an art lover’s visit to an underrated city

Why visit the Hague? I’ll give you one reason up top: one of its museums has one of the world’s most famous artworks.

The 200-year-old Mauritshuis is an art museum right in the centre of this Netherlands city, and it’s home to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, a celebrated painting of the Dutch Golden Age. While not quite as famous as the Mona Lisa, it’s certainly one of the few paintings to get anywhere close.

The young girl in the painting — which found a whole new audience thanks to the 2003 feature film starring Scarlett Johansson — wears a blue and yellow turban, turning her head to look over her shoulder at the viewer. It offers a very similar air of mystique to that of Da Vinci’s masterpiece in Paris.

One vital difference between the two though is the respective crowds the artworks draw. While you need sharp elbows to fight to even glimpse a few seconds of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, there’s no such scramble for access at the Mauritshuis.

That’s not to say Vermeer’s most famous painting doesn’t draw a crowd — on my visit it had garnered quite an audience and people did need to wait patiently to get their selfies with the titular Girl — it’s just that it’s a much, much calmer experience than meeting Da Vinci’s mysterious figure.

Calmer is also a good way to describe a visit to the Hague compared to its more well-trodden neighbour, Amsterdam.

While 20m people visit Amsterdam every year — so many that local authorities are now actively encouraging people to stay away — the Hague is very much under-the-radar and so very far from being swamped.

For art lovers it’s a boon to travel to, because Den Haag (to use its Dutch name) is steeped in centuries of rich cultural and artistic heritage.

As the seat of the Dutch government and the royal family, it’s long been a centre of influence, attracting artists, thinkers, and visionaries. The Hague’s artistic legacy is intertwined with the history of the Dutch Golden Age, when it was a hub for painters whose works now define the era.

But in this small, compact city, the old masters meet more modern creatives too. It has developed a strong contemporary art ecosystem, with a network of galleries and cultural institutions, art festivals, residencies and public art commissions, which all combine to give this city a palpable artsy vibe. The Hague’s reputation as the ‘administrative’ centre of the Netherlands makes it sound much blander then the reality.

So it’ll be no surprise to learn that it’s also packed with brilliant museums and art galleries. And some of them — like the aforementioned Mauritshuis — are truly world class.

Here are the three museums I think you need to visit on your next trip to the Hague to get your art fix — and the reasons why I loved them on my most recent adventure.

A miniature Dutch palace sitting on a vast lake in the heart of the city, the Mauritshuis is stunning before you even step inside. But once through the doors, it offers an even bigger wow factor.

After an absolutely massive £24 million refurbishment in 2014, it’s now a world-class museum fit for the 21st century which has only enhanced the regal and elegant 17th century interiors (which are fully intact just to be clear).

While Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is the big draw, there are plenty of other Dutch masterpieces here among its 250-strong art collection. Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a dramatic portrayal of a dissection from 1632, and is considered one of his most important group works.

Carel Fabritius’s The Goldfinch is also on display, a small but poignant painting of a delicate pet that’s thought to be the most-viewed bird in all of art history. Yet my favourite work was another Vermeer: 1660’s View of Delft. It left me stunned that paint could depict daylight like you were looking at it out of the window. Stunned even more that it could be done over 350 years ago.

I’d recommend a pitstop in the smart — if slightly bland — Brasserie Mauritshuis to soak up all you’ve seen. With a glass of fizz, naturally.

If modern and contemporary art is more your thing, head straight to this quirky and incredibly vast palace to twentieth century icons. This art deco gallery is further out of the city centre than other venues (although walkable) but it’s absolutely huge so is very much worth the journey.

You can try and figure out the map to direct your visit but I long gave that up and had all the richer and experience for it. Walking the labyrinthine halls, every new gallery or turn of a corner revealed artworks by absolute masters. There’s Monet, Picasso, Kandinsky, Sol Lewitt, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama, Egon Schiele, Bridget Riley, Nam June Paik, Ann Veronica Janssens, plus many, many more. Just get lost in it all.

I couldn’t believe it when I walked into one gallery to find myself standing face-to-face to with Rodin’s The Age of Bronze, and was totally alone with it. Yes there are a number of versions of this iconic work around the world, but there are few other museums where you get to experience it in total solitude. Another win for the Hague’s lack of crowds.

This unusual art gallery is in one of the Hague’s more unusual districts. You wouldn’t know it when in the urban centre, but technically the city is on the coast (via a short tram ride). While the seven-mile-long stretch of sandy beach is a beauty, the neighbourhood around it — Scheveningen — is a bit of a clash of faded Victorian glamour and cheap modern over-development. So it’s a surprise that a very impressive exhibition space and outdoor sculpture park is located here.

Billed as the only Dutch museum to be dedicated exclusively to contemporary international sculpture, Beelden aan Zee is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024. It puts on a surprisingly large number of high-quality exhibitions of big names in its bright, airy galleries. The building is made of sand-coloured materials and seems to blend and sink into the dunes.

Its really impressive USP however is its multi-level outdoor terraces housing dozens of sculptures overlooking the North Sea. It definitely gets the sea’s bracing breeze. But despite being surrounded by development, standing here feels like an art oasis that’s good for both the soul and the lungs.

• Getting there | Fly to Rotterdam The Hague airport from many European destinations including London City airport. Daily Eurostar trains run from London St Pancras International to Amsterdam, with direct and regular trains onward to The Hague in around 50 minutes.

• Where to stay | A 1920s former bank building is now home to the warm and stylish Voco The Hague. Its location is perfect — just a few minutes walk to the Mauritshuis and a tram stop right outside takes you to both Scheveningen and to the nearby city of Delft.

• Where to eat | Tapisco is a former bookshop that’s been transformed into a beautiful, stylish setting to enjoy Spanish small plates and Mediterranean-inspired fare. For a more affordable dinner, try the delicious vibe-y Italian of Vincenzo’s.

• Where to drink | Head to Oude Molstraat for a cobbled street of bars that in summer sees punters spill outside giving the area more of a feel of Southern Europe than Northern. It’s even more of a bonus that it’s one of the oldest streets in the city.

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