In 1631, John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, a cousin of StadtholderFrederick Henry, bought a plot bordering the Binnenhof and the adjacent Hofvijver pond in The Hague,[6] at that time the political centre of the Dutch Republic. Between 1636 and 1641, the Mauritshuis was built on this piece of land, during John Maurice's governorship of Dutch Brazil. It was built in the Dutch Classicist style by the Dutch architects Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post.[7] The two-storey building is strictly symmetrical; originally the interior contained four apartments and a great hall. Each apartment was designed with an antechamber, a chamber, a cabinet, and a cloakroom. The building had a cupola, which was destroyed in a fire in 1704.[8]
After the death of Prince John Maurice in 1679, the house was owned by the Maes family, who leased the house to the Dutch government. In 1704, most of the interior of the Mauritshuis was destroyed by fire. The building was restored between 1708 and 1718.[9]
In 1774, an art gallery open to the public was formed in what is now the Prince William V Gallery. That collection was seized by the French in 1795 and only partially recovered in 1808. The small gallery space soon proved to be too small, however, and in 1820, the Mauritshuis was bought by the Dutch state for the purpose of housing the Royal Cabinet of Paintings.[10] In 1822, the Mauritshuis was opened to the public and housed the Royal Cabinet of Paintings and the Royal Cabinet of Rarities. In 1875, the entire museum became available for paintings.[2]
In 1995, the Mauritshuis was established as a non-profit foundation. The foundation set up at that time took charge of both the building and the collection, which it was given on long-term loan. This building, which is the property of the state, continues to be rented by the museum. In 2007, the museum announced its desire to expand. Within three years the definitive design was presented.[11] The museum would occupy a part of the nearby Sociëteit de Witte building. The two buildings would be connected via a tunnel, running underneath the Korte Vijverberg.[12]
The renovation started in 2012 and finished in 2014.[13] The design was by Hans van Heeswijk.[14] During the renovation, about 100 of the museum's paintings were displayed in The Hague's Kunstmuseum in the Highlights Mauritshuis exhibition.[15] About 50 other paintings, including the Girl With the Pearl Earring, went on loan to exhibitions in the United States and Japan. The expanded museum was reopened on 27 June 2014 by King Willem-Alexander.[16]
Controversy over the colonial past of Prince Maurice
In 1664 Prince John Maurice ordered a marble bust portrait of himself for the garden of the Mauritshuis, the Prince's residence in the Hague. The statue was sculpted by the Flemish sculptor Bartholomeus Eggers. Prince Maurice had the bust moved to the burial chamber (Fürstengruft) in Siegen which he had built for himself in 1670.
In 1986 a copy of the statue made in plastic was placed inside the Mauritshuis.[17] The bust was removed from the Mauritshuis in 2017 amidst controversy over Holland's colonial history and Prince John Maurice's role in the slave trade.[18] The Mauritshuis museum has denied that the removal had anything to do with the controversy and has stated that the decision was taken on the grounds that the object was solely a copy made of plastic and the museum was unable to offer the necessary historical context for it in the foyer of the Mauritshuis where it was exhibited.[19] The museum has since created a webpage dedicated to explaining the role of the Prince in the creation of the museum's building and collection and the museum's current view of the Prince. The statements on the page highlight the key role the Prince played in the slave trade in Brazil and how his immense wealth was likely sourced (in certain cases even in breach of then existing rules) from his involvement in the slave trade.[20]
The Mauritshuis was a state museum until 1995, when it became an independent foundation. It still continues to receive funding from the Dutch central government. For its estimated budget for 2024, the government provided just under a third (5m Euros) of its total budget of 16m Euros.[23] The Prince William V Gallery is also managed by the organisation.[5]
In the period 2005 to 2011, the Mauritshuis saw between 205,000 and 262,000 visitors per year.[26][27][28] In 2011, the museum was the 13th most visited museum in the Netherlands.[29] In 2012, when the museum closed for renovation on 1 April, it received 45,981 visitors.[30] The museum was closed all of 2013 and was reopened on 27 June 2014.[16][31] It closed for three months in the spring of 2020 in response to the Covid epidemic.[32]
^Susie Protschky, Between corporate and familial responsibility: Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen and masculine governance in Europe and the Dutch colonial world, in: Susan Broomhall and Jacqueline van Gent (eds), 'Governing Masculinities: Regulating Selves and Others in the Early Modern Period', Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011, p. 162