 
Well good afternoon ladies and gentlemen
Jock Reynolds here your director and
very very pleased youth to greet you
here today for what's going to be a
wonderful lecture delivered by Taco
Dibbets the director of the Rijksmuseum
who's come here from Amsterdam via
Boston more about which I'll tell you in
a few moments but what I wanted to tell
you first is that I want to offer thanks
to many many of you who are in this
audience this is the first of the John
Walsh lecture and education series
that's being delivered and due to gifts
of money from more than 220 of you we
now have a major John Walsh endowment
further for John Ross lectures and
education for kind of slow looking and
teaching that John is done here for many
many years but especially over the last
four years where we've been able to
borrow extensively from the wonderful
Dutch Golden Age painting collection of
Rosemarie and Ike fan daughter lower we
are with us today in the front row and
with a good friend taco and I just
learned that in fact taco before he went
to like museum was an intern of John
Walsh's at the Getty Museum
I mean how and not only that Marissa
bass one of our great young professors
trained at Harvard and now here at Yale
teaching northern European art from
1,400 to 1700 also was an intern of
Tacos at the Rijksmuseum I mean this is
it goes on and on I've just thrown my
remarks out to say that I need to
improvise a little bit in saying that
it's been an enormous pleasure these
fast last four years to be able to
borrow fantastic works of art from the
van otterloop collection and as you know
to display them here for all of you to
enjoy for our students to benefit from
particularly not only the great lectures
that John's given but the other people
in the field who he's invited here to
lecture all of this has really made a
great contribution to the study
particularly of nederlandse art and it's
been recently announced I think you all
know that the great collections of the
Weatherbys and the auto Louis's is being
made a gift to the MFA in Boston and
they have invited both the Harvard
University museums and Yale music the
Yale University Art Gallery to be their
preferred lenders for what we hope will
be a major ongoing program to train
people to learn more
I care more about the great arts of the
Netherland ohshit culture and we also
know that taco you know and we hope that
we're gonna have a real cross atlantic
collaboration with your wonderful
Rijksmuseum this rijksmuseum by the way
was found in 1800 the Yale art gallery
we came along later in 1832 but it was
first founded in the hague and then in
1808 it was moved by a Napoleon to
Amsterdam so it could have its own
separation from the king and the hague
and then by I think it was about 1985 it
was you've got your own real building
there I mean 1890 eighteen and there's
another very interesting coincidence is
that the plan to ultimately renovate and
expand and re-install Rijksmuseum
collection began first in 2001 and then
really got underway and for a 10-year
renovation in 2003 that also almost
perfectly coincides with what we were
doing here you know we closed the Louis
Kahn building in 2003 we started the
program thinking about it in 2001 and
opened in twelve twelve twelve so we
think there's a lot of synchronicity
here amongst these institutions and
we're tied it'd again wanting to think
was me and Ike for the wonderful loans
that we know now we're going to continue
in in the generous fashion I want to
mention there will be a wonderful study
day being conducted on February 2nd up
in the Boston with colleagues from
Harvard and Yale but also others in the
field coming to talk about how this new
Center is going to get underway and so
to have taco here today to talk about
the history of his own institution and
the wonderful work he's done first as a
young curator then this director of
collections now director the museum you
can see he's only about 32 or 33 this is
perfect this idea we're making way for a
younger generation as part of the whole
deal here so dr. I want to thank you for
coming he's told me at the end of his
remarks which he doesn't want to keep
going on and on he would love to take
some questions from any of you and then
some of you if I think signed up for
some of the close looking that John
Walsh has often done you can go up in
the galleries those of you who've done
that
spend a little time with him before he
needs to leave so taco I again I want to
say it's an enormous pleasure to meet
you personally to learn about these
relationships we already have with
colleagues we both know and enjoy and I
want to thank also Marissa Bass Nicola
Souter Larry Kanter Ian McClure the
whole team here that's made this four
year experience with Dutch yard so rich
for all of us all of you in the audience
and especially the young learners and
scholars who are entering the field so
talk if you will come up and tell us a
story or two thank you and one more
thing but I should mount the second
third and fourth lectures of the ball
series I forgot to announce next week
the guy right there on the front row
Larry Kanter will give a lecture same
time Friday on the young Frangelico
Larry did the famous Frangelico
retrospective at the Met the week after
that on the 9th paul goldberger the
great student of vincent Scully's gonna
give a lecture architecture and Vincent
Scully architecture in the power of
language and then an Temkin one of our
greatest alumni graduates from the
Museum of Modern Art will come and speak
about how this collection changed her
life who's now the creator of modern
painting and sculpture Momo so what a
wonderful way to start this Walsh
lecture series again great thanks for
all of you but it's so so generous to
endow this program which means it's
going to go on for in perpetuity in
perpetuity is a long time darker please
the nice the nice thing is that we
directors I don't know if this is if you
can hear me the nice thing is that we
directors come and go but the art stays
so that's that must be quite comforting
probably after you've heard my story
even more comforting I'm starting with
this sculpture around 1600 by a Dutch
artist Decatur of a small boy who's
being stung by a bee obviously it's a
reference to to antiquity Cupid being
stung by a bee
but he's shouting and I will shout at
you for the coming hour if I go on too
long please say stop stop and I'd love
to take questions but I also show it
because it is really what the
Rijksmuseum
is about it's the Museum the National
Museum of the Netherlands and it's a
museum that wants to be always of today
and always young like we all want to be
the face of the museum of the
Rijksmuseum if you think about it as a
person is Rembrandt he is the artist I
think the artists in the world best
depicting us as human beings as
individuals as who we are in or beauty
in or
sorrow in our ugliness in our joy
Rembrandt's depicts as all and he has
not been always the core of the
collection when the collection was
