The Night Watch
Rembrandt's largest and most famous, in a hall built for it.
Marco Almbauer โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Francesco Pollasto โ CC BY 4.0 ยท Jack de Nijs for Anefo โ CC0 ยท Irma Boom (designer) & Paul van der Laan (lettering) โ Public domain
Two and a half hours for the golden route: start with the Gallery of Honour, the Night Watch and Vermeer first thing before the crowds, then descend to the Golden Age and maritime wings. The museum is too big to finish โ skip bravely what does not call you.
Both on one square and complementary: the Rijks is all Dutch art history, the Van Gogh one artist's life in unrivalled depth. Ideal: Rijks morning, Van Gogh afternoon on two bookings. With one only: the Rijks is broader, the Van Gogh more emotionally intense.
Yes on a short route: the Night Watch, ship models, antique dolls' houses and armour hold them. The museum offers family trails and discovery bags โ ask at the entrance; ninety minutes is their practical ceiling.
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The Rijksmuseum is the Dutch national museum and the treasury of the Golden Age: a red-brick palace (1885) on the Museum Square, telling eight centuries of Dutch art and history in eight hundred rooms โ but its heart is the Gallery of Honour, ending at one painting before which the whole world stands: Rembrandt's Night Watch, his largest and most famous, shown in the spot designed for it. Around it the Golden Age's summit: the tender Vermeers (The Milkmaid, The Little Street), Frans Hals, and the sea-and-ship scenes that painted a trading empire ruling the oceans. Then the museum's astonishing old library, and full wings of furniture, porcelain and maritime history. The museum is vast and superbly organised, but timed advance booking is a practical necessity in season, and two and a half hours its honourable minimum. Its famous passage โ walked and cycled by the public beneath the building โ is a landmark in itself.
Rembrandt's largest and most famous, in a hall built for it.
The Milkmaid and The Little Street โ Dutch light at its peak.
The Netherlands' loveliest old library, tiers of books under glass.
The public cycle-and-foot tunnel beneath the building โ a landmark itself.
Museumstraat 1, 1071 Amsterdam