Den Haag was a rather industrial city with only one draw for me, an art museum which was known for its many masterpieces. There were other attractions such as an unassuming royal palace, a fancy shopping street and rather a lot of modern art, none of which interested me overly.
My favourite area of Den Haag was the section of buildings in front of the lake which were not only gorgeous and imposing, but had even featured in some of the medieval paintings from said museum, looking rather unchanged but for the horses and armoured men prancing in the front.
Mauritshuis was the art gallery we went to, and although somewhat expensive, it was well worth it. One of the noteworthy paintings found here was that of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' painted by Johannes Vermeer. What was cool about this was that it is in fact on 'Tronie' meaning a made up person. There never was a girl with a pearl earring, Vermeer painted her from his imagination. The other cool thing was that Vermeer was from Delft which we had just visited!
I had never really known the difference between Rubens and Rembrandt up until this point, often mixing them up and only aware that they were known as great painters. After this museum visit I will never mix them up again! Having masterpieces from both painters starkly showed how very different they were. I loved every work of Rubens, the realism and expressions on peoples faces was stunning. Rembrandt however I felt a little more neutral about, some paintings such as the one below I quite liked, others I didn't at all.
This was one of my favourites by Peter Paul Rubens, although perhaps it's difficult to see, the illumination on the their faces is so realistic it's almost odd realizing it is only a painting. They look like real living people, about to move at any moment.
The next morning was a rainy dark day, I took refuge in McDonald's for wifi while Yannick and Necia checked out the Escher museum.
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