founded and indeed I think the Dutch are
the only people or maybe even the people
in the Rijksmuseum we are the only
people who are very grateful to Napoleon
because he was the one who founded our
museum and who made FM Sam the capital
city of the Netherlands he founded a
museum which had to have an art
collection a Dutch art collection it was
stipulated and always one room with
historical objects and one room with a
library and it was founded at
castle outside outside the hague and
soon moved by napoleon to amsterdam and
in amsterdam it was housed at the palace
of Napoleon's brother Louie Napoleon and
after that it moved to a house on the
canals which was a house that was far
too small for it and soon it started to
grow and grow because people start to
donate objects to the museum the state
we had at that time a very mean king who
didn't once spent an art so the state
didn't spend on art it was really a
collection that was built very much in a
sense that is done in America as well by
the people then in the end of the 1870s
so we're already 70 years into the
history of the museum it was decided
that there should be a large National
Museum a Rijksmuseum build in Amsterdam
on a plot of land that was given by the
city to the state and I'm saying this
you might think but the state owns the
city well with Amsterdam it's a
different case the people in Amsterdam
are quite stubborn they have their own
mind and they feel that they are a small
Republic within this state was in the
Kingdom of the Netherlands this is
historically set as well because
Amsterdam you know there was a war
between the Dutch and the Spanish in the
17th century 16th 17th century it's now
400 years ago but Amsterdam was a city
that fought for the longest time on the
Spanish side so they always wanted to
have a special position it was a society
that a museum should be built and of
course the examples in the world where
the British Museum and museums that
looked like Greek temples and what
happened in this Protestant city of
Amsterdam lo and behold the architect
who won the competition was a man called
Kuiper's and he was a Catholic
he is the man who built this building
now still the Rijksmuseum it opened its
doors in 1885 and there were a few
stipulations the town had given the
museum or the plot of land to the state
stipulating that it could be a museum
but it also had to be a city gate the
gate to the new developments which are
meant to be developed behind here and
here you can see there were only two
buildings up but now there is an entire
neighborhood which was built at the
beginning of the 20th century so city
gate and a museum at the same time and
it was to serve the public teaching art
and history the Museum of the nation the
museum opened in 1885 the then king and
queen refused to set foot in the museum
because they said it's like a cloister
we will not set foot in a Catholic place
and they weren't they weren't present at
the opening it was the biggest building
in the Netherlands and the shock was
that CalPERS built this Cathedral for
the Arts but he also built the Central
Station - train station so when you
would arrive as a tourist to Amsterdam
and we sometimes underestimate the
importance of the building of train
stations because this suddenly made it
possible to travel by train from France
from Paris to Amsterdam and loads of
artists we have books in which artists
had to write their name if they wanted
to copy in the museum loads of artists
came suddenly from France you might all
remember Miro who did his Dutch
interiors he came on the train to
Amsterdam and worked there so the train
station a Catholic cathedral for trains
the Rijksmuseum a Cathedral full art and
history it was a huge building as I said
the largest building in the Netherlands
and the collection was far too small
there were 700 were
of art of there were 700 paintings and
to give you an idea now we've got nearly
7,000 paintings it was a museum that
needed to be filled but the day it
opened there were too many spaces so the
architects kuipers decided to make an
exhibition of the building itself to
have a deep the show on the on the on
the ground floor on the main floor have
it show all architectural styles
represented in the Netherlands so it was
truly eclectic he also felt that there
should be more attention for the
Catholic history of the Netherlands and
all his important historical moments
that we're and already depicted by the
paintings in it where he picked it on
the outside of the building in in tiles
large tiled tableaus which depicted
scenes from history the important man
and at that time not women although
there were many more important women
than we think
we're depicted in these arches so the
building itself also told the history of
the Netherlands and he obviously felt
that there were important moment
Catholic moments in the history of the
Netherlands subjects that none of us
have ever heard of but he made them very
important and sayings that we had never
heard of they were suddenly depicted in
the National Museum and he really felt
that it should be not a temple but a
Cathedral that lifts you up that
enlightens you and that is a cathedral
for the Arts 1885
Rembrandt by that time had already
become the most important artists of the
Netherlands and the Rijksmuseum was to
be probably a piece you would now think
of contemporary art as often marketed
the Rijksmuseum was the biggest
marketing campaign for the Nightwatch
the main and the most important painting
we have in
this is it I'm just going back because
so this was the painting it was all
about and kuipers designed a building
that was the the floorplan was like a
Renaissance Palazzo is inner courtyards
and here between these two columns the
Night Watch was to be hung the visitor
would enter would enter in the front
hall the vore hall as we call it which
had large you will see it later large
stained glass windows and then as in a
procession you could walk to the high
altar the Night Watch passing different
side chapels to walk towards it so it
was really the entire building was
planned around two high altar the Night
Watch and what kind of painting it is I
will today not talk about it because
that you have to come to MCM to see the
real thing not talk about the painting
that much but the importance for it for
the Netherlands and why it was promoted
so much was because in France you would
affect you would have expected at the
high altar a portrait of Louis quatorze
in Italy you would expect Christ on the
cross but what did the Netherlands do
they put on the high high altar the
people and in this case the people of
Amsterdam so it was very clear that it
was propaganda ating the country as a
civic country with a civic part of power
and the people depicted in it are still
the people that are important today and
you might guess who they are they are
lawyers first of all of course and they
are pharmacists secondary also very
important and then they are our traders
our merchants and those were the man of
