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 housed in the Rijksmuseum building since 1885, which was designed by the Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers.
The art collection that the stadholder's family had built up over the centuries forms the basis of the Rijksmuseum's collection. After the last stadtholder fled the country in 1795, the Batavian Republic confiscated the remaining art collection. Most of this was shipped to Paris by the French. On November 19, 1798, at the initiative of the agent of finance, Alexander Gogel, it was decided to house the remaining collection, consisting of Italian art, portraits of the Oranges and national rarities, in a national museum after the French example. Under the name Nationale Konst-Gallery, this museum opened its doors on May 31, 1800 in the also confiscated Huis ten Bosch near The Hague. The Amsterdam art dealer Cornelis Sebille Roos (1754-1820) was the first director of the museum and as such, in collaboration with Gogel, was responsible for the first acquisitions, including The endangered swan by Jan Asselijn. When in 1806 Lodewijk Napoleon ascended the throne of the 'Kingdom of Holland', it was given the name Royal Museum.
