Museum Mesdag

The Mesdag Collection, formerly Museum Mesdag, is the art collection and the former home of artist Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915) and his wife Sientje van Houten (1834-1909) in the Dutch city of The Hague. The museum was opened after a long restoration 14 May 2011 again under the new name.

The Museum

Mesdag was not only a famous marine painter, he was also a great collector of art. In 1866 he started together with his wife Sientje ( also an artist ) to build a world-class collection. Within just a few years, the collection had grown to such proportions that Mesdag had built next to his house a museum, which opened in 1887. In 1903 Schonk Mesdag Museum and the collection to the Dutch State. He remained director until 1911. Since 1991, the collection is the responsibility of the Van Gogh Museum. The collection Mesdag is about half a kilometer away from the Panorama Mesdag, where Mesdag most famous work, the great panorama of Scheveningen, is issued.

The Collection

On display is one of the most important collections of the French Barbizon School, with works by Jean -Baptiste Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau and Jean -François Millet, Charles- François Daubigny and Eugène Delacroix. In addition, the Hague School with Maris, George Hendrik Breitner, Jozef Israels and Mesdag, of course, is self- represented. A collection of pottery from the Hague manufactory Oud- Rozenburg also considered to be significant. Since the restoration of 1996, the apartment and the studio of Hendrik Willem Mesdag are publicly available.