Paints Pastels Prints and Pedals World Bike Ride: A View from Abroad Continued

Behind the scenes in the museums: Amsterdam : Part Two..

the modern Van Gogh Museum just round the corner from my hotel

After a good walk around the little narrow streets and districts of the central canal ring, I devoted a whole day to visit some museums. My bike ride two years ago was themed on art and artists, so I was relishing the prospect of taking a look at the Van Gogh Musuem and the Rijksmuseum, which holds Rembrandt's The Night Watch painting.

the airy and modern interior of the Van Gogh Museum

Van Gogh's 'boy reaping'

Van Gogh's sketch book
After seeing Anne Frank's original diary in the museum, it was also moving to see Van Gogh's personal sketchbook which he took with him wherever he went.

resting in the museum

Van Goghs tubes of paints.

The introduction of tubes for paints made it easy for artists to paint outdoors, essential to the impressionists and artists like Van Gogh who wanted to capture light and movement.

Van Gogh's bedroom in Arles: note the red blanket on the bed and see next photo

a microscope photo showing the thick brushstrokes and newsprint left on paint after Van Gogh wrapped the painting in newsprint when transferring it.

microscope photo of Van Gogh painting showing particles of sand mixed in with the paint, proving he painted one of his pictures outdoors by the beach.

The Rijksmuseum :also just around the corner from my hotel

Studying Rembrandt

crowds gather to see Rembrandt's Night Watch

Rembrandt's The Night Watch

crowds kept back from the huge Night Watch painting

The crowds are kept back from the canvas as a few years ago, a person of unbalanced mind, slashed the painting with a knife in a few places. The painting was carefully restored and now the knife marks aren't visible

In awe of the Night Watch

Rembrandtplein: The Night Watch in life size statues with Rembrandt's statue in the background

In amongst the life size statues of the Night Watch

Rembrandt's House

Rembrandt was a wealthy artist with commissions to do the Night Watch and others. However, he overspent and couldn't keep up payments on the house with it eventually being sold.

Rembrandt's studio on the second floor, where he painted many of his most well known paintings

More images of Amsterdam:

The streets of Amsterdam

Girls reading on steps of Amsterdam house, Prinsengracht

storm damage along the Amsterdam canals

more storm damage in Amsterdam centre

another tree down, luckily they all fell canal side and not on the houses

bridges over the canals

Amsterdam has it all.

the floating pagoda Chinese restaurant

old Dutch clogs

tulips from the canal side tulip market

the largest pancake I have ever seen covering

the dinner plate underneath

Heineken being distributed around the city

the delightful 'brown cafes' in the city (not to be confused with the seedier 'coffee shops' that sell hashish and cannabis and where people can openly smoke it)