I experienced no plan how a lot I would appreciate The Hague! It is really a gorgeous and peaceful city, crisscrossed with canals, really walkable, total of a lot of excellent eating places, and with community transportation that can make it quick to get almost everywhere else in Holland. And on top rated of all that attraction and livability, it has an extraordinary earth-course museum suitable in the middle of it, the Mauritshius, which has a assortment of works by artists like Vermeer, Rubens, Holbein, and Rembrandt! My spouse Nowell and I have been pretty satisfied with our decision to make The Hague our residence-foundation in Holland.
As we walked to the Mauristhuis museum we stopped for a picture at this spectacular check out of the Dutch Parliament. The 13th-century Binnenhof is the oldest parliament creating still in use. The entire body of water prior to it is termed the Hofvijver which means “court docket pond”. It is really gorgeous to see these beauty in the center of a city… and look at that common Dutch sky!
The Maurithuis museum was just a 15-moment flat and picturesque stroll from our lodge, so we arrived refreshing and all set for an remarkable dose of Artwork! This is a gorgeous assortment with quite a few quite well-known gems, including Vermeer’s Woman with the Pearl Earring and Perspective of Delft, as properly as Fabritius’ Goldfinch.
I acquired some terrific element pictures exhibiting the cracks and restoration of Girl with the Pearl, the stunning pointillism and small, precise designs of See of Delft, and the luscious brushwork of the Goldfinch.
Girl with the Pearl and Goldfinch were really exhibited a handful of decades ago in San Francisco in which I are living, so pretty strangely this was my 2nd time looking at equally these iconic will work. I did prefer viewing them in their house in the Mauristhuis, though. In the San Francisco show Goldfinch was hung in a slim hallway, and The Pearl was hung in a completely black home with an powerful spotlight, which was intended to maximize the drama of the practical experience, but instead produced the confront blindingly light. So I was ready to appreciate both performs improved in this properly-lit museum.
How usually do you get to admire and evaluate two Rubens marriage portraits and two Van Dyck marriage portraits all in a single home with each other?
Left Rubens’ Peter Van Hack, Claire Fourement and Van Dyck’s Peeter Stevens and Anna Wake (in between them is an amazing “kunstkamer” or “art home” by Willem van Haecht.
I definitely fell in like with this Van Dyck portrait. As much as I admire Rubens as a painter, when it comes to portraiture, Van Dyck has the means to seize a sturdy sensation of getting in the presence of a authentic human being.
The Mauristhuis also has a Rubens oil sketch of the same issue I saw in the Our Woman cathedral in Antwerp just a few times right before this, Mary’s assumption to heaven:
Left is the ~3-foot tall sketch in the Mauristhuis museum, on the correct is the ~15-foot tall painting mounted in the Antwerp cathedral.
You can see the stone arch to the correct of Mary was omitted in the final, and you can also see the blue shade is various: The remaining painting employed additional pricey pigments, like lapis lazuli for the blues, which at the time was even far more high priced than gold. Here are my element photographs of the sketch:
Additional facts from paintings by Rubens, Pieter van Anraadt, Pieter Claesz, Gabriël Metsu, Jan van Huysum, Franz Hals, Saloman van Ruisdale, Holbein:
And a pleasant selection of Rembrandts, together with this tiny head of a Laughing Person and the popular Anatomy Lesson:
The Hague is a attractive metropolis and also pretty livable Due to the fact it is not mobbed with holidaymakers, most the persons you see are just heading about their typical lifetime, finding up their youngsters from school or meeting pals for a consume right after function. It truly is a key town, but there does not feel to be a whole lot of sound or traffic, in all probability because most people vacation by bike, so just walking about felt tranquil and soothing.
You can find also a charming very little museum devoted to MC Escher, which we genuinely liked.
Delft was a pretty effortless daytrip, simply because we could get there on the community tram line which had a prevent right outside the house the door of our lodge and took us to the coronary heart of Delft in about 30 minutes. The Hague’s community transportation was very quick for a visitor, due to the fact you can just download the “HTM” application to your cellular phone where by you can purchase solitary tickets or day-long tickets, and the QRC ticket just appears.
Delft is a lovely location just to wander all around, and we relished having a slower-paced day, so we didn’t do any formal tours, but just admired the landscapes (and the foods!).
Back again in the Hague:
We experienced fantastic foods all in just a couple blocks of our hotel at Walter Benedict, Bistro Mer and Follia.
We liked the YAYs resort we stayed in (handle: Koninginnegracht 20, 2514 AB Den Haag), which has apartment suites with kitchenettes, including a free of charge laundry space for company, for a lot less than a one hotel space in Amsterdam. It is really in a good tiny community with lots of dining establishments and a easy minor grocery retail store, and only a 15 moment stroll to the Mauristhuis museum. It was simple to choose the tram from just a handful of measures outside the door of the resort to the Holland Spoor train station, which is how we visited Amsterdam and the outstanding Rijksmuseum, which I’ll publish about in my future blog publish.
This put up is section of a sequence about our modern European tour through Paris, Antwerp, The Hague, Amsterdam, and Vienna. If you have not however, indicator up for my e-newsletter so you never overlook a single of my info-packed blog site posts. Also, I am now performing on a new painting video to be launched by the conclude of this 12 months. “Glazing and Scumbling a Nevertheless Life with Roses” will be a adhere to-up to my unique “Glazing and Scumbling” on the web system, so I advocate acquiring that if you have not nonetheless, to get the most out of my next launch!