This year the Rijksmuseum is once again welcoming visitors to Schiphol Airport with a selection of works from its collection. The Schiphol branch of the Rijksmuseum is hosting a display of highlights from the 19th century, presenting the Netherlands as seen through the eyes of painters such as Anton Mauve and Jozef Israëls. The paintings will remain on show until September 2021.
Masterpieces
The masterpieces present both imaginary and realistic perspectives. The early 19th-century Romantic period gave rise to idyllic visions, while from the 1850s onwards artists went outdoors to paint nature as they saw it. This was the time when the world’s image of the Netherlands was formed, of a country of green pastures and tall cumulus clouds drifting over low horizons.
Typically Dutch
The highlights include The Marsh by Anton Mauve (1885-1888), a sublime depiction of the sun breaking through the clouds and being reflected in the water, and the sunlit Meadow with Cows by the Water by Willem Maris (1895-1904). The display also includes an idealised winter landscape of Amsterdam’s IJ waterway, by the Romantic artist Charles Leickert. Jozef Israëls’ The Little Seamstress (1850-1888) shows a typically Dutch scene: a girl at work in a fisherman’s cottage, with Delftware tiles and a tulip. Delftware also figures in still lifes such as the magnificent Still Life with Apples in a Delft Blue Bowl by Willem de Zwart (1880-1890).
Book
This display is complemented by the publication of Mirror of Reality: 19th-Century Painting in the Netherlands, a new standard reference work in which the Rijksmuseum’s senior curator of 19th-century paintings Jenny Reynaerts provides an up-to-date overview of 19th-century Dutch painting. Both the book and the selected works on display show what Dutch art of this period has to offer.
Rijksmuseum Schiphol
In 2002 Rijksmuseum became the first art museum in the world to open a branch at an airport. Travellers can visit the museum free of charge, 24 hours a day. Rijksmuseum Schiphol is located between lounges 2 and 3, past security at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
This presentation at Rijkmuseum Schiphol is made possible by ING and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
