cultural-heritage
Rijksmuseum API
The Dutch national museum's collection online, with object metadata and high-resolution images. You search the collection on the museum's website; an API is available with a free key. A primary source when researching Dutch art and history or looking for high-quality images of the museum's objects.
No programmatic check, opens the archive’s own search.
Why it’s useful & how it works
The Rijksmuseum collection online is the primary digital destination for Dutch art and history: it holds the definitive institutional records for Rembrandt, Vermeer, and their contemporaries alongside a broad range of Dutch historical objects. You search by keyword, artist, material, or period on the museum's website, and most records include very high-resolution images. Echo links you to the search interface, and a free API key is available for more structured access.
What’s inside
Over 800,000 artworks and objects available online with high-resolution imagery, drawn from a total physical collection of around one million objects spanning 1200 to 2000.
API access
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/api/ (free key)
An API key is required (usually free); see the endpoints above for where to get one.
What we measured
Our own probes, not the archive’s own claims. Re-run periodically; every reading below is dated.
Reachability
- Direct request
- Responded HTTP 200 694 ms
- Through a datacenter proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 3.7 s
- API, direct
- Responded HTTP 200 564 ms
- API, through a proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 2.1 s
Reachability measured 2026-08-22.
Access
Freely reachable, no key, login, or captcha.