The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is one of sixteen national museums in the Netherlands. The collection offers an overview of Dutch art and history, including works by 17th-century Dutch masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals. The museum has been located in the Rijksmuseum building, which was designed by the Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers, since 1885.

The current Rijksmuseum building was completed in 1885, designed by PJH Cuypers. This building not only housed the collection of the Rijksmuseum, but also the collection of works by living masters, which was housed in the Museum of Living Dutch Masters in Haarlem from 1838, and the Netherlands Museum for History and Art in The Hague were new building. ^[4] In 1918 the Nederlandsche Oudheidkundige Bond published the brochure About reform and management of our museums . It argued for the division of the Nederlandsch Museum for History and Art into an art and a historical museum. This split actually came about in 1927.