Van Gogh House V. Rijks Museum

While in Amsterdam I visited both of these museums. Honestly I wish I knew more about the art world. I have always really enjoyed going to art museums but I don’t know enough about the subject to really keep up. I figure while I am over in Europe I can get more educated and see some of the best museums in the world.

 

Amsterdam is the home of two museums dedicated to artists widely considered to be in the top 20 of all time. Rembrandt and Van Gogh. The two Museums were very different though. The Rijks had a great sculpture garden out front where pictures were allowed (bonus) but inside it was extremely small. Also I am not a big fan of the art of Rembrandt. Rembrandt’s paintings look like photographs. While I can certainly appreaciate the amount of skill this takes it doesn’t provide for anything that is very visually interesting. I am sure that if I saw this art before the invention of the photograph I would be singing a very different toon, but as it stands now I can’t look at Rembrandt’s art for very long.

 

This is the only painting in the Rembrandt Museum that really struck me... it is his first attempt at a self portrait done when he was in his early 20's

The Van Gogh museum was awesome on the inside. All of his paintings are visually stimulating, if not realistic looking. His use of color is immaculate. Also the museum itself is much larger and more extensive. I really wanted to take pictures of many of his works but wasn’t allowed (not that that stopped a lot of people.)

 

This was one of my 4-5 favorite Van Gogh pieces at the Museum and the ones the girls were the most into. It was painted for his god daughter. 

Winner: Van Gogh Museum.