The Mesdag Collection is an art museum in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It is managed by the

Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened o ...

. The museum is housed next to the former house of the Dutch painter

Hendrik Willem Mesdag Hendrik Willem Mesdag (; 23 February 183110 July 1915) was a Dutch marine painter. Biography He was born in Groningen, the son of the banker Klaas Mesdag and his wife Johanna Wilhelmina van Giffen. Mesdag was encouraged by his father, an a ...

and shows the art Mesdag and his wife Sina van Houten collected from 1866 to 1903. It features work of the painters of the

Hague School The Hague School () is a group of artists who lived and worked in The Hague between 1860 and 1890. Their work was heavily influenced by the realist painters of the French Barbizon school. The painters of the Hague school generally made use of re ...

Willem Roelofs Willem Roelofs (10 March 1822 – 12 May 1897) was a Dutch painter, water-colourist, etcher, lithographer and draughtsman. Roelofs was one of the forerunners of the Dutch Revival art, after the Romantic Classicism of the beginning of the 19th cent ...

and

Anton Mauve Anthonij "Anton" Rudolf Mauve (; 18 September 18385 February 1888) was a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He signed his paintings 'A. Mauve' or with a monogrammed 'A.M.'. A master colorist, he was a very signi ...

and work of the French Barbizon School (

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; 16 July 1796 – 22 February 1875), or simply Camille Corot, was a French Landscape art, landscape and Portraitist, portrait painter as well as a printmaking, printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in ...

Théodore Rousseau Étienne Pierre Théodore Rousseau (; 15 April 181222 December 1867) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. Life Youth He was born in Paris, France in a bourgeois family. At first he received a basic level of training, but soon displa ...

Jean-François Millet Jean-François Millet (; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realis ...

Charles-François Daubigny Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of impressionism. He was also a prolific printmaker, mostly in etching ...

and

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

and paintings of

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema ( ; born Lourens Alma Tadema, ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom, becoming the last officially recognised Denization, denizen in 1873. Born in ...

. There is also a large collection of

Japanese art Japanese art consists of a wide range of art styles and media that includes Jōmon pottery, ancient pottery, Japanese sculpture, sculpture, Ink wash painting, ink painting and Japanese calligraphy, calligraphy on silk and paper, Ukiyo-e, paint ...

and Japanese craftwork (

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

) on show. This all is shown in a typical 19th-century setting. The museum was closed for renovation for roughtly two years until Spring 2011. On 14 May 2011 it was re-opened and renamed from "Museum Mesdag" to "The Mesdag Collection". The Panorama Mesdag is housed in different premises within walking distance from The Mesdag Collection.

History

In 1887, Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sina Van Houten finished construction on a building next to their house to serve as a museum for their art collection. In 1903, Hendrik Mesdag donated the museum to the Netherlands. After Henrik Mesdag's death in 1915, parts of his private collection were sold. In 1990, the museum came under the management of the Van Gogh Museum. From 2011 to 2015, the Van Gogh Museum and the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

researched and digitized the Mesdags' original art collection, the current Mesdag collection, and Henrik Mesdag's letters.

Visitor Numbers

In 2023, the Mesdag Collections received 9,389 visitors.

References

External links

Digital collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mesdag Collection Art museums and galleries in the Netherlands Biographical museums in the Netherlands Museums in The Hague Historic house museums in the Netherlands

History

Visitor Numbers

See also

References

External links