‘Ce superbe Palais’: The interior of the Huygens House in The Hague (1634-1785)

SUMMARY Between 1634 and 1637, the grand Dutch classicist urban palace of the poet, composer, scholar, and diplomat Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) rose on the Plein in The Hague. After Huygens’ death, the house remained in the family for another century. Although it was demolished in 1876, the history of the building and its residents lives on through the fragments that were salvaged before its destruction. These decorative interior paintings, tapestries, wood panelling, chimney, sculptures, and tiles form the starting point for a reconstruction of the interior, as explored in this article. Drawing on a previously unpublished nineteenth-century floor plan and new archival research, the study considers how these elements relate to one another and where they were originally located in the house. Both inside and out, the Huygenshuis (Huygens House) was a model of classicist ideals, and Huygens devoted considerable care to its interior furnishing. Portraits by Adriaen Hanneman, Gerard van Honthorst, Daniël Seghers and Jan Cossiers, along with a history painting by Paulus Bor and Cornelis Hendriksz Vroom and an anonymous allegory, had fixed positions in the interior, often above a fireplace or doorway. This article reconstructs their original context. For the first time, a painting of bathing women attributed to Jan van Balen and Jan van Kessel I is linked to the Huygens House. Successive generations adapted the interior to suit their own taste and the fashions of their time, though always with a sense of respect for the iconic family home. The research demonstrates that, after 1725, a major renovation campaign was launched by Constantijn Huygens IV and Philippina Doublet. They engaged painters active in The Hague – Pieter Hardimé, Mattheus Terwesten, and Hendrik Carré II – and ordered a series of tapestries from Urbanus Leyniers in Brussels. This couple is also thought to have been responsible for the remodelling of a large room on the principal floor, which was fitted with new panelling and a plastered ceiling. Finally, the article sheds new light on nineteenth-century attitudes to heritage. In stages, parts of the interior were removed from the Huygens House, finding their way to the Mauritshuis and, via the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst (Netherlands Museum for History and Art), to the Rijksmuseum and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. Some objects were mistakenly linked to the Huygens House; others were relocated or lost. It is hoped that they might yet resurface – and that this study can aid in their rediscovery.