An Art Historian's Guide to Amsterdam
By Nicole Entin
As the grains of sand in Old Father Time’s hourglass begin to dwindle, the realisation that another year has come to pass settles into your bones like the cold chill of winter that has swiftly arrived in the UK. With the holidays right around the corner, students wing their way to the home nest, families gather around the fireplace, and – of course – the all-important winter break plans are made. When I paint a picture of an ideal winter in my mind, I think of the landscapes of Hendrick Avercamp, an artist of the Dutch Golden Age known for his scenes of frozen-over canals, ice skaters, and holiday revelry. Avercamp’s works are the sort of paintings that elicit a response that is both nostalgic and indeed physical, an internal shiver that makes you crave a rich hot chocolate. While you could view these wintry landscapes in your mind’s eye or through the window of your computer browser, many of Avercamp’s best-known paintings – such as Winter Landscape with Skaters (c. 1608) [Fig. 1] – call the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam their home. Although the Dutch canals no longer freeze over like they did in the seventeenth century, Amsterdam in the winter is the perfect travel destination for the itinerant art historian searching for a holiday season in an Avercamp-esque palette of soft greys, russet browns, and porcelain blues.
[Figure 1] Hendrick Avercamp, Winter Landscape With Skaters, c. 1608, oil on oak panel, 78 x 132 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
George Hendrik Breitner’s fin-de-siècle paintings of winter in Amsterdam are perhaps not too far off the mark from what the cold months are like nowadays in this beautiful city. In The Singel Bridge at the Paleisstraat in Amsterdam (1898) [Fig. 2], the perspective of Breitner’s composition places the viewer at eye-level with the warmly dressed denizens of the city who hurry across a snow-covered bridge near the Royal Palace. Near the heart of Amsterdam, we can take the bridge at the Paleisstraat as the starting point for our wandering winter tour of the city. A twenty-five minute walk south by the Singel canal will lead you to the Rijksmuseum, where Breitner’s painting can be found along with numerous other wintry scenes in the comfort of an indoor setting.
[Figure 2] George Hendrik Breitner, The Singel Bridge at the Paleisstraat in Amsterdam, 1898, oil on canvas, 100 x 152 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Van Ruisdael and Avercamp are two notable practitioners of the genre, but not to miss are the snowy scenes of geographies quite a bit further east, in the form of the museum’s excellent and underrated collection of nineteenth and twentieth-century Japanese woodblock prints. Kawase Hasui’s Ushibori of 1930 [Fig. 3] is a standout and quite literal example of ukiyo-e, or the ‘floating world’, captured in a tranquil scene of snow falling on a lake. Also housed in the Rijksmuseum, the Cuypers Library is an unmissable spot for any art historian. View the largest art historical library in the Netherlands from a balcony, or even reserve a workspot to consult the museum collections if you’re looking to add a little academic productivity to your winter break.
[Figure 3] Kawase Hasui, Ushibori, 1930, color woodcut, 26 x 38.9 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
If a twenty-five minute walk – no matter how picturesque – is not your ideal starting point to an artistic tour of Amsterdam, a seven minute stroll from the Singel bridge will take you to Hans Egstorf Bakkerij [Fig. 4]. And if you somehow manage to get lost on the way, just follow the tempting smell of freshly-baked bread, croissants, and the local delicacy of stroopwafels. A bakery is perhaps an unexpected place to find instances of Nieuwe Kunst design, but the original tiles on the walls present a gorgeous example of the local variant of Art Nouveau. A decorative pattern of sickles and wheat sheaves wraps around the main room of the bakery, while scenes of the bread-making process decorate the upper section of the wall, with a floral stained glass piece above the entrance to the ovens.
[Figure 4] Gerrit van Arkel, Hans Egstorf Bakkerij, 1898, Nieuwe Kunst, Amsterdam.
Make sure to order a hot stroopwafel in these fin-de-siècle surroundings, oozing sweet caramel syrup and perfect for a cold winter’s day, and take it with you as you make your way to the nearby Begijnhof [Fig. 5], in which some of the oldest houses in Amsterdam can be found. If you’re lucky enough to visit the Begijnhof on a snowy day, there are few places in the city that are more beautiful than this little courtyard when blanketed in fresh snowfall. Amidst the red brick facades of the tall houses, one black facade is the black sheep of these buildings: Het Houten Huys, the oldest of only two wooden houses surviving to this day in central Amsterdam, and dating back to the early sixteenth century.
[Figure 5] Begijnhof, c. 1389, 17th and 18th-century facades, Amsterdam.
Continuing eastward in the city core in a paradoxical search for less touristy spots in the notoriously touristy Red Light District, we arrive at Kok Antiquariaat [Fig. 6] – a secondhand bookstore that is a perfect stop for holiday gifts for your friends or for yourself. This bookstore has books in both Dutch and English, a pleasingly substantial section of art history books at a variety of price points, as well as plenty of antique and vintage ephemera including prints, postcards, and photos. If you haven’t had your fill of books on your trip and don’t mind browsing outside rather than inside, the book market at Oudemanhuispoort is a hidden gem that can be found by going through an unassuming passageway on the Kloveniersburgwal. And if you want more of a splurge or simply some aesthetically pleasing window shopping, the antique shops that line Nieuwe Spiegelstraat are filled with Delft tiles and ceramic pieces as far as the eye can see.
[Figure 6] Mirjam van Hemert, Antiquariaat Kok, 2007. Source: Flickr.
We’ll conclude our artistically-inclined tour of Amsterdam with a cup of the Van Gogh Melange at Het Kleinste Huis, one of the most unique tea shops in the Netherlands [Fig. 7]. Adjacent to a seventeenth-century gateway designed by the Dutch sculptor and architect Hendrik de Keyser and used for funerary processions from the Walloon Church, this tea shop is situated in the smallest house in Amsterdam. With three floors measuring a mere two metres wide, this is perhaps not the ideal destination for claustrophobes, but nevertheless manages to cram dozens of varieties of tea into the tiny space. While their tea room is closed during December and January, in other months the store runs private tea-tasting sessions in which the friendly owners discuss the history of tea, the history of the building, and serve their legendary homemade apple cake. In the meantime, make sure to pick up one of their tea blends themed after famous Dutch artists – or my own personal favourite of the perfectly balanced raspberry lavender black tea – to take back a taste of the Netherlands to wherever you call home.
[Figure 7] Het Kleinste Huis, c. 1738, Oude Hoogstraat 22, Amsterdam.
While Amsterdam is beautiful in every season, Amsterdam in the winter evokes something of the Dutch Golden Age combined with the fin-de-siècle eye. Walking along the canals makes you feel as if you’ve landed in a perfect miniature model town with its snow-dusted buildings precisely placed side by side with a discerning eye. And with the city’s largest Christmas market situated right on Museumplein, it’s impossible for an art historian not to feel festive as they make their way from the Rijksmuseum to the Moco Museum to the Van Gogh Museum to the Stedelijk Museum, while stopping at stalls for artisan gifts or the perfect cup of mulled wine.