Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Traveler  From the museum website: "Koekkoek is perhaps the most romantic of all Dutch landscape painters. He specialized in beautiful views over the valleys of the Rhine and in forest views with imposing trees, which were then called 'Wodan oaks', after the supreme god in Germanic mythology. In 1834 he settled in Kleve, Germany, across the border from Nijmegen. He found the German landscape, with its hills and the river Rhine, more romantic than the Dutch one."

Traveler  The Rijksmuseum's art-historical library is the largest of its kind in the Netherlands. Completed in 1881, the library has largely retained its original form and ornamentation. A characteristic feature is the brick-red and gold polychromed cast-iron colonettes (thin columns). The walls are decorated with painted bricks, and the ceilings and galleries with foliage motifs. The names of writers on art are inscribed in cartouches in the highest gallery and on the colonettes. The most striking element in this interior is the cast-iron spiral staircase, which connects the galleries and draws one's gaze upward. The museum library is the place where visitors and researchers can learn about art and art history, as well as make enquiries about objects in the Rijksmuseum's collection and conduct research in general. The four-storey library contains one kilometre of books, and the museum's underground storage facility houses five more kilometres of books, catalogues and periodicals.

Traveler  Plaque reads: The syndics inspected the quality of dyed cloth. Rembrandt portrayed them looking up from their work, as though disturbed by our arrival. This artistic device was a clever way of enlivening the scene and thereby involving the viewer. This late work by Rembrandt not only attests to his endless creativity, but also to his undiminished popularity among the citizens of Amsterdam.