Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Schiphol is located on Holland Boulevard, in the area behind the passport control between the E and F Pier. The museum is open every day from 7:00 until 20:00 and admission is free. It houses a permanent exhibition of ten works by Dutch masters of the Golden Age from the Rijksmuseum's collection. The temporary exhibition changes a number of times a year.

Exhibition: 'Dutch boys'

From 3 July, the Dutch Flowers exhibition at the Rijksmuseum annex at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will be followed by the exhibition Dutch Boys. The fourteen works on display at the airport will bring together an extraordinary group of boys - from toddler to teenager, from angel to rascal. The paintings and miniature sculptures give an impression of how boys were immortalised in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Pride in our children and grandchildren is timeless. Just as we take photographs today, our ancestors had portraits painted of their offspring. However, compared to our fun snapshots, 17th-century portraits are rather sombre. The smartly dressed boys with serious expressions on their faces in the portraits by Ludolf Bakhuysen and Adriaen van Ostade are like small grown-ups, which is not surprising considering they are shouldering the responsibility of maintaining the family name. While in the 18th century more attention was paid to the typical characteristics of children, the portraits of the time focussed on the virtuousness of the boys, as Dionys van Nijmegen demonstrates in the painting of his grandson. The Enlightenment Ideal of a well-behaved and conscientious child gave way to a romantic idea of children in the second half of the 19th century as artists such as Jacob Maris and August Allebé began painting portraits of dreamy-eyed boys. Much has changed through the centuries, but some things are timeless – such as mischief, as depicted by Quiringh Gerritsz van Brekelenkam.

Location

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Schiphol is a unique joint initiative of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The Rijksmuseum is the first museum in the world to have an annex at an airport, while Schiphol is the first airport with a museum in its terminal. The museum was officially opened on 9 December 2002 by His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange.

Museum shop

The museum shop affiliated with the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Schiphol offers souvenirs specially crafted for the museum.

The Rijksmuseum is only accessible for passengers.