonly abbreviated as Rijksmuseum, is a Dutch national museum, located in the capital of the Kingdom, and devoted to arts, crafts and history of the country. It is the largest museum in the Netherlands in terms of attendance and art works with more than 2 450 000 visitors in 2014 for a Fund of about a million coins.

Located between the Stadhouderskade and the Museumplein (the "Museum square"), in the district of Amsterdam Oud-Zuid in Amsterdam, it presents to the public, through some 200 showrooms, including an extensive collection of paintings from the Dutch gold. It is also in the Rijksmuseum that the Rijksprentenkabinet ("national Cabinet of prints ') is attached. The Museum also has a rich collection of Asian art.

History and Collections

The Museum's collections are based on art works collected over the centuries by the family of the stadtholder. After the flight of the last stadtholder Guillaume V in 1795, the Government of the Batavian Republic took control of what remained of this collection. The French took the greater part of it. On the 19^th of November 1798, at the initiative of Alexander Gogel, then the Minister of finance, the decision was taken to place the remaining works -  which consist of Italian art, portraits of the family of Orange and national heritage rarities - in a national museum, following the French example. The Museum, under the original name of national Kunst-Galerij ("national art museum"), opened in 1800 in the Huis ten Bosch Palace in Hague, which was also confiscated. The Amsterdam art collector Cornelis Sébille Roos (1754-1820) was the first Director of the Museum and, thereby, in collaboration with Gogel, he was responsible for the first acquisitions, including threatened Swan of Jan Asselijn. In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, Louis Bonaparte came to the throne as the King of Holland, and the institution took the name of Koninklijk Museum ("royal Museum").

In 1808 Louis Bonaparte moved the Museum to Amsterdam where, from 1809, it was housed at the same time as the city’s artistic collection (including the night watch) on the top floor of the Paleis op de Dam. The new Director, Cornelis Apostool (1762-1844), was responsible for the catalogue of objects. In 1817, the collection of Rijks Museum - as it was then called since the accession to the throne of Guillaume I-, was transferred to the Trippenhuis, a building built in the 17th century by a family of gunsmiths. The house also housed the collection of prints in Hague, while the historical objects joined the Cabinet of curiosities, built in Hague in the year 1820. Under the direction of Apostool, contrary to what had been the case with his predecessor Roos, major acquisitions were rare.

The acquisition of the collection which the banker of Amsterdam Adriaan Van der Hoop had bequeathed in 1854 to the municipality was therefore self-evident. However, it was not thought of that the interest of the two hundred and twenty-four paintings would be enough to attract foreigners to the city. The authorities made it a condition that 40 000 florins on 50,000 to which the inheritance duties were to be paid by voluntary private contributions. Thus, if some wealthy citizens had no desire to keep these works in the Netherlands, these works would probably have been scattered outside the country’s borders.

In 1885, the construction of the current Rijksmuseum, on the plans of Pierre Cuypers, was completed (see history of the buildings). This building hosted not only the collections mentioned above, but also the collection of works by contemporary masters who stood since 1838 in Haarlem, and that of the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis in Kunst ("Dutch history and art museum") in Hague, which formed the basis of the Dutch history department.

At the time of the second world war, the Director at that time, Frederick Schmidt-Degener (1881-1941), took the decision as soon as the conflict was announced to secure the most important works. These were initially transported to the anti-aircraft shelters near Zandvoort and Heemskerk. Subsequently, in April 1942, they were again moved and placed in a strong room specially fitted out in the underground galleries of the Saint-Pierre mountain, near Steenwijk and Maastricht. The works left however not all Amsterdam, since the Museum will remain open to the public during the years of the war.

In 2008, Wim Pijbes (born in 1961) was designated as the successor to Ronald De Leeuw to a managing Director. What Pijbes considers his most important mission is to place himself at the top of the agenda "of urgentie" ("emergency") of the Rijksmuseum. He described as "disastrous" the measure to close the Museum for a period of ten years and hopes to channel all energies so that the reopening would be held as soon as possible. For this reason, a part of the main building was temporarily available to visitors again. During the weekends of July 19 and August 31, 2008, the public had the opportunity to see lost wall decorations that have been the subject of a restoration during the previous four years.

The Building’s History

In 1863, the construction of a new building for the Rijksmusem was the subject of a competition, but none of the submitted projects was considered a sufficient quality, what gave rise, in 1876, to the Organization of a second competition.

It was Pierre Cuypers (1827-1921) who prevailed; He had already participated the first time, but his project obtained only a second place. Cuypers who was finally retained was a combination of Gothic and Renaissance style.

