What are the Rijksmuseum’s opening hours? – Online-Tickets – De Gouden Eeuw, the Golden Age – this term is associated with a glorious epoch in Dutch history that lasted about a hundred years. In terms of time, it coincides with the 17th century. Favorable political and geographical circumstances led to social openness and enormous economic growth in the Netherlands. This financial success and prosperity was also accompanied by a cultural and artistic heyday that is unparalleled in the history of art.
The country rose to become a trading and cultural nation of world renown. The best-known and most conspicuous testimony to that period is the famous paintings of the Old Masters. However, the Golden Age had a lasting impact on the culture and self-image of the Netherlands in all areas. An extensive collection of paintings from this period is now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, a Dutch national museum.
Opening hours of the Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum of the Netherlands is the largest and most important museum in the Netherlands, and when it comes to opening hours, there is no day off.
| Rijksmuseum | Opening hours |
|---|---|
| January till December | 9:00 till 17:00 |
The museum is thus open all year round, 365 days a year.
The gardens of the Rijksmuseum, the Rijksshop, and the Café can be visited without a ticket from 9 am to 6 pm. The museum garden invites you to linger. Here, you can take a break and relax amidst tall trees and flowerbeds in bloom. Sculptures are regularly exhibited here. The highlight of the garden is a chessboard. Here, visitors can play with life-size figures. By the way, the park can be visited free of charge.
For those who wish to visit the Rijksmuseum for educational purposes, the library, reading room, and print room are located in the main building with opening hours from Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00. During a study, it is possible to get access to all collections of the Print Room but only by prior appointment via the e-mail address: studiezaal@rijksmuseum.nl.
ℹ️ Access to the Library, Reading Room, and Print Room is free but does not allow free access to the Museum.
Last admission to the museum
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam closes at 17:00. There is no admission restriction before this time.
Opening hours on holidays
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is also open on public holidays. This also applies to December 25 and 26, January 1, Easter, and April 27, King’s Day in the defeats.
Waiting times at the Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum can be entered by ticket holders daily within the opening hours immediately priority. There is no requirement for a date, only a time slot for access. Visitors without a pre-purchased online ticket should expect a wait of 30 minutes to 2 hours at the ticket counters.
Best time for the tour
If you want more peace during your visit to the Rijksmuseum, it’s best to visit the museum right after it opens at 9:00 a.m. or towards the end of the afternoon (from 3:00 p.m.). Unfortunately, you can not see the entire museum collection in one day, certainly not in two hours.
Best day of the week for the tour
The stream of visitors rarely stops. On weekdays, there are school classes: study groups, cruise ship passengers, international tour participants, and other visitors. The museum is most frequently visited on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays when there are also numerous day trippers and weekend travelers.
Best season for visiting
The main building of the Rijksmuseum was reopened in 2013 after a lengthy renovation. To this day, visitors flock here in large numbers to visit the newly renovated museum. The museum is seen most often in April, May and August.
Buy tickets online
Ticket holders for the Rijksmuseum can choose the date and time of their visit. Tickets purchased online are valid for 12 months. With a pre-booked access card, you can bypass the queue and go directly to the entrance for e-ticket holders. Pay attention to time slots!
Immediately after the online booking and payment, the tickets are emailed. You can print them out at home or transfer them to your smartphone to show them at the entrance. Payment can be made as usual with all ordinary means of payment.
Entrance fees of the Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam belongs to the list of the most visited exhibitions in the world. It is possible to purchase tickets directly here.
| Rijksmuseum | Price* | Book Online |
|---|---|---|
| Adults 19 + | 24.50 € | Book Online |
| Teenagers < 19 | frei | Book Oniline |
| Rijksmuseum + Canal cruise | 48.00 € | Book Online |
| ✅ Advice: Guided Tour Private and Exclusive | 69.00 € | Book Online |
Persons under the age of 18 are admitted to the museum free of charge. However, they must still book a ticket and show it at the entrance. Obtaining this ticket is free of charge but should be done online in advance as well.
