Kunstmuseum Den Haag

About

The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. It has a collection of around 165,000 works, over many different forms of art. In particular, the Kunstmuseum is renowned for its large Mondrian collection, the largest in the world. Mondrian's last work, Victory Boogie-Woogie, is on display at the museum. The current museum building was constructed between 1931 and 1935, designed by the Dutch architect H.P. Berlage. The KM21 (museum for contemporary art) and Fotomuseum Den Haag (The Hague museum for photography) are part of the Kunstmuseum, though not housed in the same building and with a separate entrance fee. The new director Margriet Schavemaker started on 1 June 2024. She replaces Benno Tempel, who left as of 1 November 2023.

The museum's collection of modern art includes works by international artists ( Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Frank Stella, Lee Bontecou, Henri Le Fauconnier and many others) and Dutch artists ( Constant, Vincent van Gogh, Johan Jongkind, Pyke Koch, Piet Mondriaan, Charley Toorop, Jan Toorop, and many others).

The Kunstmuseum has one of the largest collections of Dutch Delftware in the world. Selected pieces of the collection are on display at the permanent gallery which represents Dutch art in the ' Golden Age '. The museum also holds one of the largest collections of Persian ceramics and glasses in Europe.

The museum has a collection of 19th- and 20th-century prints, posters and drawings, containing around 50,000 items. It comprises works by Dutch artists such as Co Westerik and Jan Toorop, as well as works by Rodolphe Bresdin, Ingres, Paul Klee, Toulouse-Lautrec, Odilon Redon and others. A selection is on view in the print room.

The collection of fashion items, accessories, jewellery, drawings and prints includes historical items as well as modern ones by designers such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Gabrielle Chanel, André Courrèges, John Galliano and Fong Leng. For reasons of conservation items are only shown at temporary exhibitions.

The music collection includes a large collection of musical instruments and a music library, with an emphasis on European music. The collection mainly includes fortepianos, wind and plucked string instruments. Also, there are instruments from other cultures and contemporary electronic instruments. In addition, the collection includes prints, posters, drawings and photographs relating to 'performance practice'. Part of the collection came from the Scheurleer Music History Museum, that lasted from 1905 to 1935, and was purchased after the bankruptcy of Scheurleer & Zoonen in 1932.

The museum's collection of modern art includes works by international artists ( Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Frank Stella, Lee Bontecou, Henri Le Fauconnier and many others) and Dutch artists ( Constant, Vincent van Gogh, Johan Jongkind, Pyke Koch, Piet Mondriaan, Charley Toorop, Jan Toorop, and many others).

The Kunstmuseum has one of the largest collections of Dutch Delftware in the world. Selected pieces of the collection are on display at the permanent gallery which represents Dutch art in the ' Golden Age '. The museum also holds one of the largest collections of Persian ceramics and glasses in Europe.

The museum has a collection of 19th- and 20th-century prints, posters and drawings, containing around 50,000 items. It comprises works by Dutch artists such as Co Westerik and Jan Toorop, as well as works by Rodolphe Bresdin, Ingres, Paul Klee, Toulouse-Lautrec, Odilon Redon and others. A selection is on view in the print room.

The collection of fashion items, accessories, jewellery, drawings and prints includes historical items as well as modern ones by designers such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Gabrielle Chanel, André Courrèges, John Galliano and Fong Leng. For reasons of conservation items are only shown at temporary exhibitions.

The music collection includes a large collection of musical instruments and a music library, with an emphasis on European music. The collection mainly includes fortepianos, wind and plucked string instruments. Also, there are instruments from other cultures and contemporary electronic instruments. In addition, the collection includes prints, posters, drawings and photographs relating to 'performance practice'. Part of the collection came from the Scheurleer Music History Museum, that lasted from 1905 to 1935, and was purchased after the bankruptcy of Scheurleer & Zoonen in 1932.

The museum has around 25 to 30 exhibitions per year. In 2021 and 2022 exhibitions have included Portuguese painter Paula Rego, Basque fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga and English potter and artist Grayson Perry. The 2021 exhibition Monet: The Garden Paintings was voted as the best museum exhibition in the Netherlands.

These numbers are solely for the Kunstmuseum, excluding KM21 and the Fotomuseum

The current home of the Kunstmuseum is a purpose-built museum designed by the Dutch architect, H.P. Berlage. Although Berlage died just before its completion (with his son-in-law Emil Emanuel Strasser overseeing the building's final touches), it stayed faithful to Berlage's distinctive, inventive vision. It has been called "the dream museum", with a "completely separate goal... than to museums of the time in the Netherlands." The final result was "not a pompous temple of art... but a [museum of] simple, sober and accessible appearance; not imposing but inviting."

Nevertheless, this sober and accessible appearance was not to the liking of all early critics, more familiar with museums in the grand classical style. The use of everyday bricks rather than more opulent stones such as marble and granite was criticised. It lacked majesty. Others compared the building to a factory or a swimming pool, especially because of the two high towers at the back of the building complex. The inside of the building was immediately praised, however. The impressive entrance hall, with coloured tiles, columns and hall was particularly well received. This dual consideration was so summarised by one newspaper: "There is little to admire on the outside of Berlage's final creation, but on the inside there are many attractive features, and in general the whole complex of rooms creates the pleasant, calming and intimate feel.

Although the building appears constructed from distinctive yellow bricks, Berlage was enthusiastic about the possibilities of modern materials, such as reinforced concrete. As photographs taken during the construction indicate, the structural parts of the museum were built from iron and concrete. Only when this was finished were the bricks added as decorative elements around the concrete framework. To emphasise the decorative nature of the bricks, Berlage stipulated that each layer of bricks must be perpendicular to the level below it (and therefore be much weaker than the usual parallel layering of bricks).

Another unique aspect of Berlage's design was the central role played by the number 11. Many of the architectural elements are determined by the number 11, or multiples thereof. Most of the 4 million yellow bricks used in the building have a dimension of 5.5 cm × 22 cm × 11 cm. The width of windows panes in 44 cm.

The then director of the museum, Hendrik Enno van Gelder, worked closely with Berlage on the design. One point of contention was the light source in the galleries. After much experimentation and argument, Berlage settled on a novel design. Unlike most museums, which had artificial lighting in the ceiling, the museum would make use of natural daylight, with blinds in the skylights above regulating the intensity of the light. "Light, light, Berlage has captured the magic of light here", one journalist marvelled. Newspapers also reported "all kinds of ingenious installations" as part of the modern design of the building – the warming, the ventilation and the lighting on the facade were all innovations for museums of the time.

On 29 May 1866, a group of artists and collectors in The Hague established The Society for the Development of a Museum of Modern Art (Dutch: Vereeniging tot het oprigten van een Museum van Moderne Kunst ). The artworks brought together by this group would form the original core of the Kunstmuseum.

Among the initiators were The Hague politician Hugo Ferdinand (otherwise known Baron van Zuylen van Nijevelt), the Director of the Mauritshuis, Jean Zacharie Mazel, the artists David Bles, Louwrens Hanedoes, Carel Vosmaer, the architect Henri Camp, the former minister Agnites Vrolik, and Hendrik Steengracht van Oosterland, a representative of King William III. Later directors of the association included the artists Philip Sadée, Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Jacob Maris, Salomon Verveer and Johannes Stroebel. The association also had many artists and notables among its members, including Princes Frederik and Alexander of the Netherlands. The association started by purchasing paintings and was soon looking for exhibition space. The St Sebastian building and Panorama Mesdag, among others, were used temporarily as accommodation.