Successful year for the Rijksmuseum

From toddlers to vocational students

A total of 190,000 schoolchildren visited the museum last year. As well as primary and secondary school pupils, students from vocational colleges and international schools also benefited from our educational programmes. Some schools have insufficient resources for museum visits, so the Rijksmuseum offers free bus transportation, thanks to the participants in the BankGiro Lottery. No fewer than 80,000 students benefited from the service.

Exhibitions

In 2018, the Rijksmuseum held seven exhibitions and 50 presentations, including Eduardo Chillida in Rijksmuseum Gardens, KWAB. Dutch Design in the Age of Rembrandt, Ed van der Elsken Through the Eyes of Jan de Bont and 80 Year’s War. The Birth of the Netherlands (which runs until 20 January 2019). The highlight of the year was High Society, an exhibition of 39 life-size portraits by artists including Cranach, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Reynolds, Munch and Manet. This exhibition attracted 240,000 visitors.

Acquisitions

With the support of various partners, the Rijksmuseum was able to acquire a number of exquisite objects:

• Floral still life by Gerard van Spaendonck (thanks to the participants in the BankGiro Lottery)
• Portrait of Jan Verkade (thanks to Otto van Noppen Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds and BankGiro Lottery)
• Wax statue by Bartolomeo Ammannati (thanks to the participants in the BankGiro Lottery)
• Miniature bronze bust of William of Orange (thanks to the Prins Willem de Eerste Herinneringsstichting)
• Painting of a seated monkey by Jan Weenix (gift of H.B. van der Ven, The Hague)
• A photograph by Gustave Le Gray (thanks to Sea Scape Fund/Rijksmuseum Fonds)
• Chinese hanging scroll painting (estate of B.J. Peiser).

Books

Successful publications accompanying this year’s exhibitions include High Society (6,000 copies sold), KWAB. Ornament as Art in the Age of Rembrandt (1,250) and 80 Years’ War. The Birth of the Netherlands (a collaboration with Uitgeverij Atlas Contact; 11,000 copies sold at time of writing). The eight-part Country Series was completed with the publication of the final volume, which explores the shared history of Suriname and the Netherlands from 1600. Two catalogues published in 2017 were singled out for book awards this year: New Realities. Photography in the 19th Century (Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award) and Johan Maelwael. Nijmegen – Paris – Dijon. Art Around 1400 (FILAF, Beaux-Arts category). Hercules Seghers was nominated for the Théorie de l’art category of the FILAF Award. All books published by the Rijksmuseum are distributed in collaboration with nai010 publishers.

Escape Game and music

The Rijksmuseum drew large new audiences with its Escape Game. This specially designed puzzle trail was completed by 15,000 participants, and its success means it will be returning during the Christmas holidays. The participants in the BankGiro Lottery made it possible to hold several concerts as part of the Music in Rijksmuseum programme, with groups and artists such as Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Roxeanne Hazes, Diggy Dex and Jacqueline Govaert.

Collaborations with fellow museums

Over the past year, the Rijksmuseum has worked together with museums at home and abroad:

• A total of 819 objects were loaned to 111 organisations (70 within the Netherlands, 41 abroad).
• The Rijksmuseum and the city museums of Zutphen, Hoorn, Harlingen, Bergen op Zoom and Gouda organised the travelling exhibition Lage Landen (Low Countries), which was based on 40 paintings from the Rijksmuseum.
• The most outstanding works required with the support of the BankGiro Lottery went on a national tour of Dutch museums: the Mauritshuis, the Fries Museum, the Bonnefantenmuseum, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, the Van Abbemuseum and the Kröller-Müller Museum.
• Vermeer’s The Milkmaid is currently attracting large crowds at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo, where it is on view as part of Making the Difference: Vermeer and Dutch Art, which is running from October 2018 to 3 February 2019.
• Frans Hals’s Portrait of a Couple, Probably Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen was shown as part of the Frans Hals Portraits: A Family Reunion exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art.
• This summer, the Rahmi M. Koç Museum in Ankara exhibited View of Ankara (18th century, anonymous) as part of the exhibition Weaving the History: Mystery of a City.

Partnerships

The Rijksmuseum collaborated with funding organisations, sponsors, sales partners and other museums to realise mutual goals in 2018:

• The Rijksmuseum, thirteen other museums and the BankGiro Lottery celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Museum Plus Bus, which gives older and lonely people opportunities to visit the museum.
• A grant from the Blockbusterfonds ensured that the High Society exhibition was accessible to a large visiting public. A collaboration between the museum and Telegraaf Media Groep led to the publication of a mini-issue of the weekly magazine Privé to accompany the same exhibition.
• Visitor numbers for 80 Years’ War are currently heading for 175,000, thanks in part to a successful collaborative programme supported by the Mondriaan Fonds. Additional important contributions were made by the NTR television series of the same title and the book published by Atlas Contact. The exhibition attracted extra attention thanks to a promotional tour of historical locations, the 80jaaroorlog.nl website and collaborations with IDFA, Instituto Cervantes and Amerpodia.
• For the Rijksmuseum’s annual Nacht van de Geschiedenis (History Night) we joined forces with Black Achievement Month and deBuren, the Flemish-Dutch organisation for culture and debate.
• The Rijksmuseum works with 35 sales partners who contribute a quarter of our visitor numbers.

Rijks App

In January 2018 the Rijksmuseum launched its completely revamped app. The app makes available the entire Rijksmuseum collection in a user-friendly way, and the multimedia tours are now integrated with an advanced system for navigating the building. In addition, a special Rembrandt multimedia tour has been launched in anticipation of The Year of Rembrandt in 2019. The app was downloaded approximately 245,000 times in 2018, representing an increase of 64 per cent over 2017. The website had 4,528,139 visitors this year, 9 per cent more than 2017. The online collection now comprises 400,000 high-resolution images, and almost 450,000 Rijksstudio accounts have been created.

Thanks to Friends, donors, partners, funds and sponsors

The Rijksmuseum depends on its Friends, donors, partners, funds and sponsors, particularly Philips, the museum’s founder, and main sponsors ING, KPN and the BankGiro Lottery.

• An agreement with Adobe brings the total number of sponsors and partners to 22.
• With the granting of 25 new private gifts, the Rijksmuseum Fonds now manages 168 named funds reserved for acquisitions, research, educational activities, etc.
• A total of 1,300 new Rijks Friends registered this year, bringing the total to more than 17,000.

2019 | The Year of Rembrandt

Rembrandt was an innovator and provocateur: he turned the art world on its head during the Dutch Golden Age. And even today, almost 350 years after his death, the world still marvels at his powerfully emotive work and his epic life story. In 2019, The Year of Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum will hold three Rembrandt exhibitions, and plenty more associated events throughout the year.

Click here to see what’s in store in 2019