The Frans Hals Museum is at its most beautiful in spring, when every year the galleries and corridors are decorated with bouquets and flower arrangements! They are put together and cared for daily by the Society of Friends of The Frans Hals Museum | De Hallen Haarlem. This year the flowers will be even more splendid to mark the Society’s 25th Anniversary. Vases from the museum’s collection made by Jan van der Vaart, Ritsue Mishima, Bernard Heesen and others will be used for the displays.

This year there will also be a small exhibition entitled Tulip Mania, focusing on the madness caused by the passion for tulips that gripped collectors in the seventeenth century. Prices rocketed to unprecedented heights, even to the point where tulip bulbs were literally worth their weight in gold.

The highlight is the Tulpenboek (1643 – 1700) from the Frans Hals Museum’s collection, which will be on display for visitors to leaf through for the first time: a digital reproduction means that all the illustrations in this famous book can be viewed.