The Mauritshuis (; en, Maurice House) is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily con ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 854 objects, mostly

Dutch Golden Age painting Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republ ...

s. The collection contains works by

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consi ...

Jan Steen Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried 3 February 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour. Life ...

Paulus Potter Paulus Potter (; 20 November 1625 (baptised) – 17 January 1654 (buried)) was a Dutch painter who specialized in animals within landscapes, usually with a low vantage point. Before Potter died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 he succeeded in ...

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...

Jacob van Ruisdael Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (; 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural ach ...

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...

, and others. Originally, the 17th-century building was the residence of count

John Maurice of Nassau John Maurice of Nassau (Dutch: ''Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen''; German: ''Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen''; Portuguese: ''João Maurício de Nassau-Siegen''; 17 June 1604 – 20 December 1679), called "the Brazilian" for his fruitful period a ...

. It is now the property of the government of the Netherlands and is listed in the

top 100 Dutch heritage sites The Top 100 Dutch heritage sites is a list of rijksmonuments in the Netherlands, established in 1990 by the Department for Conservation ( Monumentenzorg, today the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed). The Top 100 was a selection of historical m ...

History

Bartholomeus Johannes van Hove, Het Mauritshuis te Den Haag

In 1631,

John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen John Maurice of Nassau (Dutch: ''Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen''; German: ''Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen''; Portuguese: ''João Maurício de Nassau-Siegen''; 17 June 1604 – 20 December 1679), called "the Brazilian" for his fruitful period a ...

, a cousin of stadtholder Frederick Henry, bought a plot bordering the Binnenhof and the adjacent Hofvijver pond in

, at that time the political centre of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

. On the plot, the Mauritshuis was built as a home between 1636 and 1641, during John Maurice's governorship of

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil ( nl, Nederlands-Brazilië), also known as New Holland ( nl, Nieuw-Holland), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the America ...

. The Dutch Classicist building was designed by the Dutch architects

Jacob van Campen Jacob van Campen (2 February 1596 - 13 September 1657) was a Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age. Life He was born into a wealthy family at Haarlem, and spent his youth in his home town. Being of noble birth and with time on his hand ...

and

Pieter Post Pieter Post in 1651. Portrait by Pieter Nolpe, detail of a larger work Pieter Jansz Post (1 May 1608 – buried 8 May 1669) was a Dutch Golden Age architect, painter and printmaker. Biography Post was baptised in Haarlem, the son of a ...

. The two-storey building is strictly symmetrical and contained four apartments and a great hall. Each apartment was designed with an antechamber, a chamber, a cabinet, and a cloakroom. Originally, the building had a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fro ...

, which was destroyed in a fire in 1704. After the death of Prince John Maurice in 1679, the house was owned by the Maes family, who leased the house to the Dutch government. In 1704, most of the interior of the Mauritshuis was destroyed by fire. The building was restored between 1708 and 1718. In 1774, an art gallery open to the public was formed in what is now the

Prince William V Gallery The Prince William V Gallery is an art gallery on the Buitenhof in The Hague that currently shares an entrance with the Gevangenpoort museum. It is a recreation of the original gallery ''Galerij Prins Willem V'', once founded there by William V, ...

. That collection was seized by the French in 1795 and only partially recovered in 1808. The small gallery space soon proved to be too small, however, and in 1820, the Mauritshuis was bought by the Dutch state for the purpose of housing the Royal Cabinet of Paintings. In 1822, the Mauritshuis was opened to the public and housed the Royal Cabinet of Paintings and the Royal Cabinet of Rarities. In 1875, the entire museum became available for paintings. The Mauritshuis was privatised in 1995. The foundation set up at that time took charge of both the building and the collection, which it was given on long-term loan. This building, which is the property of the state, is rented by the museum. In 2007, the museum announced its desire to expand. In 2010, the definitive design was presented. The museum would occupy a part of the nearby Sociëteit de Witte building. The two buildings would be connected via a tunnel, running underneath the Korte Vijverberg. The renovation started in 2012 and finished in 2014. During the renovation, about 100 of the museum's paintings were displayed in the

Gemeentemuseum The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

in the ''Highlights Mauritshuis'' exhibition. About 50 other paintings, including the '' Girl With the Pearl Earring'', were on loan to exhibitions in the United States and Japan. The museum was reopened on 27 June 2014 by

King Willem-Alexander Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the oldest child of Princess Beatr ...

. Nando Kasteleijn,
Het Mauritshuis is weer open. Dit moet je weten over het vernieuwde museum
", '' NRC Handelsblad'', 2014. Retrieved on 28 June 2014.

Controversy over the colonial past of Prince Maurice

In 1664 Prince John Maurice ordered a marble bust portrait of himself for the garden of the Mauritshuis, the Prince’s residence in the Hague. The statue was sculpted by the Flemish sculptor Bartholomeus Eggers. Prince Maurice had the bust moved to the burial chamber (Fürstengruft) in

Siegen Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg region. The university town (nearly 20,000 students in the 2018–2019 winter semest ...

which he had built for himself in 1670. In 1986 a copy of the statue made in plastic was placed inside the Mauritshuis. The bust was removed from the Mauritshuis in 2017 amidst controversy over Holland's colonial history and Prince John Maurice's role in the slave trade. The Mauritshuis museum has denied that the removal had anything to do with the controversy and has stated that the decision was taken on the grounds that the object was solely a copy made of plastic and the museum was unable to offer the necessary historical context for it in the foyer of the Mauritshuis where it was exhibited. The museum has since created a webpage dedicated to explaining the role of the Prince in the creation of the museum's building and collection and the museum's current view of the Prince. The statements on the page highlight the key role the Prince played in the slave trade in Brasil and how his immense wealth was likely sourced (in certain cases even in breach of then existing rules) from his involvement in the slave trade.

