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Journalism of Courage
The Dutch queen and the Russian president watched as fireworks soared above the River Amstel. The Hermitage Amsterdam,a new museum for exhibiting loans of Russian art,was officially open,with an inaugural show entitled At the Russian Court: Palace and Protocol in the XIXth Century. The evenings celebrations were televised live. Local residents seemed uniformly pleased,proud and relieved. At last a museum success story.
Amsterdam is famous for its outstanding galleries. However,the Rijksmuseum has been under reconstruction since 2003 and the Stedelijk,with its internationally celebrated collection of modern art,since 2004. Their reopening,pushed back repeatedly,appears to be years away. But the Hermitage Amsterdam,the radically renovated Amstelhof a nursing home from its construction in the 17th century until 2007 was on budget,at euro40m 56m,and speedy,taking just two years to complete. The running costs will be covered by ticket sales and corporate sponsors. The St Petersburg Hermitage will receive one euro from each full-price entry. Ernst Veen,a cultural entrepreneur,masterminded the scheme and is now the museums director. Many feel that his spearheading of this public-private partnership,rare in the Netherlands,is the key to its success. Not one of the original sponsors has dropped out,despite the turmoil in the financial markets. Their confidence has been vindicated. Hans van Heeswijks architectural renovation is a triumph.
Care has been taken to enhance this with transparent or translucent materials. The stairs are steel and tinted glass,the doors transparent glass. The interiors vast expanses of white walls,where the signs are white on white,add to the glow. Even inconsequential objects gain in lustre.
Alas,there are rather a lot of them in this inaugural exhibition. The 1,800 loans include none of the masterpieces for which the Hermitage is famous. Instead,this is a lesson on 19th-century Russian court life. Half the material is related to protocol. One rather static display consists of gowned and uniformed mannequins. But another,entitled To the Ball,is a coup de théâtre. Dance music plays; the round display cases revolve. Through the silver painted outline of a window on a wall are film images of men and women twirling,a scene from Russian Ark,which was shot in St Petersburgs Hermitage.
In the peripheral galleries there is a good deal to charm displays of fans,dancing slippers,parasols and jewellery. A vitrine devoted to hunting contains three delightful and unusual game bags. All pretty enough,but certainly not great treasures. For masterworks visitors have to wait until March 6th when Origins of Modern Art: Braque,Matisse and Picasso opens. That promises to be a show that will truly salute the magnificence of the Amstelhof.
The Economist Newspaper Limited 2009
