Amsterdam is home to some of the finest Dutch art on the planet. Understandable, perhaps, given it’s the Dutch capital. But the sheer quantity and variety of national art you can ogle here is frankly mind-boggling. We’re talking Van Gogh, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Hieronymus Bosch and Willem de Kooning, to name just a few. We compared the collections of two of the most famous galleries – that’s the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum – to help you decide which you should visit on your Amsterdam vacation. Read on for our Rijksmuseum vs Van Gogh Museum comparison. First up…
The Rijksmuseum
Name: The Rijskmuseum’s name translates roughly as ‘state’ or ‘national’ museum, and is pronounced ‘rikes’.
Age: The Rijsmuseum originally opened in The Hague in 1798 with an exhibition of around 200 paintings and historical artifacts, before moving to Amsterdam in 1808. It's been in its current location, a grand purpose-built gothic and renaissance confection designed by celebrated Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers, since 1885.
The Rijskmuseum in brief: The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands, and the country’s largest, housing an epic collection of Dutch and international art (but mostly Dutch) that spans a period of some 800 years, from the 13th Century to the late 20th. What really sets it apart, and puts it up there with the likes of the Louvre, the British Museum and St Petersburg’s State Hermitage, is the quality of its collection; world-famous pieces here include Rembrandt’s The Night Watch (pictured above), Vermeer’s The Milkmaid, and The Merry Drinker by Frans Hals. Other European artists including El Greco, Rubens and Tintoretto also feature, and there’s a small collection of Asian art housed in the Asian Pavilion.
The Rijksmuseum in Numbers:
Size: It’s the largest museum in the Netherlands, with four levels and around 1.5 kilometers of walking required if you want to explore all the galleries.
Number of artworks: There’s an absolutely whopping one million pieces in the Rijksmuseum collection, with around 8,000 on display at one time.
Visitors: Around 2.2 million annual visitors make the Rijksmuseum one of the most visited in the Netherlands.
Three Unmissable Rijksmuseum Highlights
- Rembrandt’s masterpiece of the Dutch Golden Age, The Night Watch, is considered so important that it has a gallery all to itself. This is also partially due to its popularity (and size: a whopping 12 by 14 feet.) Don’t miss Rembrandt’s iconic (and much smaller) Self Portrait with Disheveled Hair, also on display at the Rijksmuseum.
- Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid, depicting domestic country life in 17th-century Netherlands, is his most celebrated work.
- Judith Leyster is one of just a handful of female artists whose work hangs in the Rijksmuseum. Attributed to Frans Hals for 250 years, The Serenade’s masterful use of light makes it one of her very best.
Entry to the Rijksmuseum is included with an Amsterdam attraction pass from Go City, which can save you money if you plan to do several popular tours, activities and attractions while you’re in town. Get more information and buy your Amsterdam pass here.
Next up…
The Van Gogh Museum
Name: The Van Gogh Museum is of course named after (and dedicated to the work of) the Netherlands’ most famous son.
Age: The Van Gogh Museum opened at Amsterdam’s Museumplein in 1973, close to the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum and Concertgebouw concert hall.
The Van Gogh Museum in Brief: It’s the world’s only museum dedicated entirely to the works of the Dutch maestro, and boy is it a doozy. We’re talking the largest collection of Van Gogh pieces on the planet, comprising some 1,300 paintings, drawings and letters, including iconic pieces like Sunflowers and The Potato Eaters. There’s also a decent smattering of notable works from Van Gogh’s Impressionist and Post-Impressionist pals to ogle here, among them sculptures by Rodin and paintings by Manet, Monet and Toulouse-Lautrec.
The Van Gogh Museum in Numbers
Size: significantly smaller vs the Rijksmuseum. You can ‘do’ the Van Gogh Museum in around two hours, whereas you’ll need more like five to fully explore the Rijksmuseum.
Number of artworks: There are around 200 paintings, 400 drawings and 700 letters charting the development of Van Gogh’s work throughout his life.
Visitors: The Van Gogh Museum packs a solid punch, attracting as many annual visitors as the much larger Rijksmuseum: around 2.2 million.
Three Unmissable Van Gogh Museum Highlights
- Van Gogh created only five paintings for his celebrated Sunflowers series, and one of them hangs proudly here in the Van Gogh Museum. If you only see one painting while in Amsterdam, you might want to make it this one.
- Almond Blossom – branches and pale blossoms against a clear blue sky – is a fine example of one of Van Gogh’s favorite subjects. We guarantee you’ll leave the museum shop with this in at least one format: prints, postcards, playing cards and porcelain cups are all available.
- Dark, coarse and challenging, The Potato Eaters is considered a Van Gogh masterpiece for its realistic depiction of peasants gathered around a plain meal of potatoes.
The Rijksmuseum or Van Gogh Museum: Which is Better?
These are two very different museums, one charting the entire history of Dutch art; the other focusing primarily on one absolute master of his craft. So which of the Van Gogh Museum or Rijksmuseum should you visit? Well, if you want to really get under the skin of Netherlands art and culture the answer is… both. The Rijksmuseum is going to tick a lot of boxes for you: old masters of the Dutch Golden Age, the Hague School, and 20th-century abstract modernism among them. But the one artist who is under-represented here (for perhaps obvious reasons) is Vincent Van Gogh (although, to be fair, the Rijksmuseum does contain his iconic Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat). So, if you love the Dutch legend’s colorful, choppy brush strokes, you’ll definitely want to take in the Van Gogh Museum too.
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