What to look out for across the Rijksmuseum collection

The Rijksmuseum is a treasure trove of landscapes, portraits, and even mythological works, with pieces dating back to the 14th century. Today, the museum’s painting collection includes over 6,000 works on canvas and panels.

The museum is home to about 1,000 Rijksmuseum sculptures, crafted from wood, alabaster, marble, and sandstone. The collection spans medieval Dutch sculptures, European Renaissance works, and Asian sculptures, including bronzes by Adriaen de Vries, and medieval works by Jan Borman.

The furniture and interiors collection features tapestries, carpets, wall hangings, chairs, and writing tables from Dutch, German, French, South Netherlandish, Italian, and English traditions, as well as miniature masterpieces depicting domestic life from the 17th to 19th centuries.

The museum's collection extends far beyond paintings and sculptures to fashion, with over 10,000 costumes, spanning from the 17th century onward. The collection showcases both upper-class attire and clothing worn by ordinary people, offering an intimate look at the evolution of social history.

Everyday objects at the Rijksmuseum are anything but ordinary. The collection includes over 15,000 tableware and household items made from metal, ceramics, and textiles, ranging from items used in ordinary homes to decorations from palaces, noble residences, and churches.

The museum houses about 1,800 ship models and over 1,600 weapons, including firearms, daggers, and armour. While most originate from 17th- and 18th-century Netherlands, the collection also includes modern weapons, including pieces used by Napoleon and Michiel de Ruyter.

A paradise for print and book lovers, the Rijksmuseum holds approximately 500,000 prints, 50,000 drawings, and about 140,000 photographs. Many delicate works are displayed only occasionally, stored under regulated conditions to ensure preservation.

The Rijksmuseum is the only museum in the Netherlands with a significant collection of Asian art, containing over 8,000 objects from China, Japan, India, and Indonesia. Some pieces were traded with Europe and display Western influence, while the majority were created for local use.