Trippenhuis

The Trippenhuis is a neoclassical canal mansion on the Kloveniersburgwal in central Amsterdam, built between 1660 and 1662 for the wealthy arms dealers Louys (1605-1684) and Hendrick Trip (1607-1666). Designed by Justus Vingboons, it is the widest canal house facade in Amsterdam and ranks among the most significant examples of Dutch classicism. Since 1812 it has served as the seat of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and its predecessors, and since 1887 the entire building has been state property. It belongs to the Top 100 of Dutch heritage sites designated by the Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg.

The Trippenhuis was commissioned by the Trip brothers, sons of Jacob Trip and Margaretha de Geer, who had established themselves in Amsterdam around 1630 after learning mining and trade in Sweden. Their business encompassed copper, tar, iron, weapons, and munitions, with mines, forges, and artillery foundries in Sweden. Determined to surpass the residence of their rival Louis de Geer, they engaged Justus Vingboons in 1655 to design a civic palace comprising two complete houses behind a single facade, at a cost of 250,000 guilders. The building was constructed from 1660 to 1662. The left house belonged to Hendrick, the right to Louys, with a half-meter-thick dividing wall running precisely through the center of the facade. The family retained ownership until the early nineteenth century, though the building was occupied by various tenants including Nicolaas Six, Gerrit Braamcamp, Willem Buys, and Nicolaes Warin. In 1809 the southern portion became city property and housed the Legislative Body; in 1812 the Koninklijk Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schoone Kunsten, founded by Louis Bonaparte in 1808, took up residence. The two halves were reunited in 1815 under King Willem I as the Koninklijk-Nederlandsch Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten. From 1817 to 1885 the building was shared with the Rijksmuseum, which had been established in the former art dealership of Cornelis Sebille Roos. Rembrandt's Night Watch hung here until 1885, when the museum moved to its new building. In 1851 the society was reconstituted as the Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, renamed Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen in 1938. The building underwent major renovation, winning the Amsterdam Architecture Prize in 2020.

The Trippenhuis preserves objects of historical value from its institutional past. Remnants from the Royal Institute period include furniture in the Johan Huizinga Room, the oldest pieces dating from 1811, and furniture acquired in 1887 stamping the move from the Rijksmuseum. The coin cabinets received as part of the Hoeufft bequest in 1843 remain, alongside a 'Royal' chair possibly from the late eighteenth century. Of the eleven paintings that predate the Rijksmuseum's departure, three still remain: a large 1648 family portrait of the Van Loon family by Dirck Metius, a copy after Rubens of Christ Washing the Feet, and a Mucius Scaevola by an unknown painter. The collection also encompasses drawn, painted, and sculpted portraits, as well as an extensive collection of medals and coins.

Among the most significant works once housed at the Trippenhuis were paintings commissioned from Ferdinand Bol: the Portrait of the Trip Sisters and Portrait of Johanna de Geer and her Children as Charity, both originally hung in the building. During the Rijksmuseum's residency from 1817 to 1885, Rembrandt's The Night Watch was displayed on the wall where the fireplace now stands in what became known as the Rembrandt Room, with Bartholomeus van der Helst's Militia Company Banquet on the opposite wall. The Staalmeesterzaal took its name from another Rembrandt, The Sampling Officials, which was exhibited there. The ceiling paintings by Nicolaes de Helt Stockade (1614-1669) in the great halls of both brothers' houses survive, their compartments referencing peace and the Trip family's wares. The pine floor of Hendrick Trip's great hall dates from the original construction period.

The Trippenhuis stands at Kloveniersburgwal 29, deliberately sited away from the fashionable canal belt so that the city hall on Dam Square was visible over the lower surrounding buildings, and from the city hall the Trip family house in Dordrecht could in turn be seen. Vingboons designed a facade with a colossal order of eight Corinthian pilasters in Bremen and Bentheim sandstone, one of Amsterdam's most impressive pilaster facades. A large triangular pediment rests on four pilasters, while the outer pairs project forward to create a palace-like character. The use of fluted Corinthian pilasters in a private residence was initially considered inappropriate for a civic dwelling. The facade is adorned with fruit garlands between the windows, olive and palm branches symbolizing peace in the center, and chimney stacks shaped like mortars or blast furnaces alluding to the source of the Trips' wealth. The tympanum bears the Trip family arms, three tripods, flanked by four cannon barrels and piles of cannonballs. The rear facade also carries a tympanum with the family arms and is one of the few canal houses with a monumental rear elevation. A planned small dome tower, similar to that on the city hall, was never executed, probably because it would have had to rest on the dividing wall between the two houses; the heavy timber structure prepared for it remains visible in the attics. In 1730 the right house was remodeled in Louis XIV style for Elisabeth van Loon, including a stucco corridor on the ground floor, while the left house retained more original features including ceiling decorations by Nicolaes de Helt Stockade. Architect Abraham van der Hart removed the dividing wall in 1815-1817 to create a large museum hall, reinstalled in 1855 to allow the Academy members to meet in peace. The Tinbergen Room, a new meeting room in the garden, became available from 1982.

The Trippenhuis is located on the Kloveniersburgwal in the Burgwallen Oude Zijde district of central Amsterdam. Since 1887 the entire building has been owned by the Dutch State through the Rijksvastgoedbedrijf. It serves as the permanent headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), which occupies the building together with The Young Academy and the Society of Arts. The Trippenhuis and adjacent canal-side mansions form the Trippenhuis complex, described as the heart of science, scholarship, and the arts in the Netherlands. The KNAW makes its premises available to organizations and events focused on science, art, technology, and education. The building is a rijksmonument (national monument, number 2975) and was listed in the Top 100 of the Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg in 1990.