Program summary
DAY 1
Arrival in Grand Hotel Amstelveen
Get-together cocktail
Dinner in Bistro Nice! in Amstelveen
Lecture: Introduction to Dutch Art
DAY 2
Visit to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Walk through the canal streets of Amsterdam
Etching workshop at Rembrandt’s House
DAY 3
Visit to the Zaans Museum, Zaanse Schans
A drawing workshop with traditional Dutch windmills, wooden houses and the Zaanse landscape to inspire you.
DAY 4
Painting workshop in the Singer Museum, Laren
Drive to Otterlo in the heart of the Hoge Veluwe National Park
DAY 5
Drawing in the natural surroundings of the Hoge Veluwe National Park
Visit to the Kröller-Müller Museum in the National Park
Afternoon wellness activities in the hotel (optional)
DAY 6
Open-air painting workshop in the natural surroundings of ‘t Gooi
Drive to The Hague
DAY 7
Visit to the Mesdag Panorama and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
Leisure afternoon in The Hague
DAY 8
Transfer to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Detailed program
Day 1:
You will arrive at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) where one of our team members will be waiting for you. He will transfer you by coach or taxi to the Grand Hotel in Amstelveen (about 20 minutes).
The hotel check-in depends upon your arrival time. In case of early arrival, if your room is not yet ready, we will place your luggage in safe storage.
For the rest of the day you’ll be free to visit Amstelveen and Amsterdam at your own convenience. The bus ride from the hotel to the centre of Amstelveen takes 10 minutes; the bus ride to Amsterdam city centre (Museumplein) takes about 30-40 minutes. We will give you a list of interesting places to explore. Bus tickets can be purchased from the driver and paid for by credit card only.
In the evening, we will meet in the hotel for a get-together cocktail and have dinner in Bistro Nice! near the hotel.
Eduard Moes will be your after-dinner host for a lecture on Dutch Art.
Pre-tour hotel package
Karo Voyage is pleased to offer you a one-night-in-Amstelveen pre-tour package, including transfer from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol arrivals and one overnight stay on Tuesday, at the Grand Hotel Amstelveen, including breakfast.
Price: €75 per person, double occupancy, or €115, single occupancy.
Day 2:
Amsterdam – Rijksmuseum – Rembrandt’s House — etching workshop
Our driver will take us to the Rijksmuseum, which features many of the Netherlands’ most famous national art treasures, including historic masterpieces by Vermeer, Frans Hals and Rembrandt — perhaps most notably, the latter’s ‘The Night Watch’.
We will join in a guided tour of the museum’s highlights. Then you’ll get the opportunity to explore the collection by yourself. The Rijksmuseum visit ends with a lunch. After lunch, we’ll stroll through Amsterdam’s beautiful canal streets towards Rembrandt’s House (now a museum), where you’ll participate in a workshop. The Low Countries’ greatest artist lived and worked in this impressive building in the heart of Amsterdam for 20 years. The Rembrandt House Museum offers visitors a complete Rembrandt experience. With its 17th-century inventory, the house has been meticulously refurbished with period furniture, art and objects. With its nearly complete collection of Rembrandt’s etchings, the museum stages inspiring exhibitions about the life and work of Rembrandt (1606-1669), his predecessors, contemporaries and pupils.
During the etching workshop, everyone in the group will experience what it takes to make a print from his or her own 10 x 15 cm drawing. Using a sharp metal needle, you will scratch the lines of your drawing into a plastic transparent plate (also 10 x 15 cm). Then you will ink the plate and make a print yourself by turning the wheel of the press (using your own strength). This drypoint technique of scratching directly into the plate was often used by Rembrandt. The print is yours to keep.
Enjoy dinner, a culinary night out at Restaurant Seven Seas in the Five-star deluxe Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam, which is located in the former Scheepvaarthuis (Maritime House), a decorated monument and example of the Amsterdam School of architecture.
Day 3:
Zaanse Schans, workshop
Departure to Zaanse Schans, a typical picturesque small Dutch village with windmills and wooden houses from the 18th and 19th centuries. The famous French impressionist painter Claude Monet visited Zaandam in 1871 and was so impressed by the Zaanse landscape that he created an astounding 25 paintings and 9 sketches of eye-catching scenes. During his stay in the Netherlands, Monet wrote to his friend Camille Pissarro: “Zaandam is quite remarkable and there is enough to paint for a lifetime. Houses in all colours, hundreds of mills, and delightful boats.”
We’ll visit the museum, where artist Julia Hope will give a drawing workshop. The workshop, on how to draw from life, will involve exercises to stimulate new ways of seeing. You will learn how to make line drawings using pencil and pen-and-ink and will work from drawn examples as well as observing and drawing objects and local scenery. With the experience gained from these introductory exercises, you’ll be able to independently create a colour pastel work based on your own photo and/or sketches of the village houses or surrounding landscape.
Dinner in windmill De Jonge Dikkert (built in 1672) in Amstelveen.
