Rijksmuseum and Dutch History Tour (90-120 minutes)

The Rijksmuseum is easily the most important and famous museum in the Netherlands, but what comes with these titles is also the sheer size of the collection itself, which is quite simply immense, and impossible to see and take in on a single visit. But that is what many of its visitors are reduced to, and I'm sure you can relate to scenario I am about to convey: You arrive at one of these great European museums, spend a few hours walking its halls, all the while being relentlessly bombarded with years, styles, dates, before you're spat back out into the sun hazed streets, drained and a little dazed. Yes, what you saw was beautiful, but how does it all connect? What do these collections have to tell us about Dutch history? And why should I even care about it? These is the problems and questions I have created this tour to solve.

My vision with this tour is to approach the museum in a chronological order, to firstly set the scene on what the Low countries or Netherlands were from distant antiquity to the medieval period, and from the turmoil of the black death and Spanish inquisitions to how it eventually gained its independence and, finally, how this young Dutch republic set off a period which has since been remembered in the history as the Dutch golden age. But I don't stop there, mind you this is where many of the guides choose to end their tours, leaving their guests marveling at the Dutch masters of Rembrandt and Vermeer, but Dutch history does not end here, and the collections on display give ample material to show how exactly the Dutch identity was shaped following this age of prosperity all the way to modernity. In my opinion expanding also on these periods allows the viewer to build a bridge between past and present, to identify and analyze change in the art itself, arming their sight with tools to help them navigate this bombardment of data that I described above.

Nevertheless, no tour of mine would be complete without an overarching theme or thesis. And the idea that I've chosen to focus on is that of artistic combat. It's a word you will come to see me endlessly recycle on this tour to describe how many of these works, from all these periods, hold political and symbolic punching weight which can be interpreted by unpacking its historical context. Today we regularly attribute contemporary artists as being activists, creating work that critiques those holding the levers of power, but we seem to forget that artists have been doing is, albeit more subtly, all throughout human history. Through the use of ambiguous allegories, mythological references and visual illusions, Dutch artists too have weaved in notes of longing and reflection which, ultimately, can be used to unpack why some of these historical events unfolded in the first place.

Note: because this tour is so new, fresh off the press, even, this also means that while it is growing I offer very few time slots. My only consistent slots of this tour is on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00.

Here is the link to the current booking page: Rijksmuseum and Dutch History Tour: From Marshes to Riches | GetYourGuide

However, because it is so new, I am also offering it privately at a largely reduced price at times more flexible than that is mentioned above, so if this a tour that may interest you, feel free to reach out to me via email: timmstours@gmail.com and we can go from there!