Art-loving Duchess of Cambridge visits Dutch museum

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The art-loving Duchess of Cambridge is visiting a Dutch museum that is hosting a temporary exhibition of Old Master paintings that may well look familiar.

The former Kate Middleton started her first solo overseas trip by visiting Dutch King Willem-Alexander in his mansion in wooded countryside just outside The Hague on Tuesday before touring the Mauritshuis museum, which is staging an exhibition of art on loan from the British Royal Collection.

The highlight of the visiting exhibition is Johannes Vermeer’s “The Music Lesson,” but the duchess also toured the museum’s permanent collection, which includes perhaps Vermeer’s best-known work, “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” and “The Goldfinch” by Carel Fabritius.

Several hundred people lining the street outside the museum next to the Dutch Parliament cheered as the duchess arrived.