Willet-Holthuysen House: A historic upper class Amsterdam canal house museum

The Willet-Holthuysen House was built between 1685 and 1690 and, over the years, was home to more than 20 different Amsterdam families.  The last owners were Abraham and Louisa Willet-Holthuysen, wealthy art collectors.  Upon her death in 1895, Louisa  bequeathed the house and its contents to the city of Amsterdam for use as a museum.  Today, as part of the Amsterdam Museum, Willet-Holthuysen House shows how the couple and their staff lived and exhibits a selection of antique glassware, silver, ceramics, sculptures, paintings, and rare books once owned by Abraham and Louisa.

Photos taken 29 April 2026

A canal sightseeing boat passes the Willet-Holthuysen House, as seen from the south side of the Herengracht (Gentlemen's Canal), near its junction with the Amstel river.

Visitors enter the impressive 17th century canal house through the door under the front stairs.

In the basement, a small room at the rear is now used to display a five-minute orientation film on Willet-Holthuysen House.  Each of the families that lived in the house between 1690 and 1895 left their own mark on it, as did the curators who managed the building from 1895.  As such, the interior reflects a range of styles but is dominated by the Willet-Holthuysens' lavish redecoration in neo-Louis XVI fashion.      

The house's garden was originally much smaller, as part of the space was consumed by the coach house and stables for the horses.  These buildings were destroyed by fire in 1929 and, instead of rebuilding them, the house's curators decided to redesign the garden in the early 18th century style of French architect Daniel Marot.

One of several Classical-style sculptures displayed in the garden, which features linear paths of crushed gravel and carefully pruned hedges and trees.

The present formal, French-style city garden was laid out in 1972.  When Abraham and Louisa Willet-Holthuysen lived in the house, there was a clock on the exterior side wall that was used to warn the coachman that the couple wished to go out for a ride.  The horses would then be harnessed to the carriage in the coach house, which exited onto the street behind the garden, and driven around to the front of the house on Herengracht.

The Willet-Holthuysen House's garden, a quiet oasis of tranquility in the midst of bustling Amsterdam.

The kitchen, located in the house's basement, which was used almost exclusively by domestic staff in the past.  The current kitchen is not the original and is instead an attempt to reconstruct a kitchen from circa 1800.  This kitchen was initially installed at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum alongside other interiors taken from demolished canal houses.  Wishing to turn the Stedelijk Museum into a contemporary art museum, its director in the 1960s (who also was in charge of the Willet-Holthuysen House) had parts of the historic interiors moved to this kitchen.

The kitchen counter looks out into the back garden.  The various objects displayed in the kitchen are from the collection of Sophia Lopez Suasso-de Bruijn, a prominent Amsterdam collector who left her enormous art collection to the city of Amsterdam.

Over the course of the 29 years that the house was occupied by the Willet-Holthuysens, 79 members of staff were employed, comprising 56 women and 23 men.  They served in a variety of roles, such as maidservants, manservants, cooks and cook's assistants, lady's maids, lady's companions, caretakers, linen keepers, waiters, office clerks, nannies, and housekeepers.

Looking down the hallway on the principal floor, or bel-etage, towards the house's front door.  All of the rooms on this floor had a representative function and guests has to pass through a stately, impressive staircase to reach them.  The ceilings on the principal floor are higher and the furnishings more luxurious than in the basement below or the private floors above.  This floor also best reflects the stylistic tastes of Abraham and Louisa Willet-Holthuysen.  When they moved into the house in 1861, Abraham and Louisa had many of the rooms redecorated in the 19th century neo-Louis XVI style, named after the French monarch who made these types of interiors famous.  Typical design elements of neo-Louis XVI style include crossed torches and quivers of arrows, floral bouquets in baskets, flower wreaths, elegant ribbons, and turtle doves.  Abraham and Louisa commissioned many artists and decorators to align the various rooms' interiors with the contemporary fashion of the era.

