Blogtober Fourteen: Visiting a Museum

 

A little armchair travel this evening. During our stay in Leiden, we visited the Young Rembrandt Studio. Rembrandt was born in Leiden and spent his childhood here. The house he lived in no longer exists, but the studio where he first studied painting does. It's very small and most interesting. A media presentation has paintings come alive to tell the story of Rembrandt's youth, and of friends featured in his paintings. It's not very long, but extremely well done. And it is free!

We took the train from Leiden to various cities - Rotterdam, Delft, Haarlem, and Amsterdam. They were easy to use and very reliable. 

Our walk from the train station to the museum took quite awhile, but we had the time and enjoyed seeing various parts of Amsterdam. How fun it would be to have a boat moored right outside your front door!

I had hoped to visit the Van Gogh Museum, but there was a mix-up in our ticket date and we ended up not going there. Instead, we visited the Rijksmuseum. One thing I wish I knew more about is art history. The little I do know is just enough to make me realize how much more there is. I have learned to focus on a selection of exhibits in a museum. If I wander at will, I am soon overwhelmed. 

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem

There are a number of Rembrandt's works in the Rijksmuseum. I love the light and the fineness of the hair in the above painting. Apparently, he often used the sharpened end of a wooden paintbrush to create strands of hair. 

The Night Watch by Rembrandt

The Night Watch is one of Rembrandt's most famous works, and is surprisingly large, measuring 12 by 14 1/2 feet. He must have stood on a ladder to paint it. 

The Milkmaid by Vermeer

Vermeer was another artist I knew of and whose works I wanted to see. 

Still Life with Cheese by Floris van Dyck

I'd not heard much of van Dyck, but loved the subject of this still life. It's so Dutch! Cheese!

We wandered around other parts of the museum and Tim was especially taken with the intricate models of old ships. These technical scale models were built for the Royal Navy and used for constructing the actual ships and training crews. The above model is of the William Rex, built in 1698. So detailed!

Rain fell in the night and today has been softly grey. A good day for puttering at home and not doing too much of anything. 

A number of you asked about the Cranberry Pie my daughter made for our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Here is a link: Cranberry Lime Pie. It's on the Bon Appetit site and is sometimes behind a paywall. If you do a search for the recipe it comes up with a list of ingredients in the preview. My daughter also used a graham cracker crust with spices in place of the gingersnap crust. 

Also, the initials I used to mark the places at the table were wooden, not chocolate! I'm sure the children would have much preferred chocolate. I use the letters from time to time at the table, or for making words around the house.