Ambling between the Museum van Loon and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCO) we came across an artistic disaster that belongs in neither.

Yes, it’s The Night Watch redone in bathroom tiles. That in itself is not a bad thing. Who would not want to contemplate Dead Chicken Girl while soaking in the tub after a long day polishing a musket? But look more closely.

Dead Chicken Girl no longer has a dead chicken dangling from her armpit. How can this be? It goes against the whole artistic intent of the painting. I wouldn’t even put it on my bathroom floor unless it was under the tub. where no one could see it.

But enough of that, back to the van Loon mansion.

This isn’t actually their house, this is the stable and coach house, where you can get an excellent slice of apple pie. The house looks more like this.

It’s the first of the grand homes we have visited in Amsterdam that doesn’t feel cramped. The rooms are spacious…

… the garden is lovely…

… none of the beds are in closets…

… and the staircase doesn’t require climbing gear.

The hallway has room for a painted sleigh…

… and there’s another sleigh next to the carriage in the coach house.

The van Loon money came from the Dutch East India Company, noted for slave trading and vicious colonialism. I must say, if I were a van Loon, I would want to change the family achievement of arms which references this.

The Dutch Wikipedia page on the Dutch East India Company makes the point that only 0.5% of its profits came from selling slaves, which is like saying that only a small fraction of the Nazi war effort went on concentration camps. More of their profits came from slave labor, and there is also the comment that, “Many VOC people took a slave as a concubine.”

The housed contains a group portrait of the van Loon family.

Apparently the kitten did not want to pose for the picture.

You may be offended by cat-dangling but it’s not as bad as the slave trade.

On to MOCO where the big attraction currently is a large collection of Banksy’s works. I’m not going to include photos of Banksy’s two dimensional art as you can go and see it on his website. Banksy says of this exhibition: Members of the public should be aware there has been a recent spate of Banksy exhibitions none of which are consensual. They‘ve been organised entirely without the artist’s knowledge or involvement. Please treat them accordingly.

I can’t resist sharing a couple of his sculptures, though.

Our last museum of the day was the Stedelijk Museum, a collection of modern art. The best stuff was the few late 19th century works. I liked this Matisse, though Paula thinks she is about to fall off the couch.

There wasn’t much of the 20th or 21st century stuff that had much appeal.

You know that feeling when you look at the art and prefer the wallpaper?

We ended up feeling our way along a darkened corridor to a room where they were showing a strange video. When we entered there was a transwoman performing a cultural dance with a small umbrella. It got rather less comprehensible from there, but we stayed a long time because there was a comfy sofa to sit on.

Tomorrow we have tickets for the Van Gogh museum. Van Gogh might have been a much more successful artist in his lifetime if guests could admire his paintings from a comfy sofa.