Exhibitions

Thyssen-Bornemisza ❤️ Mauritshuis​

15 October 2026 – 17 January 2027

Het Meisje met de Parel van Johannes Vermeer en De jongen met tulband van Michiel Sweerts gecombineerd in een afbeelding

In autumn 2026, the Mauritshuis will present an extraordinary exhibition in collaboration with the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. In this unique exchange, the first-ever between the two museums, the Mauritshuis welcomes twenty-five masterpieces from the world-famous Spanish collection and, in turn, twenty-five gems from The Hague will go on show in Madrid.

The exhibition Thyssen-Bornemisza ❤️ Mauritshuis - Masterpieces from Madrid highlights a selection of exceptional art by world famous European artists: from Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer from the north to El Greco, Bronzino, Antonello da Messina and Piero della Francesca from the south, who are rarely on display together in the Netherlands.

It promises to be a Dutch-Spanish love affair you will never forget: Thyssen-Bornemisza ❤️ Mauritshuis - Masterpieces from Madrid.

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A love story between two museums

The Mauritshuis and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza are in love and want to shout it from the rooftops! Both museums are simultaneously exchanging 25 masterpieces with one another. The exhibition celebrates the enduring relationship between the two museums, hence the theme of love. Intangible though love is, it’s a universal feeling. And, like us, the people in the paintings experience the spectrum of emotion: from falling in love to the joy of connection, recognition and intimacy. But love is also full of contradictions: the pain of longing, and the sorrow of loss or forbidden intimacy. The paintings may date from the 15th and 16th centuries, but these emotions are timeless.

Based on blind trust and an intense shared love for these paintings, both museums have selected the finest works from each other’s collections. And love is the invisible thread that binds these works together.

For the time being, the full list of highlights is a secret, but on this page we’ll give you a sneak peek.

Highlights

Op dit schilderij van El Greco wordt Maria bezocht door een engel. Hoog in de wolken speelt een orkest van engelen muziek.
El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), The Annunciation, c. 1596-1600 Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Een jonge man stelt Sint Sebastiaan voor. Zijn bovenlichaam is ontkleed en hij heeft een rode mantol om zijn lijf gewikkeld. In zijn hand houdt hij een pijl vast. In zijn zij doorboort een pijl zijn lichaam.
Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano), Portrait of a young Man as Saint Sebastian, c. 1533, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Palma Vecchio (Jacopo Negretti), Portrait of a Young Woman Known as "La Bella", c. 1518–20 Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Een diptiek van Jan van Eyck. Het linkerpaneel stelt een marmeren beeld van een engel voor. Op het rechterpaneel staat een marmeren beeld van maria, een marmeren duif vliegt haar tegemoet.
Jan van Eyck, The Annunciation Dyptich, c. 1433-1435 Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Piero della Francesca, Portrait of a Boy (Guidobaldo da Montefeltro?), c. 1483 Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Reunited...

..and it feels so good!

One of the 25 paintings shown as part of the museum’s permanent collection during the exhibition: Sebastiano del Piombo’s Portrait of Ferry Carondolet and his secretary.

In our painting, Apelles Painting Campaspe by Willem van Haecht, this portrait from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection can be seen, rendered in minute detail, as one of the many paintings in a magnificent art collection. This is the first time these works have been shown together.

Love also plays the leading role in this Van Haecht painting: the love of art. While Apelles paints a portrait of Campaspe, the mistress of Alexander the Great, he falls in love with her. Alexander is so captivated by the painting that he exchanges his mistress for her portrait.

Willem van Haecht, Apelles schildert Campaspe, c. 1630
Een kamer vol schilderijen en standbeelden. Pal in het midden zien we het portret geschilderd door Del Piombo.
Willem van Haecht, Apelles Painting Campaspe, c. 1630 (detail) Mauritshuis
Op dit schilderij van Del Piombo staat Ferry Carondelet afgebeeld. Hij draagt een luxueuze mantel met grote bonten mouwen. Hij houdt papieren vast. Naast hem schrijft een andere man een document.
Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani), Portrait of Ferry Carondelet with his Secretaries, c. 1510 – 1512 Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Michael Sweerts’ Boy with a Turban from Madrid and Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring are another stunning pair. Sharing a similar colour palette and composition, they form a truly dynamic duo.

Even though these works won’t be displayed as a pair, they will strike up a conversation in their own unique way.

Twee wereldberoemde schilderen op één afbeelding: Jongen met een Tulband van Michiel Sweerts en Meisje met de parel van Johannes Vermeer.

About Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Home to an outstanding collection of European art spanning seven centuries, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid is one of Spain’s most esteemed art museums. The foundations of the collection were laid by the industrial magnate and art collector Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and later expanded by his son Hans Heinrich.

In 1993, the collection was acquired by the Spanish state and the museum opened its doors in the Palacio de Villahermosa, an elegant 18th-century palace in the heart of Madrid.

Vooraanzicht van Thyssen-Bornemisza

About the exchange

The works from Madrid will soon be on display in our exhibition hall. In the lead-up to the exhibition, the twenty-five works from the Mauritshuis will temporarily be removed from view. This includes Johannes Vermeer’s View of Delft and Frans Hals’s Laughing Boy.
However, this also presents a unique opportunity: Utilizing the newly available space, our curators will bring several lesser-known works from the storage depot into the spotlight.
Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, c. 1660-1661

Publication

To coincide with the exhibitions at the Mauritshuis and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the publication Thyssen-Bornemisza & Mauritshuis: A love story between two museums is being released.
For this book, the museums invited ten Spanish and ten Dutch authors to write about the paintings from both collections. Inspired by the beauty of the artworks, and drawing on their own perspectives and backgrounds, their starting point was love in all its forms: from love between people and love of nature, to love of art itself. The publication is made possible in part by the Mercura Fund.

Made possible by:

The exhibition Thyssen-Bornemisza ❤️ Mauritshuis - Masterpieces from Madrid is made possible with the support of Nationale-Nederlanden, the VriendenLoterij, the Friends of the Mauritshuis Foundation, the Johan Maurits Compagnie Foundation, the Blockbuster Fund and the Turing Foundation.