Amsterdam who were meant to protect as a
civic guards to protect the city against
the Spanish but when we say protect the
city against the Spanish
at that time and you might remember that
I said before the Dutch the the people
from Amsterdam remained pro Spanish for
a long time at that time they were and
this is 1642 so just before the end of
the war it was mainly to protect the
city from internal unrest and in a sense
there were many internal unrest when it
comes to religion the Netherlands know
over 50 types of Protestantism so you
can imagine they would quarrel endlessly
over the Bible and over the word spoken
the word read and often the militia the
Civic Guards had to calm down the the
census and had to come riots down that
were really quite quite fierce over over
disputes about how to read the Bible the
Night Watch as I said it depicts a
militia it was hanging in the middle and
each Dutchman who would visit the
Rijksmuseum would immediately realize
this is a country built by Berger's and
this is a country administered by Burgas
so it was intentionally put there as a
political statement of how the country
should be run
it was also you could say
part of the collection of the town of
Amsterdam if you visit the Prado
you visit the collection of Kings if you
visit the Louvre you visit the
collection that was started by Kings if
you visit the Queen's galleries in in
London you see a collection from the
16th century of kings and the
Rijksmuseum had the collection of the
city of Amsterdam which is this the
syndics by Rembrandt is also in a sense
the old core of the collection even
though it's a 19th century Museum these
works were already in the town's
administration since they were painted I
think this is
but this is I show sometimes I just saw
paintings because they're my favorites
so every we have a million objects but
every everybody has their favorites and
I think that if you say when I said
rammer anticipate is the painter of the
individual I'm always amazed at how he
is able to make all these peep to make
all these men sitting from different
religious denominations sitting there as
if it's it's very recognizable as if
it's a moment that you open a boardroom
you say oh sorry wrong room and you
close it again and that's exactly what
remin does today he or he but we the
visitor now but he is the one
distracting their annual board meeting
afters of the syndics who are going
through the ledgers with the annual was
the annual report one in the movement
and I think that that sir choral so was
Rembrandt not only the individual faces
and their expressions
the movement is created by this man
standing up like what are you doing him
here saying it to us you're in the wrong
room he's making an argument slapping
with his hand on the on the ledger
I told you it was right the other one is
saying let's move on so holding the page
and let's move on and he has just
arrived with his missus glove still in
his hand so he he arrived late and it's
it's that when which that 17th century
art has when you have as your goal to
create a composition to create a picture
that is as lifelike as possible and
that's the way it was written about as
lifelike as possible then as a painter
the the hardest thing is to create
movement in your painting and I think
that Rembrandt does it in a brilliant
way here and we feel okay we've got to
close the door but we want to stay and
look at it for as long as possible the
museum consisted of different museums in
a sense it was the fine art museum and
this is a painting
from when it had just opened here the
rooms are very Tucker full with
paintings all the 700 paintings were
hanging but there were other rooms that
were nearly virtually empty and kuipers
in those rooms had decorated them with
large scenes from Dutch history all the
paintings were exhibited in the in these
rooms and they included rooms that were
named after donors to the museum so when
the museum opened not only did it have
the Night Watch there's a civic pride at
the high altar but also the rooms were
named after the people who had donated
pictures to the museum it's interesting
because that tradition in the States is
still there in the Netherlands it has
completely disappeared
but you had for example the room you saw
before where you see the Jewish bride
hanging there already very important
because it had a little barrier in front
of it and somebody copying it it had
that room was called - von der Hope room
a banker who had started collecting in
the 19th century who was very much
following the fashion of collecting
Rembrandt Rosedale etc etc what we now
consider as the typical Dutch art at
that time it wasn't late Rembrandt was
not the most famous artist and he really
started collecting it when he died he
left everything to the city of Amsterdam
and the city said that's very nice but
you have to pay tax duty and we're not
going to pay the tax duty so we're not
going to accept this great gift at that
time another group of of patricians from
the city said ok we will collect the we
will donate money so you can accept it
and we pay the death duties and
therefore the Rijksmuseum still has
these fantastic works but also this work
Rosedale which is a the mill ad vague by
diverse data and when you go there now
it's changed a little bit but still it's
incredible to see how similar it still
is and this was one of the paintings
from the collection duper a man from
Dordrecht who left his paintings to the
museum in the early days and so it grew
the collection grew and grew and these
fantastic paintings were became really
the icons of Dutch painting in the 20th
century as well and then there is the
first big intervention of the state the
milkmaid by Vermeer she was about to be
sold to the US and the Dutch said no
this cannot happen a committee was
formed in Netherlands everything goes by
committee a committee was formed
consensus was reached it was brought
into Parliament and it was unanimously
decided that this painting should be
acquired for the country and it is has
been in the Rijksmuseum since the
beginning of the 20th century it's I
don't know if you've you've ever seen it
but it is for Vermeer it's incredible to
see how well-preserved it is and that's
a large part of its magic you really
feel his breaststroke in a way he he
indicates the brittleness of the bread
and the breadcrumbs and the way he was
little dots you can still see them on
the paint surface and the way he
depicted in a you can here see even the
brushstroke the way he depicts the kind
of dark blue skin of the milkmaid who's
been cleaning probably often in cold
water the way he does that and contrasts
with the blue behind it it's a it's an
amazing painting and it's again a
painting that tells a story
a story of a lady are made in this case
standing in the dairy kitchen a kitchen
on the north there is a window but you
see the mold I always say it's the most
beautiful a plaster wall ever painted
you see the mold here and the window
from a window on the north so it's a
