The Randstad is a roughly crescent- or arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that houses almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Netherlands' four biggest cities, their suburbs, and many towns in between, that all grew and merged into each other. Among other things, it includes the Port of Rotterdam, the Port of Amsterdam, and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. With a population of approximately 8.4 million people it is one of the largest metropolitan regions in Europe,[b] comparable in population size to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region or the San Francisco Bay Area, and covers an area of approximately 11,372 km2 (4,391 sq mi).[a] The Randstad had a gross regional domestic product of €510 billion in 2022, making it the second most productive region in the European Union, only behind the Paris metropolitan area. It encompasses both the Amsterdam metropolitan area and Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area. It is part of the larger Blue Banana megalopolis.
Gerard Nolst Trenité was a Dutch observer of English.
Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D) was a Dutch chain of department stores founded in 1887. It was declared bankrupt on 31 December 2015, although its branches were still in operation until 15 February 2016. On 16 February 2016, it was announced that takeover negotiations had not led to an agreement, ultimately resulting in the company's demise.
Maarten Krabbé was a Dutch painter and art educator.
Johannes Jacobus Willebrordus "Joost" Zwagerman was a Dutch writer, poet and essayist. Among his teachers was the novelist Oek de Jong.
Jacobus Ruurd "Jaap" Bruijn, was a Dutch maritime historian. He was professor of maritime history at the University of Leiden from 1979 until his retirement in 2003. During his 41-year teaching career as The Netherlands' only university professor of maritime history, he guided the doctoral theses of at least 49 graduate students.
Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël or Paul Gabriël was a painter, draftsman, watercolorist, and etcher who belonged to the Hague School.
Rijksstraatweg or simply Straatweg was the term for paved roads of interregional significance in the Netherlands in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These roads were built by the national government, and formed the country's first centrally planned highway network. They received route numbers, eventually resulting in a nationwide network of 82 highways. It formed the basis for today's system of nationally controlled roads, the Netherlands' main highway grid.
Ans Wortel was a Dutch painter, poet and writer. She made gouaches and oil paintings, aquarelles, drawings, collages, lithographs, etchings, sculptures and glass sculptures. She was an autodidact and won the first prize at the biennale of Paris in 1963. She was one of the leading female artists of postwar Dutch modern art. There are some 50 books with contributions from or about Wortel.
Jacobus Anthonie Meessen was a Dutch photographer who took more than 250 portraits and landscapes of the Dutch East Indies between 1864 and 1870. Born to a carpenter in Utrecht, Meessen worked in that trade in the Indies before marrying in the Netherlands in the early 1860s. He returned to the colony in 1864, intent on documenting its land and people. He worked mostly in the capital of Batavia, Java, and Padang, Sumatra; he also photographed Bangka, Belitung, Borneo, and Nias.
Berend Strik is a Dutch visual artist working and living in Amsterdam.
The Dutch Museum Association is an association of museums in the Netherlands. Over five hundred museums are affiliated with the association.
Bernardus Stefanus Henricus (Ben) Zegers is a Dutch visual artist, active as a sculptor and installation artist, and teacher and coordinator at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.
Jeroen Eisinga is a contemporary video artist from the Netherlands. His work is characterised by its performance like character and its plots where an ordeal is often central. Simplicity is of key importance to Eisinga. His work is shot on film and is shot on 16mm as well as on 35mm format film.
Eduard Siegfried"Eddy"de Jongh is a Dutch art historian specialized in iconography. He was professor of art history with a teaching assignment in iconography at Utrecht University between 1976 and 1989.
Eddy Posthuma de Boer was a Dutch photographer and photojournalist. He worked for a number of Dutch media and as a freelancer. Posthuma de Boer made portraits of writers, musicians, and ordinary people.
