Round and round

If you stand in the entrance hall of the Teylers Museum, don't forget to look up..  or you will miss this excellent view!

Happy Sunday :)

Teylers Museum paintings

Both views are from inside the Teylers Museum in Haarlem; above is in one of the two 'painting galleries', showing a collection of works from the Dutch Romantic School and the later Hague and Amsterdam Schools. Note how the light comes in through the glass ceiling.

The exhibition Real Winters, with 19th century Dutch paintings, shows the joys of skating and sledding in the freezing cold, with refreshment stalls dotted around the ice. The painting on the left is from Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891) and is titled 'Wintergezicht met schaatsers' (Winter view with skaters'). I really enjoyed these typically Dutch Winter views.

Have a nice weekend!

Teylers Museum Oval Room

The main reason for our trip to Haarlem last Saturday was a visit to the Teylers Museum, an art, natural history and science museum. Established in 1778, it was originally founded as a centre for contemporary art and science. The museum was named after Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (1702-1778), a wealthy cloth merchant and banker of Scottish descent.
The historic centre of the museum is the neoclassical Oval Room that you see here.

The Oval Room was designed for research and study, and was opened in 1784. Scientific experiments would be conducted here, public demonstrations held, and books, drawings and prints viewed by the public. A showcase in the centre displays a mineralogical collection from the 18th century.
The upper gallery, which unfortunately wasn't open for the public when we were there, has 12 built-in bookcases. The windows in the ceiling were meant to let in the maximum amount of light.