The Amsterdam Cultural Experience

Amsterdam has a lot to offer the tourist apart from tulips, canals, bikes and coffee shops. You really should not miss the following three museums: the Rijksmuseum, where you will see some of the greatest works of Rembrandt, the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank Museum.

The Rijksmuseum

The Netherlands established the national art gallery, the Rijksmuseum, in 1798. It was designed (se diseñó) along the lines of the Muséum central des Arts in France. The collection itself dates back to 1800, but it did not occupy the present building, designed by Pierre Cuypes, until 1885. The museum houses works by many of the Dutch masters including Albrecht Dürer and Anton Mauve (Van Gogh’s teacher). There are also a number of rooms devoted to Rembrandt, where you can see such paintings as the Night Watch. What would Rembrandt think of the endless stream (corrientes) of tourists admiring his work today?

        

The Van Gogh Museum

No one can be indifferent to the bright yellow sunflowers (girasoles) painted by Van Gogh but it is difficult to understand his behaviour. Psychologists have been discussing the artist’s personality for over a century. How could someone capable of such joyful colour be so prone to (tener tendencia a)  depression, self-harm (autolesionarse) and eventually suicide? A visit to the Van Gogh Museum may be the best place to try and find out. Opened by the Dutch Government in 1973, it has the best collection of his work anywhere in the world – 200 paintings and 500 drawings. Like Rembrandt, he left plenty of self-portraits that show us how he saw himself.

           

The Anne Frank Museum

The Anne Frank Museum has been open to the public since 1960. By that time, Anne’s diary, which she wrote between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, had already become an international best seller. When you have climbed the steep (empinado) stairs into the attic, you can imagine her sitting at her table there, writing her secrets and dreaming about the end of the war. You try to imagine what it was like for her to be cooped up (estar encarcelada) with seven other people for two years; her only contact with the outside world was with the people who brought her food. The ground floor of the house is in its original condition and the objects on display are labelled (etiquetada) with extracts from the diary.