Mauritshuis

 I need some remedial history lessons. I always thought The Hague was a building where the Nuremburg war crime trials happened, But no.... 

The Hague is not a building, it is a town in the Netherlands. In the town of The Hague is the Peace Palace which houses the International Court of Justice (which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).  In my defense, doesn't The Hague sound like a building?

The Peace Palace

Egyptian Goose - colorful fellow eh?

It was a Sunday morning and this group was hanging around on the grounds.

Today we are visiting my favorite Netherlands museum, the Mauritshuis. It is known for housing over 800 Dutch Master and Flemish paintings, many of them my favorites. The rooms are fairly small and every now and then, you would find a modern day piece of art.

The Girl With The Pearl Earing
Johannes Vermeer 1665
This was like seeing the Mona Lisa only much more satisfying.   Crowds of people were swarming in front of her.  In person, she is stunning.  Fun Fact: Vermeer only painted 37 paintings in his lifetime as opposed to Rembrandt who did about 300 paintings in his lifetime of which 80-some were self-portraits

The Marooner
Albert Joseph Moore 1884
This was a surprise, all of a sudden coming across this after all the Dutch Masters portraiture

The Bull
Paulus Potter 1647
In 1795, Napoleon looted the painting and brought it to the Louvre. 
It was one of the most famous and admired works in Europe during the 19th century.

Portrait of Aletta Hanemans
Frans Hals 1625
Hals was really prominent in his day.  I liked this quote I found.
"Frans Hals was poor, overshadowed, and often unproductive.  He also made paint look like life" 

Henri Matisse, Vence, France
Henri Cartier-Bresson 1944
Another lesson learned - I thought Matisse was from a much earlier era. 
He really liked his pigeons.

Lamentation
Stephan Vanfleteren 2024
This is a photo of Bill Skarsgard as Eric Draven in the movie The Crow.

The Goldfinch
Carel Fabritius 1654
This  painting draws crowds second only to Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

Idolomantis
Iris Van Herpen 2021
There was a whole gallery with an exhibition all inspired by The Goldfinch. 
Van Herpen did a study of bird flight to design the dress. 
 It is made from laser cut layers of organza

After leaving the Mauritshuis, we continued on to the town of Delft, home of the iconic blue and white pottery.  We toured the Royal Delft Museum which has been operating since 1653.

The blue and white came from the Ming dynasty and greatly influenced earthenware makers

The high end Delft pottery is still hand painted. 
You won't be finding these pieces in gift shops.

This is a tile tableau of Rembrandt's famous 1642 painting The Night Watch.  I saw the original painting in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  It was probably one of the stars of the Rijksmuseum.  Delft reproduced it using the hundreds of hand painted individual tiles.

I made a little side trip to a tiny little museum that, dare I say, lightened the mood a bit.

I finally got to see an un-scaffolded windmill!