Watching The Vermeers Go By

So, the Rijksmuseum. I wasn't feeling good. I felt jet lagged and dizzy and although I didn't realise at the time, was probably suffering some residual sea sickness from the day before, but I plowed on. We wandered around alone before our tour but I was tired and groggy, and starting to get irriable and wondering what all the fuss was about. Vermeer oh yes. Van Gogh, yawn. Oh no, not another Rembrandt.

Then we met our guide Pim, a rather weird looking chap who had the mannerisms of Magnus Pike and David Bellamy rolled into one, and was oh so into his art. He was fascinating to tour with giving really interesting insights into the 10 or so paintings he highlighted.

The first one was a blurry street scene like a snapshot. He told us that they xrayed the painting when it was being restored and found a whole new painting underneath, that the the artist had painted over.

Next picture was a seascape with 4 miserable children looking at a toy boat. It was supposed to symbolise the loss of a saior or the worry that a sailor wouldn't come back after going out fishing. Apparently there was a demand for this style of "miserable beach photos", and this artist went on to specialise in this niche, churning them out and becoming quite wealthy.

On then to Van Gogh, who was so poor he had to keep painting himself as he couldn't afford a model, and there were we thinking he was a narcissist! The self-portrait we saw was from one of his leanest years, his cheeks looked hollow and sunken, and the painting was done on cardboard, not canvas!

Next up Vermeer and we had to elbow our way through to see him. Pim focused on The Milk Maid picture, and showed us how detailed the picture was by blowing up a bit of it on his ipad.

Next we focused a little on the building which is newly re-opened after being closed for renovation for 10 years. Initially the building had murals painted on the walls and ornate mosaic floors. It was later renovated in a lutheran style, with walls painted white and a wooden floor. Come the 2000s and they decide to renovate it again, bringing it back to how the architect had originally designed it, hardwood and white walls out, murals and mosaics back in. It looked amazing.

We then went on to a painting that had been commissioned to hang in one of the government buildings, and the artist created a picture with hideous looking people in it. When the painting was rejected, he had a hissy fit, took a knife to it and destroyed a lot of it. The part in the museum is just one sixth of the original.

The last painting he analysed was The Night Watch, which wasn't originally designed to go in a government building, but was later cut down to size to fit. Next to it was a smaller copy of the original that one of the people in the original had asked for so he could hang it in his own home, and that had the missing bits on it. I never did see the chicken hanging upside down that was meant to be in the picture!!

Glad to say I realy enjoyed the Rijksmuseum in the end.