small hole in the window showed that
it's really glass Brad is in this chest
hanging against the hanging up against
mice then you know it's called because
there is a stove here where's the little
test yes we call it in Dutch a little a
little piece of pottery was in it hot
coals and here is the milk the milk will
be delivered at the door from from the
country delivered at the door in large
bucket so you could buy milk which you
see here the bread is taken out of that
and there's a pitcher was beer so which
was used as yeast so she is in the
process and that's why she's measuring
so carefully I think that tension of her
hand holding and pouring at the same
time she's measuring so carefully
because she's making a bread pudding
with the yeast is bare the old bread and
milk
so also Vermeer creates a story a story
of everyday life and it's amazing I
think how he is able to make this to
make this everyday scene into a
monumental painting as we sometimes call
it it's like a Dutch Madonna in the
sense because it's really it is a
monumental painting even though it's
it's this big but to continue another
early acquisition was the little street
by Vermeer we've now since the two years
ago it was discussed discovered by
professor from the University of
Amsterdam so that's why it's so
important that you keep on training art
historians he discovered that this was
the house hoop so this was the house
of the aunt of Vermeer so there was a
very personal relation of Vermeer with
her but that was also one of the early
works that came to the collection the
collection showed as you as you saw
before with Vermeer as well showed a
very Protestant side of Dutch art this
is one of the main history pieces of the
collection and we call it the fishing
for souls it wasn't already in the
collection since the 1830s what you see
is you see here the Catholics the
Spanish Catholics fishing for souls then
obviously their boat is capsizing and
they won't they won't succeed to get
anymore in here you see the Spanish and
then here these man in black the Dutch
the Protestants and here they're fishing
for their souls and even though the
building was Catholic the collection was
firmly confirming or affirming a
Protestant view of life so many
portraits and people in very sober
black-and-white dress very few for
example what you know the Dutch art
about very few flowers their lives
because those were considered too kind
of joyful and scenes of everyday life of
hard-working people so it was very much
also reflecting a sense of the time in
the nineteenth century the second part
at the second museum set was a Fine Art
Museum the second Museum housed in the
building the Rijksmuseum was the museum
for history for national history and I
think that within Europe as a National
Museum
the Wrights regime is singular that it
has a collection of fine art of history
paintings and objects and these are we
might know these fantastic pen paintings
these are huge pen paintings
four of them in a series made for one of
the children of the Admirals of the
Dutch navy in the 17th century by from
the fielder that was part of the history
collection and this is an object not
very beautiful but it is the object that
saved the life of the founder of
international law in the 17th century
who called sheis and he escaped in this
chest for books it's a long story but
I'm not going to tell it but it is one
of these icons of the Netherlands
actually I can't not tell it it's quite
a fascinating story the amazing thing
about it is there's three of these and
we claim to have the real one but the
three in and Adalind says how how
popular he was but he heard a quote
wrote a letter
grotius wrote a letter to his or no his
brother wrote a letter to him he escaped
in this in this box left it with his
brother and the brother wrote a letter
after a year or two saying oh my gosh I
went to look for the chest and it's gone
I can't find it Claud gets quite upset
and writes back and says well you really
have to search well because that box
shows got willingness who let me escape
and then after a while they come to
compromise because the brother found a
chest that looks very much like it can
that serve the goal and who hold a
thought says yes it can surf the goal so
there is no original box left but this
is the one that comes closest to it but
that's how already in the 17th century
rewrote our own history
the third museum was in the Rijksmuseum
was the museum for applied arts which
was often a choice and one of her former
curators for textile said when she
retired he said well it was so wonderful
to work in the Rijksmuseum because over
the 40 years that I work there often
people come and old families from the
Netherlands came and which would have
said well we can I
certain dustbin all we give it to the
Rijksmuseum so it indicates that at a
very and the Reich's was he was very
generous at taking it on and it
indicates that these decisions in the
nineteenth century and a lot of European
houses and a lot of Dutch houses objects
that were very became very valuable and
told us a lot about our history were
thrown away sometimes objects that might
not have a great value money-wise but
have a great cultural value and I think
that makes the Rijksmuseum the
Rijksmuseum that it was really built by
the people and donations came of objects
from the families in the Netherlands
which made it a museum for everybody and
with such a strong Dutch character in
its collections but then over the 20th
century the the museum was slowly filled
in these where the court charts I don't
know if you let's see if I can know
these were the courtyards they were
building was all kind of small wools and
the large spaces that were there this
was the the is the gallery of Honor and
they were thinking about building that
in as well but they kept it open this is
the other courtyard that was building
large spaces were made smaller and
smaller and during the twentieth century
was a period of the democratizing in the
1950s and 60s these were building in the
fifties or sixties it was felt that you
needed to democratize the building so
the building that was meant to impress
with large spaces where you could wonder
well where made the spaces where were
made into small spaces so it would give
more a sense of scale it ended up being
a labyrinth where nobody could find
their way that's when you have I know
I'm in the country of democracy but when
you have too much democracy nobody can
find their way so that's what that's
what it ended up like but it's
interesting that when we started to when
we started to work
the history of the museum at that time
it wasn't such a conscious decision but
then when you read around it then you
read the correspondence over it it was
really a sign of the time of the 1960's
that things had to be a human scale
there should be smaller and thus it
resulted also in a National Museum of
this way of filling in the museum it was
cluster with with offices with energy
rooms the conservation studios were in