The side room was long known as the 'Gentlemen's Room', based on the assumption that it was here that Abraham showed off his art collection to friends.  Given Louisa's previously underappreciated role in assembling the couple's art collection, this is no longer certain.  In fact, it was Louisa who gave Abraham an allowance for art purchases, thereby financing the entire collection, while she also personally made art purchases.  The side room features a ceiling painting, entitled 'Dawn', by Jacob de Wit from 1744.  Like the kitchen, the side room is not original, but rather a 1980 reconstruction of an 18th century salon, including the wall upholstery, fireplace, and ceiling.  The cupboards, chairs, and tables in the room are from Abraham and Louisa's collection, however.

The drawing room was used to host guests for tea.  Today, it houses a small part of Abraham and Louisa's art collection, including paintings, porcelain, glassware, and silverware.  The rug on the floor also dates back to the time of the Willet-Holthuysens.  Although this art collection was long regarded as Abraham's, Louisa also had an important role in compiling the items.

A closer look at some of the furnishings and art in the drawing room, including an ornate drop-down secretary's desk used for writing correspondence.

The entry to the grand salon from the drawing room.

The grand salon was the heart of the house, the most important room, where guests were received and entertained with concerts, lectures, and masquerade balls.  The Willet-Holthuysens imported the neo-Louis XVI style furniture, chandelier, and wall upholstery from France at a cost of more than €70,000 in today's currency.

Some of Abraham and Louisa's extensive collection of ceramics, including dishes with floral and rooster motifs on the upper shelf and dishes with Oriental-motifs on the lower shelf.

More items from Abraham and Louisa's ceramics collection, featuring exotic Oriental motifs.

Looking down the hallway towards the rear of the house.  Abraham and Louisa favoured the 18th century royal French style of art and architecture and commissioned French artist Paul Colin to paint the wall panels in this hallway.  The panels are partially based on the paintings of 18th century French masters Wattau and Fragonard.  Colin sketched copies of these paintings during visits to the Louvre and other galleries so that he could mimic them on the wall panels here.  The romantic scenes of picnics on grassy lawns and a girl on a swing would have contrasted with the often cold and grey weather of Amsterdam. 

The dining room, which could accommodate lavish meals for six people.  Larger dinner parties were held in a different room.  The dining room ceiling is much lower than elsewhere on this floor due to a pantry that was built above the dining room in the 18th century.

The dining room table is laid out with Meissen tableware, consisting of an enormous collection of 275 pieces to serve up to 24 guests.  Abraham and Louisa assembled a large collection of antique glassware, porcelain, and ceramic objects during their lives, but only a small portion of this collection was actually used for entertaining.  The more special items were considered works of art and only exhibited in display cabinets.

The garden room at the back of the house, with views over the garden.  Abraham and Louisa had the room decorated in a botanical theme and, in the past, the entire ceiling was covered in a painted floral motif.  Restorers working on the room have been able to uncover a small fragment of the original finish.  The walls of the garden room and some other rooms were painted plain white in the 1960s, as the museum's management wished to be able to use them for small presentations of the Willet-Holthuysen art collection and artworks from other municipal museums.

The 19th century chandelier hanging in the garden room.  Made by the Meissen porcelain factory in Germany, the chandelier was likely purchased by the Willet-Holthuysens especially for this room.  The chandelier recently underwent a two-year restoration. 

The view of the house's 18th century French-style city garden from the garden room.

The impressive stairwell leads up from the principal floor to the upper floor, where Abraham and Louisa's private rooms are located.

Lighted by a large overhead skylight, the stairwell was remodelled by the Deutz family when they lived in the house in the 1740s.  The remodelling included the installation of Italian marble walls, gilding of the banisters, and the addition of three marble statues.

The view from the stairwell landing between the principal floor and the upper floor.  The remodelling of this stairwell in the 1740s was a major and expensive contribution to the interior of the house.  The Deutz family, then living in the house, earned part of its wealth from its investments in plantations in Suriname, as well as the importation of coffee and sugar to the Netherlands.

These three marble statues were specially ordered for the niches on the walls of the staircase.  Together, the statues depict the Greek myth of 'The Judgment of Paris'.  The myth recounts how the Trojan prince Paris was chosen to judge which of three Olympian goddesses (Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite) was the fairest.  The three goddesses each offered a different bribe to Paris, with Hera offering power, Athena offering wisdom, and Aphrodite offering the love of Helen of Sparta, the most beautiful mortal.  Paris selected Aphrodite and, in return, took Helen to Troy, thereby triggering the Trojan War.

