Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (The Hague Municipal Museum)

Description:

• Housed in a honey-toned brick building (1935) by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage, this fine museum has plenty to see. Top billing goes to the world's most comprehensive collection -- more than 50 works -- by De Stijl artist Piet Mondrian, among them his last painting, the unfinished Victory Boogie Woogie (1944), an abstract representation of New York. Other rooms cover 19th-century Dutch Romantic art, the Impressionist Hague School, and 20th-century art, and there are a few works by van Gogh, Monet, and Picasso, and prints and drawings by Karel Appel and Toulouse-Lautrec. For decorative arts, there's ceramics from Delft, China, and the Middle East; Dutch and Venetian glass; silver; period furniture; and an intricate 1743 dollhouse. The music department has antique instruments from Europe -- harpsichords, pianos, and more -- and from around the world, and an impressive library of scores, books, and prints. New underground rooms are used for temporary fashion exhibits. Plan to spend a couple hours here.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010