The Trippenhuis

Louis Napoleon wished to merge all the institutions and museums that he had created into a mighty Palace of Arts and Sciences. Unfortunately, political developments were not in his favour. His brother, the Emperor Napoleon, brought him back to France and made the Netherlands part of the French Empire.

In the meantime, the members of the Institute had set their sights on the vacant southern section of the Trippenhuis. Thanks to mediation by the maire of Amsterdam, they were able to conclude a lease with the city for that part. In April 1812, the Institute, now called the Institut d’Amsterdam, was definitively established in the southern section of the building.

Everyone thought it was splendid: ‘The Institute is now housed in a building suitable for all its activities, and that in dignity corresponds to that which this assembly, as appointed by the Emperor, should have, and to the splendour which should characterise the Third City of the Empire.’

Cornelis Roos had meanwhile sold the northern section of the property to the Dutch State, and in 1814 that half of the building was fitted out as the State Museum (the Rijksmuseum), with paintings including Rembrandt’s Night Watch being installed. The Academy shared the Trippenhuis with the Rijksmuseum until 1885. When the scientists and scholars were meeting, the door of the museum remained closed. In 1885, the Rijksmuseum moved to the building that it now occupies on Stadhouderskade.

A notable aspect of the Trippenhuis is that from outside one can barely see that the natural stone façade in fact conceals two residences. The dividing wall is positioned behind the central windows of the façade, which were originally ‘blind’ windows.

The façade is extravagantly decorated. The eight exceptionally tall Corinthian pillars attract the eye, as do the mortar-shaped chimneys adorning the roof – an allusion to the Trip family’s trade in cannon.

The combination of weaponry and olive branches in the carvings is notable and is a reference to the metaphor ‘ex bello pax’: from war comes peace. The Trips were regarded as bringers of peace, because they supplied the weapons to ensure freedom.

The rooms in the two houses are identical, in terms of both dimensions and use. The Trip brothers commissioned numerous paintings from the great artists working in Amsterdam at the time. Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680) and Allaert van Everdingen (1621–1675) produced paintings for the Trippenhuis. Nicolaes de Helt Stockade (1614–1669) was responsible for the paintings on the ceilings.

Much of the rich decoration in the rooms, corridors, and stairwells has been preserved. The restoration of the Trippenhuis (1988–1991) revealed just how richly decorated the house was. In the course of a preliminary survey, original seventeenth-century paintings with birds and hunting scenes were revealed on the ceilings and doors in the corridors. After restauration, these can once again be seen in the corridors of the Trippenhuis.

In the seventeenth century this room was the Great Hall (‘Grote Sael’) in the house occupied by Louys Trip, and was where the family received guests.

When the Trippenhuis was being converted to accommodate the Royal Institute of Sciences and the Royal Museum (the Rijksmuseum) in 1815–1817, the architect Abraham van der Hart had the dividing wall between the two houses removed, thus creating a large museum gallery.

A quiet place to meet

In 1855 the dividing wall was replaced so as to allow the members of the Academy to meet in peace and quiet. The raised gallery was intended for onlookers attending the general assemblies.

From 1856 on, the members of the Academy used this room for the Academy’s departmental meetings. Since 1982, the Tinbergen Room, the new meeting room in the garden, has been used for that purpose.

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A 360° view of the Johan Huizinga Room

In the seventeenth century this was the Great Hall (‘Grote Sael’) in the house occupied by Hendrick Trip, and was where the family received guests.

The paintings in the ceiling compartments are by Nicolaes de Helt Stockade (1614–1669). They refer to peace and to the Trip family’s merchandise.  The pinewood floor of this room dates back to when the Trippenhuis was built.

The Night Watch and the Banquet of the Amsterdam Civic Guard

Between 1815 and 1817, this room of the Trippenhuis was adapted to accommodate the Royal Institute and the Rijksmuseum. The dividing wall between the two large halls was removed, thus creating a large museum gallery.

