Bon Journal

Rijksmuseum Schiphol Airport

I've known for some time now (a year? two years?) of a free museum at Schiphol Airport. It's a subset of the Rijksmuseum supposedly.

Until yesterday when I deliberately arrived at the airport more than 1.5 hours prior to departure, I never had the time to venture to the other side of where I usually go. Gate F is a ten minute brisk walk from Gate D where I usually depart from.

After more than a week of solitary writing and home renovations, I felt hungry for distraction of the cultural kind.

Upstairs it was a small exhibition - no more than two dozen paintings, the most famous of which (like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre) was a self-portrait of Van Gogh. The rest were Dutch painters of varying styles.

I liked Isaac Israels' work best of all. He painted families enjoying their leisure time in the park or at the beach. The exact facial features weren't important, just the message that life was pleasant. Those paintings made me long for carefree days in the summer of my youth when time was freely flowing and freely spent. They also reminded me of once upon a time in the family of Ku, when we are too young to know how large the world would tempt us to go our separate ways.

Each painting was described carefully in Dutch and English.

This was my first visit to a museum at an airport. It broke away from the tradition of duty free shops to distract and tempt weary and impatient travellers. A gallery of national treasure takes the visitor back in time, through a culturally rich history.

How I wish other international airports would follow suit and put a museum of this quality to lure the visitors to return to their countries.

13 February 2004 Friday

Related entries and links:

News of museum opening

analyticalQ show reviews

Cycling Van Gogh country

Van Gogh

analyticalQ Dutch section