Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam · Netherlands · Founded 1800
The national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history.
2.7 million
Annual Visitors
1 million objects; 8,000 on display
Collection
2–3 hours
Recommended Visit
Pierre Cuypers (1885) · Cruz y Ortiz (renovation, 2013)
Architect
About Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Concertgebouw.
The Rijksmuseum was founded in The Hague on 19 November 1800 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808, where it was first located in the Royal Palace and later in the Trippenhuis.
The current main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened in 1885. On 13 April 2013, after a ten-year renovation which cost €375 million, the main building was reopened by Queen Beatrix.
The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history, from their total collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer.
Masterworks & Must-See Highlights
The works that define Rijksmuseum — and why they matter.
The Night Watch
Rembrandt van Rijn · 1642
Gallery of Honour, Room 2.3
The largest and most celebrated painting in the Rijksmuseum at 363 × 437 cm. Rembrandt's group portrait of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq's city militia company is remarkable for its dramatic use of light and its sense of dynamic movement.
The Milkmaid
Johannes Vermeer · c. 1657–1658
Room 2.5, Gallery of Honour
A quiet masterpiece of domestic life — a milkmaid pouring milk in a shaft of morning light. Vermeer's meticulous rendering of textures (bread, ceramic, the weave of cloth) elevates an everyday scene to meditative beauty.
Woman Reading a Letter
Johannes Vermeer · c. 1663
Room 2.5
One of Vermeer's most intimate works — a woman absorbed in a letter stands by a window, bathed in diffuse natural light. The suggestion of pregnancy and the map behind her hint at an absent seafaring lover.
The Merry Drinker
Frans Hals · c. 1628–1630
Room 2.2
A bravura demonstration of Hals' astonishing loose brushwork — the laughing man appears to move. It set a new standard for informal portraiture and influenced later painters from Manet to Van Gogh.
Collections & Highlights
Frequently Asked Questions
A small ask before you go
You've just explored one of humanity's greatest collections of beauty. Art has the power to move us, inspire us, and change how we see the world. But millions of people will never see beauty like this — not because the art isn't there, but because they can't see at all.
Preventable blindness, caused by conditions like cataracts and trachoma, affects people of all ages across the world's poorest communities. A small gift — for the cost of a museum ticket — can provide a simple surgery to restore someone's sight and transform their life.