Rijksmuseum

Lonely Planet review

The Rijksmuseum (National Museum) is the premier art museum of the Netherlands, and no self-respecting visitor to Amsterdam can afford to miss it. Though most of the building is closed for renovations until early 2010, there is an excellent collection of around 200 masterpieces exhibited in a side section, the Philips wing. Still, over a million people visit every year, so come early to avoid the queues or buy your (printable) tickets online.

The Rijksmuseum was conceived as a repository for several national collections, including art owned by the royal family. The collection includes some 5000 paintings, most importantly those by Dutch and Flemish masters from the 15th to 19th centuries. The emphasis, naturally, is on the Golden Age.

Pride of place is taken by Rembrandt's Nightwatch (1650), showing the militia led by Frans Banningh Cocq, a future mayor of the city. The painting only acquired its name over time with a layer of grime (it's nice and clean now). Other 17th-century Dutch masters include Jan Vermeer (The Milkmaid, and Woman in Blue Reading a Letter), Frans Hals (The Merry Drinker) and Jan Steen (The Merry Family) .

Other good sections are Sculpture and Applied Art (delftware, dolls' houses, porcelain, furniture), Dutch History and Asiatic Art, including the famous 12th-century Dancing Shiva . The museum's famous print archives have some 800,000 prints and drawings.