Shell Sponsors Mauritshuis

The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis and Shell Nederland B.V. officially confirmed a unique partnership on 22 February. The energy company committed a sum of € 3 million, thereby becoming the Mauritshuis’s founder for a six-year period.

The Mauritshuis has now achieved its minimum funding target and has its financing in place to start the scheduled new building and expansion work. In addition, the two parties will launch a joint research project on the work of Jan Steen, for which Shell will provide both the researchers and the equipment. 

Over the coming two years the Mauritshuis will be undertaking the large-scale expansion and renovation of its premises. Shell will be funding a substantial share of this project, thereby becoming the museum’s partner.

The Mauritshuis was built in the 17th century by Johan Maurits, who was the governer-general of Dutch - Brazil between 1636-1643. Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen founded the city of Recife in the Northeast of Brazil, and called it Mauritsstad. He created a parliament, claimed religious freedom and stimulated sugar cane production. He was fascinated by the Brazilian landscape, inhabitants, flora and fauna, which he documented through artists such as Frans Post and Albert Eckhout. He encouraged scientific research in the area on things like flora, fauna and geology, which was described in Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. Moreover, he organized expeditions to the jungle, at which scientists looked for useful medication. In the spring of 1643 the situation changed in Brazil and Maurits lost his power and had  to withdraw from Dutch Brazil. 

The Mauritshuis houses, among other works from the Dutch Golden Age, the documentation of this period in Dutch-Brazil.

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Geschiedenis van het Mauritshuis in Den Haag

Shell Sponsors Mauritshuis Expansion