Mauritshuis, The Hague

Wall sconce at Mauritshuis

Today two friends and I visited The Hague, which is only a short bus ride from the hotel where we are staying in Leiden. We spent several hours at the Mauritshuis, a small museum dedicated mainly to painting from the Dutch Golden Age. Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is no doubt the most famous of the works on display. You have surely seen many reproductions of it. Several excellent paintings by Rembrandt, Paulus Potter, Jan Steen, and many others make up this fine ensemble. I'm not posting pictures of these well-known paintings, but the Mauritshuis link will take you to the website where they are on view.

I find the depictions of food in the art of that era to be irresistible. Here are a few examples I took from the much more obscure but nevertheless remarkable paintings in the collection:

Detail from Clara Peeters, "Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds, and Pretzels" (c. 1615)

Detail from Jan Brueghel I & Hendrik van Balen,
"Garland of fruit surrounding a Depiction of Cybele" (1620-1622)

Detail from Joachim Beuckelaer, "Kitchen Scene..." (c. 1560-1565)

For comparison: cauliflower at market today