the Attic any building was really a
labyrinth this is how it was physically
building so here you see the old walls
of the museum and here they just build
in nice little spaces so when in 2000
the country felt quite rich a millennium
gift was given to the museum to make the
museum fit for the 21st century it would
only the government only provide it for
the bricks and we raised the money
ourselves for the content and for the
display at that time there was an
international competition and it was
maybe quite ironic but I think there
were fantastic architects that in this
museum of the Dutch 17th century that
young country that fought against the
Spanish cruise a artists to Spanish
architects were chosen to take the right
to live into the 21st century but on the
other hand a very logical choice because
it was the time of the unification of
Europe where it was felt you should have
an international an international staff
also in the museum working on it and
they did quite a job as you can see here
not single-handedly we helped but it was
they did two amazing things they said we
should go forwards with Kuiper's or
forwards with the old arc with the
architect of the building and I think
the idea not to want to go back to the
original architecture but to take it
forwards was a very good one and they
said we want to give the museum light
and
and err back again we want to give it
its lungs back if you would look at the
museum just two courtyards are really
like two lungs that give open it up and
they took out all these small rooms that
were created in the courtyards and this
was quite a rigorous decision and I
think that with the renovation of the
museum or the transformation of the
museum we took quite a few rigorous
decisions the rigorousness of it was
that there was no architect who were in
his right mind who would propose to have
rather fewer exhibition galleries than
mall exhibition galleries so at first
the curators we I was one of the
curators I just joined everybody said
why are you going to join a museum
that's going to close I said well that's
a great opportunity to to be able to
work on this new museum they they they
took out the the inner courts so less is
more was the motto for the new museum
less is more and they decided to go back
to the original floor plan so this is
nearly the same this is our if you come
into the museum this is our floor per
and nowadays this is nearly the same as
it was at the beginning they also had
another thing that they wanted to do it
was meant as a city gate as well so you
could go under the museum was a bicycle
and you might have heard and I said once
to her former director it was great that
they wanted to take the bicycles out of
the passageway under the museum because
it kept us in the international press
for the ten years that we were
renovating but I'm very happy that you
can nice now cycle under it because it's
it's unique in a world that you have a
museum where you could actually have a
cycle pass under it but this to arrive
at this which has a great simplicity we
learned that simplicity is usually the
most difficult thing to arrive at
and in the Netherlands if you start to
build you need I remember the Spanish
architect saying to me if you make is a
cellar under the Prado which they done
you take a spade and you dig if you make
a cellar under the Rijksmuseum you have
to hire a captain at sea because you
immediately hate the water so all the
building was done with with divers
underwater and it was it was a huge a
huge building process to arrive at this
result as it is now which really opened
it up it breezes again the museum and it
has nearly a a Spanish light falling
through through this chandelier that
they designed which is some people
thought it would be a cage if you don't
pay for your ticket but it has all
security it has the it has the the
acoustics and everything in it and they
they decided to use only Spanish stone
to counterbalance the the very and use a
very minimalist language to
counterbalance the very eclectic
architecture of Kuiper's who at his time
only used Dutch materials in the 19th
century they wanted to only use Dutch
stones the red ones being from one River
from the vowel as we called it and
yellow ones being from the hazel another
river and the the front hall which is
which was restored back into its former
glory
we felt that at some point at some
places in the museum you should actually
be able to experience the museum
as a building but also as a as a part of
the collection as it really is so much
part of the collection the story it
tells it was completely during the 20th
century you will see slides later it was
completely painted white on the one hand
because we wanted to turn it into a
Protestant Church and what do you do you
paint everything white and funnily
enough if you will see in
collection of the fun all tellers and of
the Weatherbys you will see paintings by
Sandra DOM and the the architect in the
1950s who painted the interior of the
Reich's was in white he took a painting
by Sandra Dom as an example and said
this is how I wanted to look so it was
painted white you now can't can't
imagine any more an organ was hung
because that's in a Protestant church of
an organ on either side of the front
hall and large copper chandeliers from
the 17th century also like in churches
were hung there we had it restored back
and this part needed least wreck
instruction because these are not
frescoes but there were paintings they
had been rolled up in the beginning in
the beginning of the 20th century and
when they were discovered in 1960s the
then director or the restorer the
conservators to destroy them and to
serve them away but they didn't do it
they hid them in the attic and we found
them again so we could we restored them
put them up again and these are the
stained-glass windows I was talking
about before which had staged probably
because the Dutch we are quite mean and
they they functioned this window so they
were left that weren't taken out all the
decorations were done by training a new
generation of artisans who worked with
stencils it's all stenciled and they
were because the building work took ten
years and it was a lot of delay in the
building work they were able to do so
much of the reconstruction work within
the museum so in a sense the delays and
the long period of the renovation were
used very well by the staff this is how
the gallery of honor looked before the
museum close down the decorations on
these beams were saved because they felt
modernists they're steel beams and it
was thought that modern age still you
have to preserve it so they were always
preserved but the rest of the walls
everything was painted white
but what do you do when you start to
renovate a building you want to have the
original volumes back and you want to
have it breathe great simplicity also to
get here great simplicity but it was a
hell of a job to get there I remember
when we were building it suddenly
appeared that the State Department had