Rembrandt’s Night Watch was displayed on the wall where the chimneypiece now stands, while on the wall opposite hung Bartholomeus van der Helst’s Banquet of the Amsterdam Civic Guard. The Academy has had the Rembrandt Room at its disposal since the Rijksmuseum moved to Stadhouderskade in 1887.

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A 360° view of the Rembrandt Room

This room is made up of two identical rooms which in the seventeenth century served as the bedrooms of Hendrick and Louys Trip. For both these rooms, Vingboons designed an alcove and a portal giving access to a spiral staircase down to the ground floor and basement.

When the Trippenhuis was being converted to accommodate the Royal Institute of Sciences and the Royal Museum (the Rijksmuseum) in 1815–1817, the architect Abraham van der Hart created an opening in the dividing wall by removing the chimneypieces on either side of it. The columns that frame this opening were designed by Vingboons and originate from the large front rooms.

From bedroom to library

In 1817 these former alcove rooms of the Trip brothers began being used as the library of the Royal Institute. In 1988, the entire collection moved to a modern building on Joan Muyskenweg in Amsterdam. The Academy Library’s collection of books and manuscripts is currently housed at the International Institute of Social History at Cruquiusweg 31 in Amsterdam. The Maria Sibylla Merian Room is now a meeting venue for members of the Academy.

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A 360° view of the Maria Sibylla Merian Room

In the seventeenth century this was the antechamber to the bedroom in the house occupied by Hendrick Trip and was connected to his dressing room.

The ceiling panels were mostly painted by Nicolaes de Helt Stockade (1614–1669), but who painted the scene in the central panel is unknown.

From museum gallery to meeting room

In 1856, this room was one of the exhibition galleries of the Rijksmuseum, which was housed in the Trippenhuis at the time. It was then referred to as ‘The Sampling Officials Room’ after Rembrandt’s painting of the Sampling Officials of the Drapers’ Guild that was on display here. Since the Rijksmuseum left the Trippenhuis, the Board of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has held its meetings in this room.

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A 360° view of the Johanna Westerdijk Room

In the seventeenth century, this room was the antechamber to the bedroom in the house occupied by Louys Trip, and was connected to his dressing room.

The ceiling panels were mostly painted by Nicolaes de Helt Stockade (1614–1669), but who painted the chimney originally purchased by Louys Trip is unknown. The scene depicted refers to the legend of the Roman hero Mucius Scaevola.

The legacy of Bilderdijk

The architect Abraham van der Hart arranged this space as a meeting room for the Academy in 1817. In 1855 it was converted into a reading room and committee room. It became known as the Bilderdijk Room that same year when the collection of manuscripts, books, and drawings of Willem Bilderdijk (1756–1831) was housed there. Since 1938 it has again been in use as a meeting room.

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A 360° view of the Bilderdijk Room

From 1730 on the southern section of the Trippenhuis was occupied by Elisabeth van Loon, who was married to a grandson of Louys Trip. She had the house remodelled in 1732–33 in what was then the fashionable style. The original entrance hall was converted into an anteroom.

Since 2001, the room has been known as the Thorbecke Room, after the statesman Johan R. Thorbecke (1798–1872), a driving force behind the creation of the Dutch Constitution in 1848. Thorbecke was a member of the Royal Institute, the forerunner of the Academy, and played an important role in the history of the Academy in his capacity of Minister of the Interior.

The Academy has a Thorbecke Fund for research into his life and work.

In the seventeenth century this room was used as an office (‘Comptoir’) by Louys Trip.

In 1732–1733 the ceiling, chimneypiece, wall layout, and panelling were altered to create a room which to this day exudes an eighteenth-century atmosphere.

After the restoration of the Trippenhuis from 1988 to 1991, the artist Jan Dibbets was commissioned by the Government Buildings Agency to create a ceiling painting within the eighteenth-century frame. Dibbets gave the panel a dark-grey ground;  on this he placed a circular colour photograph, complete with perspective distortion, depicting a round, open window in the ruins of Soissons.

