Karin and Maarten always try to make my journeys to Den Haag about more than the music. This year we decided to go to the Panorama Mesdag in Den Haag and see the amazing artwork that is one of the few remaining of its kind in Europe.
After walking through a gallery of Mesdag and his wife’s beautiful paintings, we walked up the spiral staircase to the panorama.
This has to be seen to be believed. As you stand in the middle of the purpose built home for this visual wonder, you look out over the real sand of a false beach (long enough to hide the bottom of the painting ) to a 14 metres high, 120 metres in circumference painting of Scheveningen as it was in 1880-81.
The amazing local Artist Hendrik Willem Mesdag and his wife Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, with other artists like Breitner, De Bock and Blommers spent 4 months working on the canvas, at times in situ on scaffolding.
The canopy has been carefully constructed to hide the top of the painting and to let the natural light in, so that the landscape changes with the light of the sky outside.
As I stood by the railings and looked around, I felt myself transported back to those times. One of the scenes showed an old church and lighthouse, and Karen and Maarten suggested that we go and visit the actual place – only a tram ride away.
Walking down Keizer Straat towards the church I was so busy taking photos that as I stepped back, I did not notice a table leg and felt myself falling. My son, Sid, is an avid offroad motorbike rider and, as I dropped so slowly towards the paving stones I heard his voice in my head say “Roll” and a split second before I landed, I relaxed and rolled.
As I lay there, kind folks gathered round and next thing, I was on a chair with a man from the bar holding a glass of water. He smilingly asked if I’d like some vodka in that (I declined). I felt shaken, but able to get up a few moments later and as we walked away people asked if I was OK.
We found the church and then walked up to the beach where the sailor’s wife stands searching the waves for a returning vessel. Behind her you can see the same shoreline that Karin is pointing out above. I was told there are always flowers at her feet from locals and tourists alike.
The old lighthouse is still there and the beach still looks the same, even the colours of the sand and waves ! The foreshore is now filled with buildings, not sand dunes. It was a weird feeling to compare the two vistas and feel not a little nostalgia for a lost, simpler time.
Then back to reality, and the tram rides back to Karen’s house.
Thanks to Sid’s advice my rib cage was only badly bruised, very sore, and nothing broken, which was just as well as the concert was the next day – but that’s another story.
So you see, I really did fall for Scheveningen.