Collection

The collection of paintings of stadtholder

William V, Prince of Orange William V (Willem Batavus; 8 March 1748 – 9 April 1806) was a prince of Orange and the last stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. He went into exile to London in 1795. He was furthermore ruler of the Principality of Orange-Nassau until his death i ...

was presented to the Dutch state by his son, King

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

. This collection formed the basis of the Royal Cabinet of Paintings of around 200 paintings. The collection is currently called the Royal Picture Gallery. The current collection consists of almost 800 paintings and focusses on Dutch and Flemish artists, such as Pieter Brueghel,

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

, and

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

. There are also works of Hans Holbein in the collection in the Mauritshuis.

Selected exhibits

File:Portrait of Johan Maurits (1604-1679), Count of Nassau-Siegen.jpg,

Jan de Baen Jan de Baen (20 February 1633 – 1702) was a Dutch portrait painter who lived during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a pupil of the painter Jacob Adriaensz Backer in Amsterdam from 1645 to 1648. He worked for Charles II of England in his Dutch exil ...

''Prince John Maurice'' (c. 1669) File:Meisje met de parel.jpg,

'' Girl with a Pearl Earring'' (c. 1665) File:Rembrandt - The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp.jpg,

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp ''The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp'' is a 1632 oil painting on canvas by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. The painting is regarded as one of Rembrandt's early masterpieces. In the work, Nicolaes Tu ...

'' (c. 1632) File:Vermeer-view-of-delft.jpg,

View of Delft A photograph taken in 2019 from approximately the point where Vermeer painted the painting. ''View of Delft'' ( nl, Gezicht op Delft) is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer, painted ca. 1659–1661. The painting of the Dutch artist's hometown is ...

'' (c. 1660) File:Paulus Potter - De Stier.jpg,

The Young Bull ''The Young Bull'' ( nl, De jonge stier) or ''The Bull''The ...

'' (1647) File:Frans Hals - Lachende jongen.jpg,

'' Laughing Boy'' (c. 1625) File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 134.jpg,

Self-portrait (1669) File:Jan Baptist Xavery - Bust of William IV, Prince of Orange (cropped).jpg,

Jan Baptist Xavery Jan Baptist Xavery or Jan Baptist Xavery (30 March 1697, in Antwerp – 19 July 1742, in Antwerp) was a Flemish sculptor principally active in the Dutch Republic.

''Bust of William IV, Prince of Orange'' (1733) File:Peter Paul Rubens - Night Scene - WGA20423.jpg,

''Night scene'' ( 1616/17) File:Hendrick Avercamp 004.jpg,

Hendrick Avercamp Hendrick Avercamp (January 27, 1585 (bapt.) – May 15, 1634 (buried)) was a Dutch painter during the Dutch Golden Age of painting. He was one of the earliest landscape painters of the 17th-century Dutch school, he specialized in painting th ...

''On the ice'' ( 1610) File:Anthony van Dyck - Portrait of Quintijn Symons (1592 - after 1646) - 242 - Mauritshuis.jpg,

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...

''Portrait of Quintijn Symons'' (c. 1634) File:Fabritius-vink.jpg, Carel Fabritius
'' The Goldfinch'' (1654) File:Joachim Beuckelaer - Keukenscène met Christus en de Emmaüsgangers.jpg,

Joachim Beuckelaer Joachim Beuckelaer (c. 1533 – c. 1570/4) was a Flemish painter specialising in market and kitchen scenes with elaborate displays of food and household equipment. He also painted still lifes with no figures in the central scene.

''Kitchen scene with Christ and the disciples at Emmaus'' (c. 1563) File:SB 6330-Het Damrak-Het Damrak naar het noorden gezien.jpg,

'' View of the Dam and Damrak at Amsterdam'' (1670s) File:Wooded Landscape with Farmsteds.jpg,

Meindert Hobbema Meindert Lubbertszoon Hobbema (bapt. 31 October 1638 – 7 December 1709) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of landscapes, specializing in views of woodland, although his most famous painting, '' The Avenue at Middelharnis'' (1689, National Galle ...

''Wooded Landscape with Farmsteads'' (c. 1665)

Administration

Den Haag Binnenhof Mauritshuis & Skyline 1

The Mauritshuis was a state museum until 1995, when it became independent. The

is also managed by the organization. The museum has a staff of around 50 people. Emilie E. S. Gordenker has been the

museum director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

since 2008, and Victor Moussault has been the deputy director since 2007. In the period 2005–2011, the Mauritshuis had between 205,000 and 262,000 visitors per year.Annual Report 2011
, Mauritshuis. Retrieved on 21 June 2014. In 2011, the museum was the 13th most visited museum in the Netherlands.Top 55 Museumbezoek 2011
, Museumvereniging. Retrieved on 21 June 2014. In 2012, when the museum closed for renovation on 1 April, it received 45,981 visitors. The museum was closed all of 2013 and was reopened on 27 June 2014.

Visitors

References

External links

*
Official website
{{Authority control 1822 establishments in the Netherlands Art museums and galleries in the Netherlands Art museums established in 1822 Buildings of the Dutch Golden Age Houses completed in 1641 Houses in the Netherlands Museums in The Hague National museums of the Netherlands Neoclassical architecture in the Netherlands Palaces in the Netherlands Royal residences in the Netherlands Baroque palaces in the Netherlands