Mauritshuis

The Mauritshuis houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, which consists of 841 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collection has works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen, Paulus Potter, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Hans Holbein the Younger, and others. The 17th-century building is listed in the top 100 Dutch heritage sites.

Highlights of the Mauritshuis

• “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer
• “Diogenes looking for an Honest Man” by Caesar van Everdingen
• “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp” by Rembrandt

A Virtual Tour of the Mauritshuis

• “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer
  • “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer portrays a girl wearing an exotic dress, an Eastern turban, and an improbably large pearl earring. The work is signed “IVMeer” and is one of Vermeer’s most famous paintings. However, very little is known about the background story to this picture. Also, the identity of the girl is a mystery. Johannes Vermeer specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and often used expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for his excellent treatment in the use of light, and this masterpiece typifies his technique. This painting was initially titled “Girl with a Turban,” and in the second half of the twentieth century that the name changed to “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”
• “Diogenes looking for an Honest Man” by Caesar van Everdingen
  • “Diogenes looking for an Honest Man” by Caesar van Everdingen depicts the philosopher Diogenes stands in the middle of a crowd, holding up a lantern. Diogenes claimed that he was looking for an honest man. When he was told that there are people all around in the crowds, he replied: “I see not one, for there is no reason in your hearts. You may be men in name, but your brutish lives betray you like animals in reality”.
• “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp” by Rembrandt
  • “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp” by Rembrandt depicts Dr. Tulp explaining the musculature of the arm to his medical colleagues using a deceased body. The event occurred in 1632 at the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, of which Tulp was an official City Anatomist. The Guild was permitted one public dissection a year, and the body would have to be that of an executed criminal. Anatomy lessons at the time were a social event taking place in lecture rooms with students, colleagues, and the general public being permitted to attend on payment of an entrance fee. The spectators and participants were dressed for this social occasion. The Surgeon’s Guild would commission a portrait by a leading portraitist of the period regularly.