Museums

Highlights permanent collections Musea

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The Hague has an enormous wealth of museum treasures, from medieval art to modern art, from painting to sports cars. There is always a collection that will touch you. The museums are for all ages and for all kind of art lovers. Discover it yourself! We hereby share a number of tips!

Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Kunstmuseum Den Haag, designed by Dutch architect Hendrik Berlage is a milestone in contemporary architecture. The museum is most known for Piet Mondriaan's work. The collection includes his early, realistic pieces as well as the well known Victory Boogie Woogie. The permanent collection contains modern art, fashion, music, decorative arts, a print room with about 50,000 drawings, and prints and posters. On top of that the museum has five large style rooms, each representing a different art period. Kunstmuseum Den Haag holds one of the world's leading collections of fashion items, an extensive music collection, and a decorative arts collection exhibited in Berlage's original display cabinets. The modern art collection provides a varied overview of developments in the fine arts since the early 19th century. Outstanding features in the collection are the great number of the Hague School paintings and a marvellous series of works by Mondriaan, Picasso, Monet, Cezanne and Kandinsky. As a whole, the collection traces the thrilling story of modern art - right through to today.

Mauritshuis

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague houses a world-famous collection from the Dutch Golden Age. At the unique 17th-century palace you can make the acquaintance of "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Vermeer, "The Goldfinch" by Fabritius and "The Anatomy Lesson" by Rembrandt. The Mauritshuis is a unique opportunity to see world-famous paintings by the Dutch Masters at one of Holland's most beautiful locations

Museum Voorlinden

Voorlinden is a private museum for modern and contemporary art at a magnificent estate in the dunes at Wassenaar, a stone's throw from The Hague. Museum Voorlinden features a number of artworks on permanent display. Skyspace by James Turrell (1943) and the corten steel sculpture Open Ended (2007-2008) by Richard Serra (1938) have been incorporated into the building itself. Museum Voorlinden additionally boasts permanently installed work by Maurizio Cattelan (1960) and the illusionistic Swimming Pool by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich (1973). The hyper-realistic Couple under an Umbrella by Ron Mueck (1958) and the enchanting glass sculptures of Roni Horn (1955) are on semi-permanent display as well. In order to present these works to their optimum advantage, each singular piece has been placed in a separate gallery.

Escher in The Palace

The Lange Voorhout Palace houses the largest collection with works from the hands of the tessellation and optical illusions master: Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. Maurits Cornelis Escher, who lived from 1898 to 1972, was a genius at drawing impossible situations. If you take a closer look at his work you realise that Escher’s illustrations are mathematical masterpieces of optical illusion. In one of his most famous works, Waterfall, water flows uphill and the towers are put together incongruously. Other works show birds morphing into fish and figures that endlessly walk up and down a staircase in the same courtyard.

Prison Gate Museum

The Prison Gate (Gevangenpoort) tells the thrilling tale of crime and punishment in days gone by. Since 1882, the mediaeval prison has operated as a museum. It lies on the Hofvijver, close to the Binnenhof in The Hague. The surrounding area is also rich in history. Join a city walk with our guides, take a look at the 18th-century Prince William V Gallery or visit the Historical Museum of The Hague, on the opposite side of the Hofvijver

Louwman

The Louwman Museum contains the world's oldest private collection of automobiles. The collection contains over two hundred and thirty antique and classic cars. Connoisseurs consider the collection to be one of the finest in the world. Pioneering automobiles from the late nineteenth century sit alongside racing cars, sports cars and luxury limousines.
The museum contains more than just cars. The collection of automotive art, which includes paintings, sculptures and posters, forms an additional and unique attraction. This collection of automotive art, the largest in the world, has never before been on public display and is being exhibited in a specially-designed room.

The Mesdag Collection

The initimate Mesdag Collection museum holds a compilation of beautiful works by Dutch and French masters from the 19th century, art from contemporary artists and a large collection of Hendrik Willem Mesdag's work maker of The Panorama Mesdag. The large collection of paintings, drawings and other works, now managed by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, was set up by marine painter Hendrik Mesdag and his wife Sientje van Houten. Mesdag was a great Dutch artist of The Hague School, which was one of the most important artistic movements in the Netherlands in the 19th century.