APRIL 28 -

I wanted to get up and out early to be at the Van Gogh when it opens - good thing, as by the time I left around 11, the line outside was HORRENDOUS! I still had to wait in line to exchange for a real ticket but it wasn't more than 15 minutes. Again the rooms were pretty crowded as I moved through VG's life chronologically! It blew my mind to realize that he was so prolific a painter in roughly a 10 year period and was younger than both my children are now when he shot himself!! He really had a tortured life!! And he had a great brother Theo who continued to support him financially and otherwise (he was an art dealer) for his whole life. I took a few pictures and then asked if I was supposed to - with an iPad, no flash! The answer was NO and when I asked why not since it doesn't damage anything, he said because photographers take up too much time and space trying to get their pictures - so it's no longer allowed!! He had an amazing influence and in the long run was a great success! But he considered himself (as he expressed to his brother) a failure!

Name that artist.

I headed back to Centraal station to find the bike rental place. I had lunch there (after a LOONG walk to find it!!) and then rode the free ferry across the river behind the station, and in minutes was biking down a lovely bike trail, uncrowded, through picturesque neighborhoods and out into the country and polder (area that was reclaimed as farmland from watery areas). After breathing fresh country air for an hour or so, headed back to town and to the Rembrandt house museum. He had success in Amsterdam (originally from Leiden, father was a miller) early on and bought this huge house, married Sofia, the love of his life, but she died at 29 having their 3rd and only surviving child, a son Titus, who also died in his 20s I think. He excelled in portrait painting and also sketches. There's another name for it but it escapes me right now. I saw them at the end. Etching I think it's called, where you carve and make a print. He was amazingly detailed. There were some art students on the top floor of the building doing etchings. His house has been recreated and refurnished the way it was in his day. Very steep and very cool to see! In his studio paints were crushed in bowls - apparently there is usually someone there doing this.

Rembrandt's studio.




In some of the rooms they had "bed boxes" - completely enclosed like a closet, and VEｒｙ　ｓｈｏｒｔ　（Ｄｏｎ’ｔ　ｋｎｏｗ　ｗｈｙ　ｉｔ’ｓ　ｔｙｐｉｎｇ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ。　Ｉ’ｌｌ　ｑｕｉｔ！！