Two paintings by Willem de Kooning, Woman I (1950-1952) and Woman and Bicycle (1952-1953), will hang in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour from Friday 9 October 2026 to 17 January 2027.
They get their own cabinet right next to Rembrandt’s Night Watch.
Museum director Taco Dibbits says the Dutch-born painter fits in well among the great Dutch masters who hang in the gallery.
An exhibition built around drawing
The two paintings are an extra tribute alongside Willem de Kooning at work, an exhibition the museum is running over the same period.
It is the first large overview of De Kooning’s drawings to be shown in the Netherlands, together with some of his best-known paintings and sculptures.
More than 120 works trace his development over more than 65 years, with drawing as the central thread.
They include Pink Angels (around 1945), Itinerant Chapel (1951) and Woman (1983), lent by Museum Ludwig.
The exhibition was developed with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Willem de Kooning Foundation in New York, and it opens a hundred years after De Kooning left Rotterdam for a new life in New York.
If you are making a day of it, check out our guide to Museumplein.