The Rijksmuseum at two hundred - art museum special exhibits

In 1800 the Nationale Konstgaleri was founded in The Hague. Eight years later it moved to Amsterdam, where it was called the Koninklijk Museum. In l8l5 the Institution we know as the R museum acquired its present name. The collection was housed in the upper rooms of the royal palace in Amsterdam until the present building, designed by Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers, opened in 1885. Paintings in the national collection are housed there, as are those belonging to the city of Amsterdam.

To mark its bicentenary the Rijksmuseum is mounting a number of special exhibitions. On view until March 26 is Amsterdam Gold and Silver which comprises some five hundred examples charting the development of these arts over the past four centuries. The Glory of the Golden Age will be on view from April 15 September 17, Dutch painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts of the seventeenth century are explored in a wide range of master-pieces, of which Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn's Night Watch is the centerpiece Objects are drawn from the Rijksmueum's collection and a variety of collections in various countries.

Other exhibitions at the museum will feature drawings and Prints, Dutch history Meissen porcelain, and Oriental art. Publications accompany all of the exhibitions.

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