Interior of the Rembrandt Room in the Mauritshuis in 1884

After Johan Maurits’s death in 1679, the Mauritshuis had several functions before it became a museum in 1822. The collection itself came from King Willem I (1772-1843), hence the museum’s official name: the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis.

The king had a significant influence on the museum’s acquisition policy. He decreed, for example, that Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson should hang here. He also purchased Jan de Baen’s portrait of Johan Maurits, thereby bringing the master of the house back home.<-p>