Rijksmuseum Collection Scraper

Search and browse the Rijksmuseum's public online collection (rijksmuseum.nl) — the Dutch national museum's catalog of 800,000+ paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and decorative-art objects, including masterpieces like The Night Watch and The Milkmaid. No login, no API key, no paid proxy required.

What this actor does

• Four modes: search (artist/title/keyword), byObjectType (painting, print, furniture, etc.), byCentury (13th–21st century), byObjectNumber (direct lookup, e.g. SK-A-2344)
• Material and technique filters — narrow to e.g. oil paint on canvas, or etchings on paper
• Sort order and language — most popular or most relevant first; English or Dutch text fields
• On-display filter — only items currently exhibited in the museum
• Full curatorial detail on demand — optionally fetch each object's full detail page for description, materials, technique, credit line, acquisition history, provenance, related objects, and literature references
• High-resolution images via the museum's own Micrio image service
• Empty fields are omitted

Output per artwork

• objectNumber, objectUrl, linkedDataUri — identifiers and canonical links
• title, makerDisplay (maker + date, e.g. "Johannes Vermeer, c. 1660")
• century, physicalFeatures
• isOnDisplay, onDisplayLocation
• imageUrl, thumbnailUrl, highResImageUrl (when downloadable), imageWidth, imageHeight
• With fetchFullDetails: true, additionally:
  • description, objectTypes[], materials[], techniques[], dimensionsText[]
  • makerRole, dating, creditLine, acquisition, rightsText, provenance
  • relatedObjects[], documentation[] (literature/catalog references, when published)
• recordType: "artwork", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byObjectType / byCentury / byObjectNumber
searchQuery	string	Vermeer	Artist, title, or keyword
objectType	string	–	Painting, Print, Drawing, Photograph, Furniture, Chair, Vase, Costume, Jewellery, Map, Figure/sculpture, Plate, Letter, Page, Album leaf, Book illustration
century	string	–	13th–21st century
material	string	–	Paper, Photographic support, Pasteboard, Cardboard, Ink, Pencil, Oil paint, Canvas
technique	string	–	Etching, Engraving, Albumen print, Gelatin silver print, Pen, Lithography, Letterpress printing, Brush
sortingType	string	Popularity	Popularity (most popular first) or Relevance (most relevant first)
language	string	en	en or nl — language of returned text fields
objectNumbers	array	–	Object numbers for direct lookup (mode=byObjectNumber)
onDisplayOnly	bool	false	Only objects on display in the museum
hasImageOnly	bool	true	Only objects with a viewable image
fetchFullDetails	bool	false	Fetch each object's full detail page (slower, richer)
maxItems	int	20	Hard cap (1–500)

Example: search for a Dutch diacritic name

{ "mode": "search", "searchQuery": "Rembrandt van Rijn", "maxItems": 30 }

Example: browse 17th-century paintings on display

{ "mode": "search", "objectType": "painting", "century": "17", "onDisplayOnly": true }

Example: full curatorial detail for specific masterpieces

{
  "mode": "byObjectNumber",
  "objectNumbers": ["SK-A-2344", "SK-C-5"],
  "fetchFullDetails": true
}

Use cases

• Digital humanities & research — bulk metadata and images for a period, maker, or object type
• Museum data analysis — compare object types and centuries across the collection
• Education — high-resolution art images with full provenance for coursework
• Creative reuse — most Rijksmuseum objects are public-domain and free to reuse
• Trip planning — find what's currently on display before a visit

Data source / limitations

This actor reads the same public collection-search API (rijksmuseum.nl/api/v1/collection/search) and object-detail pages that power the museum's own website — no separate API key is required (unlike the older, deprecated api.rijksmuseum.nl key-gated API, which this actor intentionally does not use). Object type and century filters use the Rijksmuseum's own internal facet identifiers; the curated list in this actor covers the most common, reliably populated categories. fetchFullDetails requires one extra request per item, so leave it off for fast bulk listing and turn it on when you need full curatorial text.

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. This actor uses the same public endpoints the Rijksmuseum website itself calls.

Is the artwork data public domain? Most of the Rijksmuseum's digitized collection is in the public domain or released under Creative Commons; check the rightsText field (available with fetchFullDetails: true) for the specific work.

What's the difference between imageUrl and highResImageUrl? imageUrl is a ~1600px version suitable for most uses; highResImageUrl is the maximum resolution and is only included when the museum marks the image as downloadable.

Why is makerDisplay a single combined string? The museum's search listing combines maker name and date into one field. Set fetchFullDetails: true to get the maker's role (makerRole) and a clean dating field separately.

Can I look up a specific famous work? Yes — use mode=byObjectNumber with its object number, found on the object's Rijksmuseum page URL (e.g. SK-C-5 for The Night Watch).