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The Rijksmuseum shows the rise of amateur photography in the Netherlands.

The Rijksmuseum has been a major source of inspiration for Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf since his early youth. From 3 July he shows in the Amsterdam museum his photographs in dialogue with Dutch paintings.

Dutch art often appears in debates about identity, and this always happens in terms of what is 'own' and 'foreign' to it. Rembrandt in particular turns out to be very 'malleable'.

Visitors to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam can now enjoy The Night Watch in its original form, for the first time in 300 years.

Rineke Dijkstra’s new film installation Night Watching shows 14 groups of people looking at Rembrandt’s The Night Watch.

The French general and emperor left behind deep traces in Dutch society that are still visible today.

An estimated 600,000 enslaved Africans were traded by the Dutch from West Africa to the Atlantic. Almost half of them were shipped by the West India Company.

What did the past smell like? And how does scent influence our culture? Biologist and philosopher Geerdt Magiels takes us to the stinking seventeenth century and to the nearly scent-free Low Countries of today.

Count Floris V, loved by peasants and urban commoners, left a large legacy in Holland. However, his good deeds could not prevent him from being murdered.

Since the original Dutch version of this book came out in January 2019 it has dominated the bestseller lists.

In the late eighteenth century, various ships departed from hotspot Ostend to the coasts of Africa to exchange goods for people.

Babeth Fonchie wrote a poem inspired by old wooden stocks and matching iron shackles.

Dieter De Schutter drew a graphic story inspired by the masked figure on a ferry in a 370-year-old river landscape. ‘I can never step out of line.’

Elsbet De Pauw wrote a poem in response to an old painting of a doll house.

Bart Decroos wrote a short story inspired by a 1708 drawing by Dirk Valkenburg, entitled ‘View of a Mill and Cook-house on a Plantation in Surinam’.

Anne Bosveld wrote a prose poem inspired by a panorama of Cape Town.

Esha Guy Hadjadj gives a voice to a military painting by Cornelis Troost from 1742.

Veneboer wrote a dialogue in response to a portrait of Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution.

Phaedra Derhore drew a short comic in response to the painting Still Life with Game and a Greek Stele: Allegory of Autumn by Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os from 1818.

Eighteen young authors have brought nineteenth-century artefacts from the Rijksmuseum to life. Elise Tumba Kiambi wrote a poem in response to Andreas Schelfhout’s painting Farmyard.

Eighteen young authors have brought nineteenth-century artefacts from the Rijksmuseum to life. We join Daan de Jager as he looks at a self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh from 1887.

Eighteen young authors have brought nineteenth-century artefacts from the Rijksmuseum to life. Robin Goudsmit wrote a manual to accompany a painting.

Eighteen young authors have brought nineteenth-century artefacts from the Rijksmuseum to life. Sophia Blyden wrote her text in response to a sculpture of Lorenzo Bartolini.

We join Marieke Ornelis as she looks at Portrait of a Young Woman, with ‘Puck’ the Dog, painted by Marie-Thérèse Schwartz

Eighteen young authors have brought nineteenth-century artefacts from the Rijksmuseum to life. Marte Hoogenboom wrote a dialogue in response to a painting and a sculpture.

Over the centuries, many Dutch people have contributed to Asian culture and society in various ways.

The architect of the Rijksmuseum and Amsterdam Central Station made an active contribution to the emancipation of the Catholic church in the Netherlands.

What does the cash book of a plantation sound like? What are the thoughts of a brush that was used for incantations? In what voice does an eighteenth-century contract speak? And what story is hidden in the doll's house of painter Jacob Appe...

In April 2013, after a renovation lasting more than ten years, the doors of the famous and iconic Rijksmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands in Amsterdam, opened again. The article presents the renovation of the building and the n...

About the exhibition ‘Dawn of the Golden Age' held at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and its catalogue: it gave an overview of Dutch art between 1580 and 1620, the period which led up to the Golden Age itself. (‘Dawn of the Golden Age. North...

Jens Meijen wrote a poem inspired by a contract from 1706 between a plantation owner and a painter.

The work of the painter and etcher Hercules Segers (1589/90-1633/40) has always appealed to the imagination. This chiefly because of his painted and etched landscapes, which make no attempt to depict the reality of the surroundings, but ar...

Annemieke Dannenberg gives a voice to a brush used in eighteenth-century incantations.

The Amsterdam Museum ditches ‘Golden Age’ in favour of inclusive ’17th century’.

The Western Australian Museum will make 3D scans to visualise the 17th century silverware that was found in the shipwreck of the ‘Batavia’.

At least five Dutch museums acquired precious work at the world's leading fine art and antiques fair in Maastricht.

What did 'the Kurant' write about and who were its readers?

Marie Borremans wrote a poem inspired by a letter from Pieter Mortamer, commander in Luanda, addressed to Johan Maurits, the then governor-general of Dutch Brazil.

At the end of the nineteenth century the city of Amsterdam's two most iconic commissions (the Central Station and the Rijksmuseum), made possible by the favourable economic climate, and hence representative of Dutch national pride, were the...

The year 2019 marks the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. Large-scale exhibitions are planned throughout the year.

An overview of the latest museum acquisitions of old Dutch and Flemish Art.

Iduna Paalman wrote a poem about the rise and fall of Maria de’ Medici to accompany a militia piece by Joachim von Sandrart.

Jacob Cornelisz was one of the most important Dutch artists of the first half of the sixteenth century. He was Amsterdam’s first printmaker.

Betül Sefika was inspired for her visual poem by a rice stalk, which is directly descended from rice seeds that were smuggled from Africa to Suriname by an enslaved woman.