decided to have every three meters the
electricity socket or you would have
security lights everywhere and to get
the walls like this I mean you probably
remember from the renovations here it's
near impossibility but we did it but we
also thought if you can rethink the
institution how and you have these
museums three museums in it
history fine art and Applied Arts where
each material starts in the Middle Ages
up to the 20th century how can you make
it an experience for the visitor that's
more understandable you don't have to
start over and over again with history
and we decided that in a sense the
Rijksmuseum is like the memory of a
nation and how do we order our own
memory
it's chronological you think about when
did I do my finals when did I go to
study when did I have or when did I get
married or not or when did I have my
first child etc and around that you
order in a chronological sense your
memories at that time it ran 2,000 this
was unheard of because whispers
modernism history shouldn't be
chronological but we did decide to do it
that way and the motor next to less is
more was mix the collections where you
can alongside and the sense of create a
sense of time and a sensibility for
beauty so you walk through the Middle
Ages to the 17th century this is a
painting by bear Quaeda of the of the
golden band we call it the golden Isle
of
the city of Amsterdam then the canals
when this was at the time they were
built in 1772 to the 18th century the
age of decorative arts in the
Netherlands to the 19th century the
first impression is self portrait by van
gock after his brother told him you
should paint in light colours and start
painting people that's the way money and
this is what I produce and then I just
because this is also one of my favorite
paintings breitner and into the 20th
century there was a lot of discussion
shoot the museum enter the 20th century
and we felt yes we shoot because we're
now living in a 20 in the 21st century
so I'm sorry to say including me were
all history so time goes on and you go
on also with the collection and we
collect the 20th century not as a
vanguard but as reflective and as in the
long tradition of art and Applied Arts
and history in the Netherlands and it
always has a historical link another
foreigner jean-michel VIN Mott was
invited to design the galleries
he started off doing it in 2003 and it
became a friendship over ten years with
which read the curators and his design
company and him work together very
closely and these were the discussions
we had you probably you probably
recognize him but it just went on and on
but I do have to say after if we would
have done the building in five years the
installations we wouldn't have been able
to hide behind saying oh we didn't
really finish so it could have been
better I think now we did the best we
could and it's for the public to judge
how that is but we really had the time
and the possibility to think the
installations through up into the last
my new
and this is what the result was these
are the medieval galleries and I think
one of the great things why we chose
veal Mota friend the French designer was
that he really presents the objects to
the public on a platter it's yours and
it's it's like a gift to the public and
it's very accessible you really feel
that you're in direct contact with the
work of art on the one hand with the
single work of art and I think that
that's always very important that you
can stand in front of a work of art
without being distracted by the works
around it on the other hand at the same
time being able to get a sense of time
and beauty that when you walk through it
you see that the art of the Middle Ages
was different from that of the 17th
century we didn't want to make like they
did here in the old museum period rooms
because it gives the impression to the
public that these objects really belong
together where they never did so we
decided to make room so you might
recognize here this with this one to
have rooms where you where this is the
17th century and this is about the
administration of the cities and of the
country here you see the board of one of
the administrative bodies I think this
is for the spinsters so there's a woman
so for single women of a certain age and
these were the man administering the
their their condo I think you would call
it in the u.s. there Hoffa where they
lived and these were the female
administrators of the lappers house so
it was always you had mill
administrative bodies and also female
administrative bodies so we do give an
impression but it's clear that there's
these objects or these who do belong
together but they were not in the same
room as that one originally so not
period rooms but giving a time of sense
and beauty
the question often asked but why these
dark wools there were no museums at that
time that we're having these dark wools
and it was through a visit to a
conservation department that uses gray
on the wall that veal moth came to the
idea and said we were for a long time
struggling with all kind of colors and
he said why do you have gray and I said
that's because it's the most neutral
color against and very very peaceful
color for the restore to restore against
and it is also with dark colors that
your eye has your pupil opens more so it
meets also more color to come in to your
eyes so that was it was a very rational
decision he made and I think it worked
out very well because the paintings
really become like like windows and
their frames like window sills in which
through which you look into the 17th
century objects this would have been is
it's an important object by Tom viana
which depicts one of the battles within
that eight-year war objects which used
to have been with the silver department
silver and gold department are now here
you see them together with other objects
but are now exhibited like this it's
here standing here together with
paintings a cannon and a funerary
monument sketch of the same period so
they are in their historical context but
giving again also a sense of beauty
here we see Rembrandt and their
Rembrandt together with his friends lute
ma a silversmith and domer a furniture
designer so also again you have a group
of artists that you show together who
we're friends in real life in the 18th
century we have one pair we have two
period rooms which are really room said
in their entirety were taken from the
canal
and exhibited in the museum it's also
the 18th century beautiful sculpture of
La Mesa which was made for Madame de
Pompadour and the one of the two only
tables that exists by Piranesi
the museum is if you see it here it's
less is more but the museum has huge
reserves we've got over a million
objects in the collection and to give an
idea of that we made what we called a
special collection which is like a
treasure trove where you really see lots
of glass lots of earthenware lots of
Meissen porcelain it's after dressed in
the largest collection of mice in the
world and then we come to ear my bum the
