The Hague, Mauritshuis Museum, and Delft

I experienced no notion how substantially I would appreciate The Hague! It’s a gorgeous and tranquil metropolis, crisscrossed with canals, really walkable, total of several great dining places, and with community transportation that makes it simple to get in all places else in Holland. And on best of all that allure and livability, it has an extraordinary planet-class museum ideal in the middle of it, the Mauritshius, which has a collection of functions by artists like Vermeer, Rubens, Holbein, and Rembrandt! My spouse Nowell and I had been very pleased with our final decision to make The Hague our home-foundation in Holland.

As we walked to the Mauristhuis museum we stopped for a image at this stunning watch of the Dutch Parliament. The 13th-century Binnenhof is the oldest parliament creating nonetheless in use. The human body of drinking water prior to it is known as the Hofvijver which suggests “court pond”. It is beautiful to see this sort of beauty in the center of a metropolis… and glance at that vintage Dutch sky!

The Maurithuis museum was just a 15-moment flat and picturesque stroll from our resort, so we arrived clean and ready for an exciting dose of Art! This is a gorgeous selection with quite a few extremely famed gems, together with Vermeer’s Woman with the Pearl Earring and Perspective of Delft, as nicely as Fabritius’ Goldfinch.

I received some wonderful element photographs displaying the cracks and restoration of Female with the Pearl, the shocking pointillism and small, precise designs of Look at of Delft, and the luscious brushwork of the Goldfinch.

Lady with the Pearl and Goldfinch were in fact exhibited a couple of a long time in the past in San Francisco in which I live, so quite surprisingly this was my Next time looking at each these legendary works. I did desire seeing them in their home in the Mauristhuis, however. In the San Francisco exhibit Goldfinch was hung in a slender hallway, and The Pearl was hung in a completely black home with an powerful highlight, which was intended to boost the drama of the knowledge, but as a substitute produced the encounter blindingly light-weight. So I was ready to appreciate each is effective improved in this correctly-lit museum.

How usually do you get to admire and look at two Rubens relationship portraits and two Van Dyck relationship portraits all in 1 area jointly?

Still left Rubens’ Peter Van Hack, Claire Fourement and Van Dyck’s Peeter Stevens and Anna Wake (amongst them is an unbelievable “kunstkamer” or “artwork area” by Willem van Haecht.

I genuinely fell in really like with this Van Dyck portrait. As a lot as I admire Rubens as a painter, when it arrives to portraiture, Van Dyck has the capacity to capture a solid sensation of currently being in the presence of a serious particular person.

The Mauristhuis also has a Rubens oil sketch of the very same subject matter I noticed in the Our Lady cathedral in Antwerp just a number of days right before this, Mary’s assumption to heaven:

Left is the ~3-foot tall sketch in the Mauristhuis museum, on the proper is the ~15-foot tall painting put in in the Antwerp cathedral.

You can see the stone arch to the appropriate of Mary was omitted in the remaining, and you can also see the blue coloration is unique: The ultimate portray applied far more high priced pigments, like lapis lazuli for the blues, which at the time was even extra high priced than gold. Listed here are my detail photographs of the sketch:

A lot more information from paintings by Rubens, Pieter van Anraadt, Pieter Claesz, Gabriël Metsu, Jan van Huysum, Franz Hals, Saloman van Ruisdale, Holbein:

And a pleasant collection of Rembrandts, which include this very small head of a Laughing Man and the popular Anatomy Lesson:

The Hague is a lovely town and also very livable Due to the fact it is not mobbed with holidaymakers, most the people you see are just heading about their typical life, finding up their small children from university or conference friends for a consume just after perform. It is a important metropolis, but there does not appear to be to be a ton of noise or targeted traffic, almost certainly since most people today journey by bicycle, so just walking all around felt relaxed and calming.

There is also a lovely tiny museum devoted to MC Escher, which we definitely loved.

Delft was a pretty straightforward daytrip, due to the fact we could get there on the local tram line which had a halt correct outdoors the door of our lodge and took us to the coronary heart of Delft in about 30 minutes. The Hague’s community transportation was incredibly quick for a visitor, mainly because you can just download the “HTM” app to your mobile phone where by you can obtain single tickets or working day-lengthy tickets, and the QRC ticket just appears.

Delft is a attractive location just to wander about, and we liked getting a slower-paced day, so we did not do any official tours, but just admired the scenery (and the food!).

Back in the Hague:

We had excellent foods all within just a couple blocks of our resort at Walter Benedict, Bistro Mer and Follia.

We loved the YAYs lodge we stayed in (deal with: Koninginnegracht 20, 2514 AB Den Haag), which has condominium suites with kitchenettes, which includes a totally free laundry place for company, for a lot less than a solitary hotel area in Amsterdam. It’s in a great small community with loads of places to eat and a easy minor grocery retail store, and only a 15 moment stroll to the Mauristhuis museum. It was uncomplicated to take the tram from just a couple of steps exterior the door of the hotel to the Holland Spoor teach station, which is how we visited Amsterdam and the amazing Rijksmuseum, which I am going to publish about in my upcoming blog site publish.

This publish is part of a collection about our current European tour via Paris, Antwerp, The Hague, Amsterdam, and Vienna. If you have not but, indicator up for my e-newsletter so you never ever pass up 1 of my details-packed site posts. Also, I am currently doing work on a new portray video to be launched by the finish of this year. “Glazing and Scumbling a Still Daily life with Roses” will be a stick to-up to my original “Glazing and Scumbling” on the internet training course, so I endorse having that if you have not nonetheless, to get the most out of my following launch!