Mauritshuis to host ‘Grand Tour’ exhibition with masterpieces from Britain's stately homes
- maxwell museums
- Jul 13
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 4
The Mauritshuis museum in the Hague is to host an exhibition on the Grand Tour, a long-lost but very British travel trend.
Opening in September 2025, The Grand Tour: Destination Italy will focus on the extensive travels across Europe — usually with Italy as the final desired destination — that young English aristocrats embarked on in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Like the gap years of today, they marked the end of their formal education. However they often lasted many years, and involved learning extensively about art, architecture and culture as part of the trip. Grand tourists would also collect artworks and artefacts for their stately homes back home along the way.
For this new show — which is one of the Hague's most exciting upcoming exhibitions — curators at the Mauritshus have secured an astonishing group of artworks which were collected on grand tours and shipped back to three of the UK’s most esteemed stately homes: Burghley House, Holkham Hall and Woburn Abbey.
Major highlights include two grand Venetian cityscapes by Canaletto (on loan from Woburn Abbey) and which have never been seen in the Netherlands before.
Highlights from Burghley House, Holkham Hall and Woburn Abbey
The three stately homes lending artworks to the Mauritshuis exhibition are some of the most spectacular historical buildings in Britain. And because of their deep connections to grand tours, they also feature world-class art collections. Here are the highlights of what's coming to the famous Hague museum.
Burghley House
This Tudor-era country house and estate in Stamford in Lincolnshire is considered one of the most magnificent houses of the Elizabethan Age. Built by Sir William Cecil from 1555–87, it's still owned and run by his descendants today.
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For the Mauritshuis, visitors will learn about the tours of John Cecil, the 5th Earl of Exeter, and Brownlow Cecil, the 9th Earl. In the 17th century John and his wife made four tours of Europe, collecting artworks, furniture and tapestries. A selection of these will travel to the Hague, as will a magnificent portrait of Brownlow by the great Angelica Kauffman which was commissioned while he was in Naples on his first tour in 1764.
Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire is the historic seat of the Dukes of Bedford. It was originally a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1145 and dissolved by Henry VIII. Rebuilt as a stately home in the 17th century, it's famous for its art collection and huge landscaped park.
Canaletto features significantly in the Abbey’s collection. The 4th Duke of Bedford visited Venice on his Grand Tour in 1730-1731, and he wanted a permanent memento to take home with him. So he turned to Canaletto, the city’s leading painter. The Duke ended up commissioning 24 pictures from the artist. Two will travel to the Mauritius, their very first time on Dutch soil.
Holkham Hall
One of England’s finest Palladian houses, Holkham Hall in Norfolk was built in the 18th century by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. Coke was was just fifteen when he embarked on his six-year Grand Tour from 1712. He travelled with a clear goal in mind: to collect art for the future Holkham Hall. His travels to Italy also inspired what would become the Hall’s architecture.
The most significant artwork the Hall will loan to the exhibition is an impressive portrait of Coke’s great nephew Thomas William Coke, painted by Pompeo Batoni. It's a remarkable surviving example of an official ‘Grand Tour portrait,’ depicting the sitter with a Roman statue from the Vatican in the background.
Old Masters loaned to the Netherlands
The exhibition will provide an opportunity to display some of the great old master painters of Europe in a Dutch museum. That’s because public collections in the Netherlands contain very few foreign old masters, such as those from Italy or Britain. So with Canaletto, Pompeo Batoni and Angelica Kauffman paintings on show, it makes it one of the must-see 2025 exhibitions in the Netherlands.
Explaining the thinking behind the show, Mauritshuis curator Ariane van Suchtelen said “we’ve chosen works from three places that are seen as England’s great treasure houses. In the 18th century, their owners took the Grand Tour as young men who were coming of age, travelling from Britain to Italy. They built up art collections, especially linked to Roman antiquity.”
Staff at Holkham Hall are especially excited for the exhibition, as they have 17 items from the collection being loaned to the Hague — ranging from books, paintings and sculptures.
Head of Collections Maria de Peverelli said “Holkham is special in relation to other country houses, because the house and collection are intertwined.” She added that “very few things have been sold since they were acquired, so it’s how it was then. This is the perfect time capsule of the Grand Tour.”
The Grand Tour: Destination Italy runs at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, from 18 September 2025 until 04 January 2026.
More from the Hague: Ryan Gander’s bronze ballerinas at Museum Beelden aan Zee