Never a dull moment in Flanders and The Netherlands. Art, history, language or literature, you name it, there is a museum for everyone's taste in the Low Countries. Let Museum Explorer be your guide.

The painter may be hardly known in the Netherlands, but in Australia, he had a great reputation.

The Dutch photographer Bas Meeuws is continuing the tradition of Golden Age floral still lifes.

Kunstmuseum in The Hague presents a fascinating exhibition about the friendship and rivalry between two important Dutch painters: Isaac Israëls and George Breitner.

'Mirror of Reality’ is the first comprehensive overview of nineteenth-century Dutch painting, set within the context of the international art world.

CODART, the international network of curators of Dutch and Flemish art, has announced the CODART Canon.

Our best literature stories of 2020, handpicked by the editor.

Our best art stories of 2019, handpicked by the editor.

Thanks to the many exhibitions, events and conferences organised in 2019, we gained new insights about Rembrandt.

Our spring selection of Dutch-language books that have recently been translated into English.

Mauritshuis, The Hague, reveals new discoveries and insights from the international scientific examination of Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring.’

Derek Blyth invites you to walk in the footsteps of stanley brouwn, the first artist who claimed walks as art.

In her debut novel, Wuck paints a portrait of her hippy parents. The detached tone makes the novel stand out all the more.

Edna Azulay has composed an ode to the intoxication of 'The Drunken Couple' by Jan Steen.

The Dutch have a strong entrepreneurial spirit. In the seventeenth century, they were responsible for the world's first multinational company.

Johannes Decat gives a voice to the tally marks in an old cash book for a plantation in Brazil.

In the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was the center of the European book trade.

A still life with cheese, that’s all Sanne Pieters needs to dissect gender roles. ‘I watch you a lot: you and that favourite cow of yours.'

Ellis Meeusen took inspiration from the 1863 law, drawn up by King Willem III, that set out the Netherlands’ official abolition of slavery in Suriname.

Pelumi Adejumo gives a voice to a collar from 1689 bearing the coat of arms of William of Orange.

An overview of the latest museum acquisitions of old Dutch and Flemish Art.

From the 16th century onwards, the centre of European printmaking was in Flanders and the Netherlands. Printmaking did more even than painting to familiarise Europe with art from the Low Countries.

Whale oil was a good substitute for vegetable oils and fats, so merchants in the Netherlands saw opportunities to earn good money with whaling. The Dutch hunted whales from 1612 to 1964.

Emperor Charles V embodied the complex linguistic situation in the Low Countries.

In the twentieth century, the Dutch gradually became more concerned about cleanliness in their household than about comfort.

The Mauritshuis in The Hague prepares an exhibition about sweet perfumes and foul odours in the 17th century.

Dutch historians have long worked on the assumption that the significance of Atlantic slavery to the Dutch economy was marginal. This assumption is incorrect.

Heleen Debruyne takes female painters out of oblivion and gives them the honour they deserve.

Anne-Goaitske Breteler wrote a short story inspired by a letter written in response to the abolition of slavery on the French side of Sint Maarten.

Arno Boey gives a voice to the painting 'The Milkmaid' by Johannes Vermeer.

Amarylis De Gryse got inspired by the painting 'The Company of Captain Albert Bas and Lieutenant Lucas Conijn'. She explores the inner life of a militiaman.

Jordi Lammers wrote a letter from the perspective of a mouth-bow.

In the Dutch language, bloomers have been known under a variety of names that refer to the Middle East, New York and Dutch fishermen.

The Dutch have a constant willingness to compromise and whose aim above all is a general consensus.

The drawings include natural history scenes, portraiture, genre subjects, figure studies and historical and biblical subjects.

Chris Lomans gives a voice to machetes from the early 19th century that were intended for sugar cane plantations.

Emma Wiersma wrote a poem referencing the oldest existing collection of plants from Suriname.

Shimanto Reza wrote a letter inspired by a map of the Bay of Bengal from around 1695.

His illustrations reveal the quality of timeless design, particularly the graphic spectacle of his cartoon biographies of Rembrandt and Warhol.

Traumatic feelings about inundations that expose the vulnerability of the Low Countries go hand in hand with a certain pride.

Between 1600 and 1900, Dutch was the dominant European language in Japan. A new book examines how this affected the local culture and society.

Masterpieces by Rembrandt and Van Eyck have helped photographer Hendrik Kerstens blur the line between the painter’s art and photography.

In her documentary My Rembrandt, Oeke Hoogendijk portrays the owners of a painting by the Dutch Old Master. She orchestrates their story into a thrilling detective about the hunt for an unknown Rembrandt.

Nxt Museum represents both a new museum for Amsterdam and an art institution for a new generation.

Thanks to two biographies published at the same time, the Dutch physicist and Nobel Prize winner Hendrik Lorentz finally gets the attention he deserves.

You can choose which Flemish and Dutch works of art deserve a place in the CODART Canon.

Four hundred years after his birth, Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar is staging the first retrospective of his diverse oeuvre.

Large-scale research shows that the Dutch are unanimous about what makes the Netherlands the Netherlands, despite sharp contradictions in the public debate.

Erasmus was a man with great ambitions and who took orders from no one. But his succes also had its drawbacks, unveils a new biography.

In the last episode of the series ‘The DNA of the Netherlands’, we find out what the national motto ‘Je maintiendrai’ really stands for.

Five hundred years after his birth, publishers can still learn from his cultural entrepreneurship.

Have you ever wondered why orange is the colour of the Netherlands? You find the answer in the sixteenth century.

Words become outlawed, and people with different opinions soon accuse the other party of engaging in ‘framing’. Are the language police just round the corner?

The Leonardo Da Vinci of the Low Countries is responsible for many revolutionary discoveries in physics, architecture, mathematics and linguistics.

Important to know