The upper floor hallway, looking toward the rear of the house.  This floor was where the many families who lived in the house over the years had their bedrooms and other private rooms.  In 1929, the University of Amsterdam established the Kunsthistorisch Instituut (Institute for Art History) on this floor.  After the Institute moved to a different location in 1950, the floor was used to host dozens of exhibitions of applied art.  Only at the end of the 20th century were some of the rooms on this floor restored to their appearance when the Willet-Holthuysens lived here.  Curators believe that in addition to their shared bedroom, Abraham and Louisa each had their own private rooms on this floor, though only Abraham's rooms have yet been restored.

The pantry, added to the house in the 18th century, was used a storage room.  Its construction required the ceiling of the dining room below to be lowered.  During the Second World War, it is likely that the pantry was used by people in hiding, who could have hidden themselves behind the many things stored in this space at the time.  Today, the pantry displays dishes, crockery, kettles, and other kitchen implements.

Abraham's study displays part of the Willet-Holthuysens' large and valuable book collection, which was the main reason for the city of Amsterdam to accept Louisa's bequest of the house and its contents in 1895.  Courtesy of various estate inventories, it is known exactly which books were kept in the study at the time.  The study's window looks out over the garden.

Another view of the study, decorated with a large Oriental rug, paintings, and a Classical marble bust.

Across the hall from the study is Abraham and Louisa's bedroom, as confirmed by the estate inventory prepared in 1895.  It was also likely used as a bedroom by previous owners of the house.  When Abraham and Louisa lived here, this room looked very different, with cream white bedroom furniture which was auctioned off by the first curator of the Willet-Holthuysen House.

Another view of the bedroom, with a window looking out over the garden.  The restoration of the bedroom gives an impression of what it might have looked like in the later 19th century, using furniture from the same time period.  There are no diaries or letters to offer insight into Abraham and Louisa's relationship; although the house's first curator wrote a book on the couple which portrayed their marriage as an unhappy one, there is no proof to substantiate this assertion. 

The antiques room at the rear of the house was restored to its appearance during the era of the Willet-Holthuysens using a few surviving fragments of rug and wall upholstery.  Despite their love of French style, Abraham and Louisa decorate this room in the Dutch Renaissance Revival style, which emulates the art and architecture of the 17th century.

A large cabinet in Louisa's boudoir displays part of a 166-piece dinner service manufactured by the Royal Porcelain Factory Dommer & Co. and donated to Willet-Holthuysen House by the Kruijff family in 2025.  The factory was once located on the Amstel, where the Amsterdam neighbourhood De Pijp is today.  The porcelain is presumed to be French and was painted in Amsterdam with numerous different city and village scenes.  The Kruijff family, cultivators of flower bulbs in the southern Dutch city of Sassenheim, used the dinner service for more than 150 years.  The dinner service was kept at an estate called Het Oude Koningshuys (The Old Royal House), which was once owned by the the Willet family.

Louisa Willet-Holthuysen's former boudoir, at the front of the house.  This room has not yet been restored to its original appearance when Abraham and Louisa lived in the house and and is currently used for exhibitions of contemporary artists and collectors. 

Hanging in Louisa's former boudoir is a 1674 painting attributed to Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677), entitled 'The Chief Commissioners of the Wharves'.  The Chief Commissioners of the Wharves supervised the management of Amsterdam's ports, wharves, and cranes.  Old and new wharves, inland ports bordering the IJ river, served as mooring places for ships.  The commissioners depicted in this painting were part of the city administration and played a vital role in Amsterdam's logistics, trade, and infrastructure from the 1800s onward.  Their authority extended to the harbour master, the so-called quay knights, and the boom closers responsible for the actual supervision.

A framed oil painting of Willet-Holthuysen House in the 19th century, now hanging in Louisa Willet-Holthuysen's former boudoir.

A final look at the front of Willet-Holthuysen House museum on Herengracht.