You can also find more information under Rijksmuseum admission prices.
The painting of the Old Masters
With increasing prosperity, interest in an artistic lifestyle grew among the middle classes. Visual genres such as portraits and still lifes experienced a veritable boom. People wanted to represent and document their lives for posterity. This applied to both the private sphere and the organizations of bourgeois society: councils, guilds, and associations were immortalized in large-format group paintings. One of the most famous paintings of this kind is Rembrandt van Rijn’s Portrait of a Company of Riflemen, which can be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and is commonly known as The Night Watch.
The work captivates not only by its painterly quality but also by its unconventional composition. Instead of the usual rigid structure of a group picture at that time, the painter has chosen a seemingly disorderly scenery. The atmosphere of departure in the image is more like a random photographic snapshot – an unusual representation of the time.
In addition, the painter refrained from depicting the individual figures as equals but uncompromisingly subordinated them to the pictorial effect. Some characters are prominently in the foreground, others indistinctly moved to the back, sometimes even obscured. The work underscores Rembrandt’s position among the most influential artists of the Dutch Baroque. The Rijksmuseum owns the world’s most extensive collection of his works.
My Tip: Those who want to learn more about Rembrandt and his environment at the time should also visit the nearby Rembrandt Experience, Weteringschans 2, 1017 SG Amsterdam, a 5-minute walk from the Rijksmuseum.
| Rembrandt Experience | Price* | Online Ticket |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance normal | 14,50 € | Book Online |
| VIP ticket | 25,00 € | Book Online |
Other genres of painting also flourished. The output of images was enormous. The production of pictures at that time is estimated at several tens of thousands per year. Many artists specialized in particular motifs: some dealt exclusively with flowers, others with fruits. There were animal painters, portraitists, and landscape painters. Genre scenes depicting everyday life were also famous. A master of such domestic representations was Jan Vermeer van Delft. His paintings of interiors with individual persons are world-famous. In quiet, atmospheric scenes, the artist captured seemingly unspectacular moments. Vermeer’s portrait of a girl with a pearl earring even served as inspiration for an internationally cast film starring Scarlett Johansson.
Landscape painting was strongly represented. Today, landscape depictions appear to us as a traditional motif, but at that time, they were a relatively modern motif. In earlier centuries, nature in painting had served mainly as a background for mythological and historical scenes. It was primarily a stage set for the characters in the foreground. Now, however, people have discovered the beauty and decorative appeal of the landscape itself and captured these moods in impressive pictures. Outstanding representatives of landscape painting of that time were artists such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van Goyen, and Meindert Hobbema. Ruisdael, in particular, was a master of the dramatically exaggerated depiction of nature. Several of his works can be seen today in the Rijksmuseum.
Location & Directions / Parking at the Rijksmuseum
Even from the outside, the museum impresses its stately appearance and embodies a manor house or castle. It is located in the heart of the city and is the beginning of the museum district.
The museum’s address is Rijksmuseum, Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam.
Possible contact can be made at the telephone number: +31 (0) 20 6747 000
Visitors can most easily get to the museum by streetcar. From Central Station, take Lines 2,5 and 12; from Zuid Station, take Line 5 and Amsterdam Amstel Line 12. The station is always Rijksmuseum. Who comes from Amsterdam? From Sloterdijk, use line 19 and get off at Spiegelgracht station.
The nearest metro station is Weesperplein, then change to streetcar – line- 1, 7, or 19- to Spiegelgracht station.
Many Amsterdam tourists purchase tickets for the city tour on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus. The route also stops at the museum district.
Car: For those arriving by car, there are a few parking lots in the area, but they also charge a fee. A monitored parking lot is near the Van Gogh Museum, about 600 meters from the Rijksmuseum; Q-Park, Van Baerlestraat 33b. Otherwise, book parking nearby at Mobypark.
Those who want to combine their stay at the Rijksmuseum with a visit to the Van Gogh Museum next door will also find all the necessary information about the visit, admission prices, and opening hours.