the person who designed our new logo and
also she wanted to radiate simplicity in
her work but she did it in a very joyful
way she came out with the new logo for
the museum and we had again a national
competition and they were the most
amazing baroque kind of drawings with
bicycles running through the word and
everything that you could imagine and
she said she asked me one day will
tackle what is the strongest the
strongest brand you know and I I think I
said Chanel and and she said you know I
think it's a word you just need the word
Rijksmuseum and nobody in the world can
pronounce it but a lot of people know it
because it's so difficult to pronounce
so just believe in in in what you are as
an institution and just have the word as
your as your logo so she we designed
that we we let her design the guidebooks
and all the publication's we do in a
very contemporary design because we feel
that also old art is of all days as
always it's always contemporary and we
wanted to be relevant now and also
appeal to a young audience now and I
think it works in a sense
also online we started online with what
we call Reich studio we were the first
to give all our images for free on the
internet in the highest resolution with
the idea came because of the music
industry as well it's very difficult to
control your copyrights we had three
people working on it
but their pay was higher than what they
could actually claim in copyrights
because on the internet there are images
or if you've made a photograph of
tonight what you can use it anywhere
because there's no copyright on it
anymore
so there we also set simplicity this is
just a skip it because we believe we
want to have on them in our digital
presence we want to be inside the museum
as low-tech as possible I hate it when
you go to a museum and there's a there's
a there's a computer screen and it
doesn't work and it's always maintenance
but it's also it just distracts you from
the real work of art from the object and
we believe that especially if you're
outside of the museum you can be as
high-tech as possible and we're living
at the right time because the Internet
is so much based on images and we
strongly believe in the power of the
image so you have to have it in a very
high resolution on the screen and also
it's a great educational tool because
children should learn and can learn in a
museum to develop a critical sense and a
critical eye for analyzing images which
should get every day and the great thing
was being online is that you the power
of the image it intrigues you and 24/7
and you can touch it something that you
can't do in the museum the other thing
is we felt you have to be you have to be
able to play with the collection so we
did not only allow people to download
the image at the highest resolution but
people could also use the images to make
products and there was one of Dutch
fashion designer and she made this these
hoops these dresses
with images from the collections and
they're now one of the best-selling
items in our shop and the great thing is
it's a it's it's it's it's publicity for
the museum because there when they walk
over the street people look at it and I
think it's a beautiful image rather it's
a beautiful dress so it is the way to
bring the collection really to the
people and what better way there is is
to have it on the milk carton where you
where you buy you buy a milk carton and
I remember myself as
this was was proposed by one of the
large large grocery stores in the
Netherlands Alworth hang and they
propose to do this and I said yeah
that's fine but we also have it's not
only for pleasure but we also have a
mission statement which is education so
as a child we had you would often sit at
the breakfast table and look well your
parents were talking at the milk carton
and we decided to have a little a little
educational text with a riddle and as a
child you could then read if you turn
the milk carton around first of to
finish it you could read the answer but
at least it stimulates you to to really
it in brands the images into the into
your mind and onto your eye and it
stimulates you to learn something so be
present in unexpected places and be
present in every household of your town
this is a photograph it already for us
it seems long ago 2013 when we had the
National opening and which something
that we consider is typical Dutch but
it's actually typically American is the
is the brass bands we had from every
state over every county in the country a
brass band come and play and it really
became we had the opening our
development department was hugely
nervous because we said we're not going
to have an opening for for a special
guest we just have an opening for
everybody
one day for free and we the Queen opened
it and everybody could go to the museum
one day for free when I called our main
sponsors they all immediately
that's a great idea to do because it
really shows that you're everybody's
museum and I think that's what we want
to be and do not believe these were the
cues at the beginning when we opened
we've now our logistics are now better
so when you come to the museum you won't
find a queue we have about two to
two-and-a-half million visitors a year
and the salt we had as museums at the
beginning of the 21st century that by
being on the internet and by living in a
day at age where there's so much digital
and so much kind of virtual reality and
by everybody being able to travel we
thought well why would what's the
function of a museum
I remember Bill Gates saying that he
would have great plasma screens in his
house with the masterpieces of all over
the world on them and he wouldn't need
to buy art I think since he's bored art
and it's it proves that for all of us
the the having the collection on the
Internet only stimulates people to come
and see the real thing we sometimes
forget it but we we all want real things
when we go to Tuscany we want to eat
Tuscan food and we want to drink Tuscan
wine but we also want to see Tuscan art
when people come to the Netherlands they
want to see the art that was made at the
place so I think the the real object
your tentacle jex is the strengths of
the museum and that's our core business
as well and bringing that to the people
and making it everybody's museum I think
you cannot you cannot be emphasized more
than enough as a museum that you're an
open museum and you have to really be
there for everybody because everybody
has to write to see art this is where I
stop
probably spoke fire too long so I'll
shut up now
maybe
maybe for those who still have time if
we can take some questions I apologize
for this simple question but how is the
reich's translated in stage State State
Museum but to be clear we are one third
state financed one third private
donations and one third ticket sales so
that's changed over the past ten years
the Dutch museums have always charged so
it's different from the US or the UK
what was the effect of the years of
German occupation on the museum the it's
