During our visit to the Peace Palace, of which the...

During our visit to the Peace Palace, of which the tour lasted only a short time, there was still time left to view the adjacent Mesdag museum, the Mesdag collection. It is only a small museum, but with many paintings by the Mesdags and painters of the Hague School. Right next to their house, the Mesdag artists Hendrik Willem and Sientje Mesdag built a museum in 1887. Their own paintings hung comfortably between the collection of Dutch and French art. Museum Mesdag was open by appointment on Sunday morning. Mesdag himself showed around. He always started at home, first showing his own studio there, and Sientje's as well. Eventually fame for the Mesdag. "A Great Man, and a Great Deed", the newspaper headlined in 1903. Mesdag handed the museum over to the Dutch State, but was still director. That way the collection stayed together. This did not apply to the art collection in the house: it was auctioned after his death. The famous painting Panorama of Mesdag hangs a bit further elsewhere, see the reviews there.