Day 4:
Singer Museum in Laren, workshop — Hoge Veluwe National Park
This morning we will drive to Laren, for a day of painting in the Singer Museum’s studio. This museum is dedicated to presenting and preserving the collection of the American artist William Henry Singer (1868-1943) and his wife Anna.
Emilie Lindenbergh will guide us around the museum and give the painting workshop in the museum’s studio. With individual coaching from Emilie, you will do some exercises before creating your final paintings. The workshops are accessible to everyone, including well-practised painters and those with no experience. Having no experience can even be an advantage, because you will paint with an open mind.
You will work on an assignment based on a topic from the museum’s current exhibition. With its many examples of art from the era of major innovations and broadening of horizons in painting, the Singer Museum invites you to work beyond your comfort zone. You will be encouraged to make your own artistic choices, such as simplification of the subject, your own colour interpretation or additions, and so on. Surprise yourself! During the workshop, attention is given to painting techniques such as colour mixing, how colours influence each other, contrast, brushstroke, working with surfaces and lines, composition, etc.
Emilie’s intention is that you will experience an inspiring creative day and take with you various works of your own with a sense of satisfaction.
Around 5 p.m. we’ll travel eastward to the Hoge Veluwe National Park, to hotel De Sterrenberg in Otterlo, our accommodation for the next two nights. In the hotel that evening, you will enjoy a four-course gourmet dinner with four glasses of carefully matched wines.
Day 5:
Hoge Veluwe National Park, workshop — Kröller-Müller Museum
We’ll start the day with a walk in the beautiful National Park, followed by a drawing session in natural surroundings led by Ingrid van Aert (if weather permits, otherwise in the hotel facilities). This morning’s challenge is to discover your own handwriting – your personal style – using charcoal.
As Ingrid explains: “The focus in this workshop is on developing a different way of observing the landscape, textures, patterns and contrasts in forms. We’ll sit ourselves down at a beautiful spot in the park. In two hours you will learn to observe and you will be given the tools to transfer your impressions to paper.
The added value of this workshop is a deeper understanding of the artworks you will see on our visit to the Kröller-Müller Museum in the afternoon.”
After lunch we will visit the Kröller-Müller Museum, the home of many famous paintings by Vincent van Gogh. The Van Gogh Gallery displays varying selections of about 40 of Vincent van Gogh’s works. You will also find masterpieces by modern artists such as Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondriaan. In the sculpture garden, one of Europe’s largest, you can enjoy both sculptures and nature. Distributed around the garden are over 160 sculptures by iconic artists, from Aristide Maillol to Jean Dubuffet, from Marta Pan to Pierre Huyghe.
In the afternoon you will relax and thoroughly enjoy the hotel’s wellness facilities.
In the evening, there’s a gourmet dinner in the hotel restaurant with four glasses of matching wines.
Day 6:
Het Gooi, workshop — The Hague
Morning painting workshop with Eduard Moes in the open air (if weather permits, otherwise in the artists’ atelier).
This outdoor workshop is an interesting and instructive day of painting under the expert guidance of Eduard Moes. After an inspiring explanatory introduction to creatively challenge the group, each participant goes to work independently with brushes and acrylics on canvas. During the afternoon, a typical Dutch landscape will appear on the canvas.
Then we head to The Hague, capital of the province of South Holland, on the North Sea coast. The Hague is the Netherlands’ seat of government though not the nation’s capital.
Dinner will be in a local bistro, De Twee Heeren.
Your overnight stay is at the exclusive Paleis Hotel.
Day 7:
The Hague – Mesdag Panorama – Gemeentemuseum
Visit the Mesdag Panorama, the world’s oldest panorama painting, which can still be admired in its original location. Mesdag’s painting, 120 meters wide and 14 meters high, offers a unique view of the coastal resort of Scheveningen in 1881. In addition to the Panorama and temporary exhibitions, the museum exhibits several of Mesdag’s smaller paintings as well as works by his wife, Sientje van Houten.
After lunch, we’ll visit the Gemeentemuseum (Museum of the Municipality).
The Hague’s Gemeentemuseum is the place to be for a unique mix of art, architecture, interior design and classical style. Designed by Dutch architect Hendrik Berlage, it’s a milestone in contemporary architecture. The museum is renowned for its permanent exhibition of Piet Mondriaan’s work. This collection includes his early, realistic pieces as well as la pièce de résistance, Victory Boogie Woogie.
In the afternoon you are free to go your own way.
In the evening, we will enjoy our farewell dinner together in a restaurant near the hotel in The Hague.
Day 8:
Departure
Sadly, your tour is over. Unless you have decided to extend your stay, we will arrange your transfer to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
Post-tour hotel package
Karo Voyage is pleased to offer you a one-night-in-The-Hague post-tour package, including transfer to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol departures and one overnight stay on Wednesday, at the Paleis Hotel The Hague, including breakfast.
Price: € 125 per person, double occupancy, or € 195, single occupancy.