interesting because I just read a
booklet that we that was published by
the museum in the end of the forties the
museum hardly had ever we are now in a
large we have a research project to
research 110,000 objects that entered
the museum from 1933 up to the present
day to research their provenance and we
have a website where all the objects of
which the provenance is not entirely
closed closed over that period are
published but during the period of the
German occupation so 1942 45 there was
hardly any acquisition at the Museum
because there's no money it closes door
quite soon the art was all brought to 3d
first one location and to another
location and to a third location but it
is it is very impressive too to read the
museum did a small exhibition of the
Rijksmuseum during the Second World War
in the in the 1980s and there the it's
awful to see how
far the the system of the occupation
reached so it was more for admitting
people Jewish people weren't allowed and
they discovered that then director did
allow them and the Germans threatened to
incarcerate him so it was it was really
went quiet in in that sense went very
deep but the museum closed I think it
was 1941 and after the Second World War
when it was opened again there was an
exhibition the Virgen there meister see
the the coming back of the masterpieces
and that was very well attended it was
its museums and that's also what i try
to indicate is that museums national
museums play especially is play a very
important role not only as a reflection
of the time itself but they also make
the time itself and art becomes very
important at times of war so it was also
it was actually amazing that there was
so little art a lot of the art was
hidden during the Second World War that
so little was transported to Germany and
I think the reason or we we know the
reason for that was that the Germans
tried to get the Dutch on their side by
saying that there would be a great
netherlands with the flemish dutch as
one country Flanders and de netherlands
had already been separated for over a
century but they wanted to rebuild it
and for that idea they had the identity
of that chart but that luckily never
came to be
the recent joint acquisition with the
Louvre of the two Rembrandt pendant
paintings and I was wondering sort of
you know as the price for art continues
to increase do you see that perhaps
becoming a stainable sustainable model
in which you know countries can continue
to hope to keep these wonderful works of
art in the public domain I think the the
it's a difficult subject in this case
it's also very interesting subject I
didn't include it it's a long story
but the the the the Rijksmuseum wanted
to acquire or we had a dream to acquire
it
pendants the only full-length pendants
standing painted by Rembrandt and from
the Rothschild family in in France from
the French branch they were willing to
sell them to us they had an expert
license and we were able to raise the
money was a lot of money hundred sixty
million and at the moment that we were
actually or that it was said in the
press that we had acquired them the
French boot their foot down and said no
this is not going to happen so they and
they said we want we but we are willing
to share them because they knew that
legally they couldn't always hold the
sale and then you see the Netherlands
it's a small country so you always have
to navigate quite diplomatically and
here in France is a large country so at
the UN in New York it was decided by the
then by olana then Prime Minister France
and our prime minister that it was
communicated by holanda that we were
going to buy them together so then the
two were brought together it was
possible because there were two
paintings and then it was the first time
I think in history that a treaties
between two countries so not an
agreement but the treaties over works of
art usually it's tunnels or motorways
was was actually made that these two
works of art should always be considered
as one
but again that's also a sign of the time
there was the unification of Europe that
was a possibility and yeah we we don't
know I I'm sure it will work out because
we're very very good terms with salut
but you don't know if maybe in 100 years
time there's a war between the two
countries you never know but I hope not
because I like France hi I came from
China over 20 years ago and you
introduced some wonderful art piece here
is this museum having some like a really
treasure pieces from China back to I
think Holland is one of the eighth
countries went to China at the end of
18th century in beginning of the 19th
century a lot of the all the A's country
that the other countries I know they
grabbed a lot of Germany's arms well
there's two there's two sorry to
interrupt you but there's the Dutch came
to China already century before in the
beginning of the 17th century and that
incited a cultural exchange and you have
Chinese export that was basically
exported by the Dutch all by the Dutch -
they took over from the Portuguese who
were before them to Europe and sold all
over Europe that's why everywhere in
Europe you find Chinese porcelain so
that was Chinese export and then only in
the 20th century we started to collect
Chinese art as in archaeal archaeologic
art so from from I think the oldest
piece we have is a thousand or 2,000 BC
but that was a twenty that started in
the twentieth century the beginning of
the 20th century following the French
fashion at night late 19th century
fashion for a theatre God but yes there
is a collection of Chinese art it's not
very big but the export art collection
is very
and we did together with the Peabody
Essex Museum in Salem we did an
exhibition a few years ago on this
relation between China and other
countries in Asia and the Netherlands
thank you this sculpture slide and I'm
wondering if there is a colonist it's
the sculptor Colinas no no it's not it's
not : it's its Falcone is he sculptor
it's a French it's part of a French
collection of the Rijksmuseum it
directly was a strong collection of
French applied arts in sculpture and
this is Falcone and he bi he made it for
for Madame de Pompadour and what does
the rest of this sculpture show what is
the boy doing
yeah he's I you probably hope something
naughty but it's all daddy wait I'll
just show it because we had it was it I
thought I showed it but but did I pass
it okay here that's him
you fascinating thing it's on its
original boobs on its original stand and
here you see the handles and you can
turn it so you could really it was
really meant to be turned very slowly
and be admired and he's basically more
menacing he's basically he's always
there so yeah no but it's wonderful and
it does remind you of quill eNOS quill
eNOS is one of the most important
Flemish emigres artists a lot of of
artists came from from Flanders to the
Netherlands over the 17th century
including the family of France halls
which Flemish Hall etc etc and Colinas
was it's very much the same style
okay well thank you very much
