10/9/2025 Rijksmuseum Visit
- Zach E Bear
- Oct 13
- 3 min read
I went to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam again over my vacation. Even though I spent four hours at the museum, I didn’t take very many photos this time. I tried to focus less on taking photos and more on enjoying the experience; but I did want to snap a few to share my encounters with others but that was it. Last time I think I had 300-400 photos!
Here are my top three favorite works this time around:
At number three is a work by Frans van der Mijn titled Portrait of a Young Woman. It’s a pretty standard painting and it’s primarily black and white. This isn’t atypical of older paintings, as they were often painted in black and white while thin coats of color were slowly applied on top, layer after layer. This one was left alone after a very light brown layer was added to it. The main thing about this piece is that the woman painted is completely from imagination! There was no model, and the artist put everything down on canvas without a reference. It’s aligned with my vision and goals for my art because it shows a true understanding of knowing your subjects instead of just copying them. In reality, I’m sure she’s a woman who bares a resemblance to someone Mijn knew, but it’s still a fascinating skill to paint a portrait without anyone sitting directly in front of you.
Second is a haunting painting attributed to Jan de Baen titled The Corpses of the DeWitt Brothers. People like to whine and complain about how far we’ve strayed from God and how barbaric we are now, but I’m guessing most of those comments come from people who don’t actually know history. We’ve always been terrible, and I’d argue that now that we're still the same because history always repeats itself.
Anyway.
Much like some of Francisco Goya’s sketches that depict the atrocities of punishment and war, Baen painted the aftermath of the flaying of two prominent politicians of the time, Johan and Cornelis de Witt, who were captured and assassinated by a mob with opposite political beliefs. The mob also mutilated and cannibalized portions of the brothers’ bodies. The depiction of blood running down their alabaster corpses and the open chest cavities serves as a brutal, sickening reminder of the dark side of human nature. I’m sure the painter took a few artistic liberties, but the choices he made created the single most impactful painting of violence I’ve ever seen in person. It haunted my last museum visit, and it didn’t lose its impact two years later.
My favorite piece this time doesn’t have any real flash or notoriety, but it does display superior technical skill. I was torn between naming this piece my favorite or the DeWitt Brothers painting, but I chose to let beauty triumph over violence—as it should. I’m not familiar with Annie Roland Holst-de Meester at all, but tucked away on the third floor of the museum (behind some stupid fucking airplane) sits her self-portrait, which she painted at the age of 20. I’m not sure if it’s because I found it in an unsuspecting place surrounded by airplane history, but her self-portrait pierced right through me with that icy stare and those coal-black eyes. There’s nothing average about this piece, and I think it’s one of the best drawn self-portraits in realism I’ve seen. At first glance, part of me expected it to be a photograph due to the contemporary, modern nature of its surroundings but it wasn't.
If you're an art fan, or just looking for a fun European experience, I highly recommend the Rijksmuseum.