Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Hendrik Petrus Berlage designed this museum at the end of his life and it opened in 1935, a year after his death: yellow brick, low and horizontal, arranged as a sequence of top-lit galleries around courtyards and a pond, with the visitor moving through a graded series of spaces rather than a corridor of rooms. It is widely regarded as his best building. The collection holds about three hundred works by Piet Mondrian, the largest anywhere, tracing him from Dutch landscapes through cubism to the grids - and including Victory Boogie Woogie, the last painting, left unfinished with pieces of coloured tape still stuck on the surface when he died in New York in 1944, bought for the nation in 1998 in a purchase that caused a national row about the price. There is also Delftware, fashion, a large musical instrument collection and modern art.

History

The museum was founded on 29 May 1866 by a group of artists and collectors in The Hague as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst, and was later known as the Haags Gemeentemuseum. Its present building, designed by H. P. Berlage, was built between 1931 and 1935, and it took the name Kunstmuseum Den Haag in 2019 (Wikipedia, Kunstmuseum Den Haag).

What to look for

• Berlage's last building - yellow brick and top-lit galleries, opened 1935.
• Three hundred Mondrians - the largest collection in the world, tracing the whole development.
• Victory Boogie Woogie - the unfinished last painting with tape still on it.
• Delftware and instruments - substantial applied art and music collections alongside.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

What to expect

Closed Mondays. The Mondrian display rotates and not all three hundred works are up. The purchase of Victory Boogie Woogie remains a sore point in Dutch cultural politics. Temporary shows take over sections.

Nearby

The Peace Palace and Panorama Mesdag are east; Scheveningen is north-west.

Key facts