The Milkmaid

Johannes Vermeer · 1660

0:001 of 24

Rijksmuseum

Amsterdam · Founded 1798

The Night Watch fills an entire wall, and Vermeer's Milkmaid pours in perpetual morning light. Dutch painting at its height, in Amsterdam.

2.5M
Visitors a year: 1798
Founded: €25
Admission: Daily 9–5
Daily opening hours

32 works from this collection play free on your TV, phone or tablet. Press play and one starts now.

Watch it now

What to see

The Milkmaid
Johannes Vermeer · 1660
The Milkmaid, sometimes called The Kitchen Maid, is an oil-on-canvas painting of a "milkmaid", in fact, a domestic kitchen maid, by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which regards it as "unquestionably one of the museum's finest attractions".

The Little Street
Johannes Vermeer · 1658
The Little Street (Het Straatje) is a painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, executed c. 1657 to 1658.

The Night Watch
Rembrandt · 1642
Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, also known as The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, but commonly referred to as The Night Watch, is a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. It is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum but is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum as the best-known painting in its collection.

The Love Letter
Johannes Vermeer, c. 1669. The Love Letter is a 17th-century genre painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. The painting shows a servant maid commenting to her mistress on a letter the woman holds. The painting is in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

A Militiaman Holding a Berkemeyer, Known as the ‘Merry Drinker’
Frans Hals, c. 1628–1630. The Merry Drinker is an oil-on-canvas painting by Dutch artist Frans Hals, from c. 1628–1630. The painting has dimensions of 81 by 66.5 centimeters. It is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam.

Winter landscape with skaters
Hendrick Avercamp, 1608. Winter Landscape with Skaters is a c.1608 oil-on-oak painting by the Dutch artist Hendrick Avercamp in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This painting shows ice skaters of all sorts enjoying a day on a frozen river.

The collections

The collection of the Rijksmuseum consists of 1 million objects and is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history from the years 1200 to 2000. Around 8,000 objects are currently on display in the museum. The collection contains more than 2,000 paintings from the Dutch Golden Age by notable painters such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Rembrandt, and Rembrandt's pupils. The museum also has a small Asian collection which is on display in the Asian pavilion. Some of the more unusual items in the collection include the royal crest from the stern of the Royal Charles, captured in the Raid on the Medway, the Hartog plate and the FK35 Bantam biplane.

Who decides what goes back

The museum does not decide what leaves its collection. Dutch national collections belong to the state, and restitution requests are ruled on by the Colonial Collections Committee, which describes itself as independent and says it advises the Minister of Education, Culture and Science on cultural goods removed from the colonies. The Rijksmuseum states that its own part is the research: it belongs to the Colonial Collections Consortium, and between 2019 and 2022 it took part in a pilot project on the provenance of objects from Indonesia and Sri Lanka, working with researchers from both countries. The committee publishes its recommendations object by object. Indonesia's 2023 request covered the Pita Maha collection, the kris of Klungkung, the Singasari statues and the Lombok treasure; its 2026 request covered the Qur'an of Teuku Umar, a statue of Shiva and the Prasasti Damalung. Sri Lanka's request was ruled on the same day in 2023, and Nigeria's in 2024.