Museum Van Loon

The house at Keizersgracht 672 was built in 1672 by Adriaan Dortsman as one of a pair, and Ferdinand Bol, Rembrandt's pupil, was its first resident. The Van Loon family - one of whose members was a founder of the Dutch East India Company - bought it in 1884 and it is theirs still, opened as a museum in 1973 with the contents in place: family portraits going back to the seventeenth century, furniture, silver, porcelain and the staircase with its copper banister. What makes it worth choosing over the other canal-house museums is the depth of the plot. Behind the house is a formal garden, restored to an eighteenth-century plan, and behind that a coach house built to look like a classical temple, facing back at the house across the garden - the standard arrangement of a wealthy Amsterdam property, and one of very few surviving complete.

History

The canal house was built in 1672, and the painter Ferdinand Bol lived in it. The Van Loon family lived here from 1884 to 1945; Thora van Loon-Egidius, who lived in the house, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Wilhelmina (Wikipedia, Museum Van Loon).

What you'll find

• A house of 1672 - built by Dortsman, first lived in by Rembrandt's pupil Bol.
• One family's contents - portraits, silver and furniture kept in place since 1884.
• A formal garden - restored to an eighteenth-century plan behind the house.
• A temple-fronted coach house - closing the plot at the far end of the garden.

When to go

All year. Two hours.

Good to know

It is a small house - two hours covers it. Stairs are steep. The garden is closed in bad weather and in winter. Photography is restricted in some rooms.

Nearby

The Willet-Holthuysen house and the Rijksmuseum are short walks away.

Key facts