Back when I was in college and hanging out with other history major, one of the conversations I recall having was one of, "If you could have live in any place and time in history, what would be your top 5?" Well, the sensible answer to that would be five places in the present day since by all measures life and health have improved so much since even a generation or two earlier. Barring such practical considerations, though, one place and era I would have chosen to live in was the Holland during the so-called “Dutch Golden Age” of the 1600s, an era of artistic and scientific flowering. I've always especially liked Dutch art of the era.

Along with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the second best known collection of Dutch art of the golden age is the the Mauritshuis in The Hague, next door to the Binnenhof in the center of town . The hoard of paitings was accumulated by Prince William V of Orange and constitutes the royal collection. Although the museum is quite small with only 16 rooms of paintings on two floors, it’s particularly renowned for its significant collection of paintings by Rembrandt and three paintings by Johannes Vermeer of Delft, one of the largest collections of his very limited number of works. One of those is “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”, maybe Vermeer’s most famous work, as well as his “View of Delft”, which may be the best known single landscape painting of the era. These famous works make the Maurithuis a quite crowded place, especially with tour groups that rush through in a few minutes to get a glimpse of the Vermeers the way the rush through the Louvre to get to the Mona Lisa to check it off a list.   While Rembrandt and Vermeer seem to be the most popular, my personal favorite painter of the era is Jan Steen, known for paintings which show psychological insight and a sense of humor

The Mauritshuis Museum stays open late until 8:00 P .M. one night a week, so I planned to visit The Hague on Thursday to make the most of my time. One limitation I find I often face when traveling is limited opening times of major attractions. That gave me time to also check out its temporary exhibition called “Slow Food” on the theme of still life paintings of food and meals during the Dutch Golden Age. No pictures allowed in special exhibitions since the museum doesn’t have title to most of the paintings, but all those sumptuous paintings of food made me realize by stomach was grumbling; it was nearly 8:00 P.M. and I hadn’t eaten anything since before noon.

A few blocks away on the other side of the Hofvijver, the lake outside the Binnenhof castle complex, lies a related museum. The Museum Bredius displays the collection of paintings donated to the city by Abraham Bredius, a former director of the Mauritshuis. It’s sort of a small scale and less crowded version of the Mauritshuis in an elegant three story townhouse mansion with many paintings by the major and lesser-known artists of the Dutch golden age.