Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis

The Mauritshuis in The Hague is one of the oldest museum collections in The Netherlands. The basis of the collection was laid down in the seventeenth century by the Princes of Orange. In 1817 King William I donated his ancestors's painting collection to the State of The Netherlands, which purchased the Mauritshuis a few years later to accommodate the collection. The collection is small, but exceptionally high quality. All the great masters of the Dutch Golden Age are represented by superb pieces. Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson, Johannes Vermeer's View of Delft and Girl with a Pearl Earring and Paulus Potter's Young Bull are iconic images, recognised by everyone. The museum also possesses a fine selection of Flemish painters such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthonie van Dyck, as well as portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger. This accessible and richly illustrated book was written by the curators of the museum. Every aspect of the history of the collection and the museum is passed in review, while over