Everyday objects as documents
Furniture, posters and tools explain their time as much as paintings.
OlafJanssen — CC BY-SA 4.0 · OlafJanssen — CC BY-SA 4.0 · OlafJanssen — CC BY-SA 4.0 · OlafJanssen — CC BY-SA 4.0
A design museum in an eighteenth-century town house in central The Hague, opened in 2019 in a building that had been the seat of the aristocratic Dedel family. The specialism here is narrow and clear: the history of Dutch and European design in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries — furniture, posters, typography and everyday objects. The idea is that the things we use without thinking are documents of their time as much as paintings are. The exhibitions are temporary and change several times a year, and there is no permanent collection on continuous display. This means what you see depends entirely on when you visit — check the schedule before going. The building itself is part of the visit: a classic Dutch canal house with a carved staircase, rooms in sequence and ornamented ceilings, restored before the museum opened. The museum is small and sits in central The Hague a short distance from the Binnenhof and the Mauritshuis.
Furniture, posters and tools explain their time as much as paintings.
A carved staircase, rooms in sequence and ornamented ceilings, restored.
Dutch and European design of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Prinsegracht, central The Hague
For reasons going back to the early twentieth century: the De Stijl movement led by Theo van Doesburg and Mondrian reduced form to straight lines and primary colours, and Rietveld's red and blue chair became a global icon. The tradition then continued through the Eindhoven design academy and contemporary designers. The common trait is usually a blunt simplicity, a sense of humour, and a refusal of ornament for its own sake.
The Mauritshuis is a short distance away and holds Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson in a small building visited in two hours. The municipal art museum holds the world's largest Mondrian collection. And the Binnenhof, the parliament seat, adjoins them. Those three with Dedel make a full day on foot in central The Hague.
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