Construction began on the 1^st of October 1876. Inside as well as the outside, the building was richly decorated with references to the history of Dutch art, decorations which were also made the subject of a competition, won by Bart Van Hove (1850-1914) and François (1824-1888) Vermeylen for the sculptures, Georg Sturm (1855-1923) for ceramic tables and paintings, and the Londoner W.F. Dixon for the stained glass windows.

The Museum opened its doors at its new address on the 13^th of July 1885. The front façade of the Museum is located on the Stadhouderskade, but on the other side, the building occupies a prominent place of the Museumplein, among other cultural buildings built later, the Concertgebouw (1888), the Stedelijk Museum (1895) and the Van Gogh Museum (1973).

In the year 1890, an annex was added to the Rijksmuseum. This construction was made from fragments of demolished buildings and gives an overview of the history of Dutch architecture. In 1906, the room housing the night watch was rebuilt. The Interior had other amenities; Thus, between the years 1920 and 1950, most of the colorful decorations of walls were repainted.

In the 1960s, some showrooms and several floors were built in both courses. The building was still under restoration work in 1984, in 1995-1996 - transformation of the South wing of the Museum (17 rooms), referred to today as the name of Philips (of the name of one of the sponsors) wing - and 2000.

In April 2003, as a result of measures taken by the Labor Inspectorate, the Rijksmuseum was forced to close its doors to the public for a few days, because of the asbestos particles detected. In the beginning of the month of December of the same year, a large part of the Museum was closed for transformations. These, which initially were planned for a few years, should finally take about 10 years, as a result of various delays. On the 26^th of February 2008, it was announced that the reopening was postponed in the first half of 2013. Meanwhile, "Philips Wing" of the Museum remains open to visitors, as well as a dependency of the institution, which lies behind the customs office of Schiphol Airport.

In Amsterdam, a question sparked many debates, as to whether the passage allowing cyclists and pedestrian to travel from the Museumplein to the city center would remain open. The Rijksmuseum planned to move the museum’s main entrance to the passage, but many Amsterdammers were afraid that this would leave insufficient space for them to move around easily. In the spring of 2005, the authorities of the Oud-Zuid district took the decision to refuse the construction project in respect of the passage, deeming it not conforming to the master plan. In the spring of 2006, a suitable project was presented, which still plans to place the entrance of the Museum in the passage in question, but leaving enough room for cyclists.

This heavy work amounts to EUR 222 million. During their term, the night watch is presented in the new "Philips Wing" along with all the main 17th century paintings that the Museum has. The Night Watch returns to the hall dedicated to him, at the end of the Gallery of honor.

In 2012, the Museum takes an unusual step by making available 125 000 images in high resolution on its Rijksstudio online platform, by announcing that 40 000 new images would be added each year until its entire collection of one million objects will be broadcast. Reproductions of works in the public domain are under CC0 license, along with their metadata, which allows free re-use, including for commercial purposes.

Collections and departments

The Rijksmuseum has three main departments:

• The Department of fine arts, itself divided into three sections: paintings - Sculpture and Decorative Arts - Asian Art;
• The Rijksprentenkabinet, 'National Cabinet of prints', where drawings, engravings and photos are kept;
• The Dutch history department.

The collections of paintings offer a glimpse of the Dutch art of the 15th century until 1900, with a special emphasis on the Dutch masters of the 17th century. Part of the collection includes also the masters of the Flemish school and those of the Italian school.

The upper floors of the two wings of the building also contain works of modern art dating from 1900-2000 (of new art, of the CoBrA group in particular, with Karel call).

The collections include works by artists such as Rembrandt and his students, but also Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, and others.

Among Other painters represented include Hendrick Avercamp, Willem Pietersz. Buytewech, Carel Fabritius, Gabriel Metsu, Gerard ter Borch, Hendrick ter Brugghen, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Gerard van Honthorst, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van Scorel, George Hendrik Breitner, Jan Veth or the Flamands Jacob Jordaens, Antoine van Dyck et Pierre-Paul Rubens.

The Sculpture and Decorative Arts collection includes sculptures, furniture and wainscoting, Goldsmiths’ pieces, ceramics, art glass, textile material, or metal objects, and many other types of objects.This collection, although there is a wider place for Dutch art, also has an international character.

The Asian art collection is largely derived from the Vereniging van Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst (the ' Union of Asian art friends") came from and gives an overview of development, among other Chinese, Japanese and Indian, from an Asian point of view art. Chinese and Japanese exportation as well as colonial furniture which are also part of this collection.

Restoration workshop

The Rijksmuseum has a restoration workshop for the conservation and restoration of art works.

Library

The Rijksmuseum Research Library is part of the Rijksmuseum, and is the most extensive public documentation center in the Netherlands specializing in the art history.

Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijksmuseum_Amsterdam