Mauritshuis, Art museum in The Hague, Netherlands
Mauritshuis is an art museum in The Hague holding the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, some 854 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Jan Steen and Paulus Potter. The two-storey Dutch Classicist palace was designed by Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post, strictly symmetrical, with a pale stone facade, a pediment bearing the family crest and a grey hipped roof with two chimneys. Inside, a gallery has a dark parquet floor, blue damask-patterned wallpaper above dark wood panelling, a tall wooden fireplace and a round upholstered bench under a white chandelier.
The building was constructed between 1636 and 1641 for Count John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen, who lived here as a governor. In 1822 the residence opened as a public museum and gradually received the royal painting collection.
The Dutch name of the house honors its original owner John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen, who lived here in the 17th century. Visitors today notice the mix of courtly architecture and gallery rooms that present paintings as if they still hung in a residence.
The museum opens on Mondays at 1 p.m. and from Tuesdays to Sundays at 10 a.m., and offers wheelchair access throughout. Visitors who want to see the most famous works first should start on the upper floor.
During the Nazi occupation of 1940 to 1945, people evading forced labour hid in the building's attic and basement, close to the offices the occupiers used. The collection, including Girl with a Pearl Earring, spent two years in a bombproof bunker beneath the museum before moving to the St Pietersberg caves near Maastricht until liberation in May 1945.
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