Музей Бойманс ван Бейнинген в Роттердаме: История и Возрождение

Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at the Museumpark in the district Rotterdam Centrum, close to the Kunsthal and the Natural History Museum. The museum opened in 1849. It houses the collections of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans (1767–1847) and Daniël George van Beuningen (1877–1955). The museum has become the house of over 151,000 artworks over 170 years. In the collection, ranging from medieval to contemporary art, are works of Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Salvador Dalí and other famous collections that includes the masterpieces of the ‘Achilles series’ by Peter Paul Rubens and ‘A Cornfield, in the Background the Zuiderzee’ by Jacob van Ruisdael. In 2013, the museum had 292,711 visitors and was the 14th most visited museum in the Netherlands. The museum has been closed since 2019 due to improvement works and is scheduled to reopen in 2026.

The museum was established in 1849 The painter and art dealer, Arie Johannes Lamme, was named the museum's first director. Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a fire in 1864. After the devastating fire breakout, the Schielandshuis became small to fit the growing collections and visitors of Museum Boijmans. Then the new museum was built in 1929 and opened in Museumpark in 1935. The Van Beuningen de Vriese Pavilion was built and designed by the Hubert Jan Henket in 1991 to add the collections from the Beuningen.

The building of Van der Steur had been built with the consideration of detail lighting, spaces which were inspired by the surroundings. The architect used traditional materials such as brick, natural stone and copper. The exhibition building was built with three large flexible spaces that could be reconfigured depending on each exhibitions needs. The depot has been built in consideration of public and private partnership where inside and outside are intertwined. The plan of the museum is to give the visitors an impression in great scale of the collections which can be seen from the central staircase and landings. The ground floor of the depot consists of a welcoming entrance area with coffee corner, also is used for art handlings. The upper floors are for exhibitions spaces. The atrium gallery which has glass roof has collections from old buildings. The building is built with the sustainability in mind by architects MVRDV. The depot facade is covered by different types of glass with different color code to make the building flexible with the natural lightings. For example, the roof is coded with pink glass, which are transparent to afford visitors a view of the city and museum from the roof. There is also the restaurant Renilde (named after the former curator Renilde Hammacher) and salon Coert (named after the former director of the Rotterdam Museum Coert Ebbinge Wubben) situated.

The museum has a diverse collection ranging from medieval to contemporary art, with somewhat of a focus on Dutch art. Much of the collection came to the museum through the two private collections mentioned above, but many others have contributed throughout the years. The museum also holds many great house hold objects which emphasize the history of design over the 8th centuries. The collection of the household objects contain from the medieval pitchers and glass from the Golden Age to the furniture by many prominent designers and with contemporary Dutch design. The tapestries were hung in the walls of prestigious reception rooms during these periods. The Tulipcabinet, (c. 1635–1650) by Herman Doomer, is the cabinets built or used during Renaissance period where the use of decorative motifs were famous. The tulip motif in this cabinet indicates the symbol of wealth and the tulip bulb carries the symbol of enormous sums of money in the 17th century. This also indicates that this type of cabinets were used by noble rich peoples. The Display rummer with panorama of the city and harbour of Hamburg,(in 1704–1709) by Johann Simon Rothaer, is a goblet or monumental wineglass which is engraved with cityscape of Hamburg using copper wheel engraving representing the 18th century and pre industrial design. There are figures on the foot which represents the four seasons. These types of goblets were often used on the buffet during spectacular banquets. The Mountainous evening landscape, (c.1665) by Adam Pijanacker, is the two dimensional painting which were widely used as a decorative effect for wall coverings and was fashionable thing to fill the walls with landscape paintings in Netherlands around 17th centuries. The Mondial chair, (c. 1957–1958) by Wim Rietveld, is the design manufactured during industrial which been created with sheet metal structure and fibre glass seat reinforced with plastic. It was designed in the collaboration between Gerrit Rietveld and his son Wim. The chair gives remarkable simplicity with its special K profile of the back, the seat, the legs. The Cupboard 'Carlton', (c. 1981) by Ettore Sottsass, is unique to the design practiced during 80s by Italian designers' group. This design was considered or called as anti design as the designer had used liberal color with low cultural aspects. "Laminated prints of imitation marble and wood are used to decorate the surfaces of the furniture. One of the most used patterns is one taken from a blown up image of bacteria. Sottsass once testified to having taken inspiration from tiles from subway bathrooms." These designs display us how almost everything was handmade which showed the craftsmanship before industrial period or before different technologies were invented. The collections in the museum shows the evolution of designs over the centuries to present day designs.

Dirk Hannema, the director of the Boijmans from 1921 to 1945, acquired for the museum artworks that had been looted from Jewish collectors who were deported and murdered in the Holocaust during the German occupation of the Netherlands. Some of the looted artworks have been restored to the families of the victims. In 2018 the Boijmans mounted an exhibition around its history during World War II and its possession of Nazi looted art. The issue of artworks in its collection looted from Jews remains contentious and unresolved.

The Education Department of the museum organizes children's activities, courses, lectures and tours.

ARTtube is a website with videos about art and design. ARTtube is produced by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, M HKA Antwerp, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, De Pont, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Museum Jan Cunen and Rotterdam.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen produces, together with TV Rijnmond, a television series on art. Boijmans TV is based on an idea by Wilfried de Jong. Boijmans TV is created by a team of creative specialists in different disciplines. It is more than an art magazine; apart from the artists, the museum visitor, the attendant and the employee of technical services appear on the series. Each episode of Boijmans TV can be viewed on ArtTube after it has been broadcast.

Sjarel Ex has been the museum director since 2004. The museum had 292,711 visitors in 2013. That year it was the most visited museum in Rotterdam and the 14th most visited museum in the Netherlands. It had an estimated 270,000 visitors in 2015.