The Hague, Mauritshuis Museum, and Delft

I had no notion how considerably I would enjoy The Hague! It’s a stunning and peaceful metropolis, crisscrossed with canals, incredibly walkable, comprehensive of lots of excellent restaurants, and with community transportation that makes it quick to get in all places else in Holland. And on top of all that charm and livability, it has an unbelievable planet-class museum suitable in the middle of it, the Mauritshius, which has a selection of performs by artists like Vermeer, Rubens, Holbein, and Rembrandt! My partner Nowell and I ended up very delighted with our choice to make The Hague our residence-foundation in Holland.

As we walked to the Mauristhuis museum we stopped for a picture at this spectacular view of the Dutch Parliament. The 13th-century Binnenhof is the oldest parliament setting up continue to in use. The physique of h2o in advance of it is called the Hofvijver which signifies “court pond”. It is really breathtaking to see this kind of attractiveness in the center of a town… and glimpse at that vintage Dutch sky!

The Maurithuis museum was just a 15-minute flat and picturesque stroll from our lodge, so we arrived refreshing and ready for an exciting dose of Artwork! This is a amazing selection with several very popular gems, including Vermeer’s Female with the Pearl Earring and Look at of Delft, as effectively as Fabritius’ Goldfinch.

I got some excellent detail shots demonstrating the cracks and restoration of Woman with the Pearl, the stunning pointillism and small, precise shapes of Perspective of Delft, and the luscious brushwork of the Goldfinch.

Female with the Pearl and Goldfinch were truly exhibited a few many years ago in San Francisco in which I live, so extremely unusually this was my 2nd time looking at both equally these iconic is effective. I did like viewing them in their household in the Mauristhuis, while. In the San Francisco exhibit Goldfinch was hung in a slim hallway, and The Pearl was hung in a fully black home with an rigorous spotlight, which was meant to boost the drama of the practical experience, but rather made the deal with blindingly light. So I was capable to appreciate each performs far better in this correctly-lit museum.

How normally do you get to admire and examine two Rubens marriage portraits and two Van Dyck marriage portraits all in a person home alongside one another?

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

I truly fell in like with this Van Dyck portrait. As a lot as I admire Rubens as a painter, when it comes to portraiture, Van Dyck has the capacity to seize a sturdy emotion of remaining in the existence of a authentic man or woman.

The Mauristhuis also has a Rubens oil sketch of the exact same issue I saw in the Our Girl cathedral in Antwerp just a few times before this, Mary’s assumption to heaven:

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

You can see the stone arch to the ideal of Mary was omitted in the closing, and you can also see the blue shade is distinctive: The closing portray used more highly-priced pigments, which includes lapis lazuli for the blues, which at the time was even far more high-priced than gold. Right here are my element shots of the sketch:

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

And a pleasant assortment of Rembrandts, including this small head of a Laughing Guy and the popular Anatomy Lesson:

The Hague is a stunning city and also very livable Mainly because it is not mobbed with travelers, most the men and women you see are just likely about their common lifestyle, finding up their young children from university or conference good friends for a drink after get the job done. It can be a major city, but there does not appear to be to be a good deal of noise or targeted traffic, possibly mainly because most persons journey by bike, so just going for walks around felt relaxed and calming.

There’s also a lovely tiny museum devoted to MC Escher, which we seriously relished.

Delft was a extremely simple daytrip, because we could get there on the neighborhood tram line which had a stop ideal exterior the doorway of our lodge and took us to the heart of Delft in about 30 minutes. The Hague’s public transportation was quite easy for a visitor, due to the fact you can just obtain the “HTM” app to your cell phone the place you can purchase single tickets or working day-very long tickets, and the QRC ticket just seems.

Delft is a lovely put just to wander all-around, and we enjoyed possessing a slower-paced day, so we didn’t do any official excursions, but just admired the landscapes (and the food!).

Again in the Hague:

We had superb meals all inside of a few blocks of our resort at Walter Benedict, Bistro Mer and Follia.

We beloved the YAYs lodge we stayed in (handle: Koninginnegracht 20, 2514 AB Den Haag), which has condominium suites with kitchenettes, which includes a cost-free laundry place for attendees, for a lot less than a single lodge area in Amsterdam. It can be in a wonderful little neighborhood with tons of places to eat and a convenient very little grocery keep, and only a 15 minute wander to the Mauristhuis museum. It was straightforward to consider the tram from just a handful of actions outside the doorway of the lodge to the Holland Spoor teach station, which is how we frequented Amsterdam and the amazing Rijksmuseum, which I’ll produce about in my next website write-up.

This article is section of a sequence about our latest European tour by Paris, Antwerp, The Hague, Amsterdam, and Vienna. If you have not however, sign up for my newsletter so you never ever pass up one of my information-packed blog posts. Also, I am at the moment doing work on a new portray online video to be unveiled by the close of this year. “Glazing and Scumbling a Nevertheless Existence with Roses” will be a observe-up to my primary “Glazing and Scumbling” online study course, so I recommend acquiring that if you have not nonetheless, to get the most out of my following release!