The RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History is the number one research and knowledge centre for the visual arts of the Netherlands. As the Netherlands House of Art History, the RKD cares for a wealth of research material: millions of images of artworks, hundreds of archives of artists and art dealers, hundreds of thousands of art books and auction catalogues. The RKD makes Dutch art history accessible in an international context, both physically and digitally, to museums, the academic community and the general public alike.
The RKD provides a link between cultural heritage organisations and collaborates with multiple national and international partners. RKD staff members contribute to research, publications and exhibitions. The institute’s public space in The Hague is a place where researchers, art historians and others who are interested can meet, take a look at the display and consult the archives or library. The collections can be accessed both digitally – using the online database RKD Explore – and in the study room. The digitisation of some five million photographs and reproductions of works of art has given a strong impulse to art-historical research, and the images will be made available globally on the online platform RKD Research. The website www.rkd.nl, in Dutch and English, attracts more than two million visitors a year and provides a starting point for all art-historical research.