A tribute to Lorentz

The room contains the desk and chair of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853–1928), professor of theoretical physics at Leiden University and president of the Science Division of the Academy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902.

After the Rijksmuseum moved out of the Trippenhuis, a major purchase of furniture was made in 1887 in order to furnish the now empty rooms and halls. The order, placed with the Pfersich family, consisted of large tables and forty chairs upholstered in leather. A number of these items, such as the conference table in the Board Room and twelve chairs with sculpted headrests, are still in the Trippenhuis today.

Other important items from the Academy period are the Knoll cupboard, acquired in 1881 to house the collection of the writer and poet Jacob van Lennep (1802-1868) donated by P. Knoll, and the fire screen by C.A. Lion Cachet, manufactured in 1925 for the Johan Huizinga Room. The chairs in this room are among the Academy's oldest possessions. These were procured in 1811 and consisted initially of a series of 60 chairs, which was later expanded. 

When the Royal Institute moved in in 1812 there were eleven paintings in the Trippenhuis. Of these three are still hanging in the Trippenhuis. These are the large portrait of the Van Loon family painted by Dirck Metius in 1648; The Washing of Christ's feet, a copy after Rubens by an unknown artist; and the Mucius Scaevola, artist unknown. The other paintings, including the most valuable among them, the view of Juletha Bruk by Allard van Everdingen, were bequeathed in the past or given on permanent loan.
 
The Washing of Christ's feet and the Mucius Scaevola now serve as mantel paintings in the Rembrandtzaal and the Bilderdijkkamer respectively and, together with the four dessus-de-porte by Van Everdingen, are among the oldest possessions of the Academy. The remaining paintings in the Trippenhuis were obtained at a later stage. 

The Academy owns a small collection of portraits of scholars and artists that adorn the walls in various rooms of the Trippenhuis Building. Apart from the sketched and painted portraits, there are marble busts of Boerhaave, Chr. Huygens, Hugo de Groot, Van Kinsbergen, Rubens, Van Swinden, Hooft, Falck and Opzoomer.

The sculptor P.J. Gabriël sculpted these likenesses at the request of Admiral of the Fleet Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen, a member of the Royal Institute and one of its benefactors. The Van Kinsbergen bequest laid the foundation for a gallery of portraits of members of the Institute, comparable with collections of portraits in various university senate chambers.

Most of the painted portraits of Institute and Academy members found in the Trippenhuis Building came from bequests. Everwinus Wassenbergh donated his portrait, painted in 1808 by Van der Kooi, to the Institute. In 1831, the Academy received a portrait of Willem Bilderdijk painted by C.H. Hodges. In the late 19th century, portraits were added of C.W. Opzoomer, painted by J.G. Schwartze in 1871, and J.H.C. Kern, painted by J.P. Veth in 1909.

The Academy owns an extensive collection of medals and coins. It assembled this collection in the nineteenth century, when it was more common than today to issue commemorative or honorary medals on special occasions and when various Academy members were active in the field of numismatics. Part of the collection was left to the Academy by Jacob Hendrik Hoeufft and Jacob van Lennep.

In 1966, the Academy’s collection of coins (6002 items) went on long-term loan to the then Royal Medal Collection. This collection is now managed by the central bank of the Netherlands (DNB) as part of the Dutch national numismatic collection. The Academy still manages the collection of medals. In February 2015 it published a detailed catalogue (pdf, Dutch file) describing this portion of its collection.

Dogger Bank Medal

One of the top items in the collection of medals is the gmedal commemorating the Battle of Dogger Bank. Only seven such medals were awarded on 5 August 1781. In 1819, Admiral Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen gifted one of these medals to the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts, the forerunner of the Academy. The medal was not his own, however, but one that he had purchased at auction shortly before. In 2014, this exceptional medal was loaned to DNB under a new loan agreement.