The Museum Rijswijk is housed in an imposing mansion in the heart of old Rijswijk. The property dates from about 1790 in its present form but was originally built on the ruins of a 17th century farmhouse. During the middle of the previous century the poet Hendrik Tollens (1780-1856) lived in the house. He was so famous that the house was named after him and to the present day Museum Rijswijk bears the nickname Het Tollenshuis (’The Tollens House’).

In 1994 an exhibition wing was built next to the Tollens House where temporary exhibitions are held. A completely new entrance hall connects the existing museum with the new exhibition rooms and provides access to the terrace at the rear of the museum and to the large garden containing numerous native plants.

Part of Museum Rijswijk’s collection is exhibited in the Tollens House. From the entrance hall, via a stone staircase, visitors first enter the 17th century cellar where some of Rijswijk’s excavated artefacts are displayed. Visitors then ascend to the 18th century hall which leads to the Tollens room. This room contains mementos of the poet Hendrik Tollens (1780-1856). Besides his literary work, represented by numerous publications, there are various personal possessions of the poet onview.

Across the hall, the drawing room still retains its original panelling and plaster decorations from 1790. Abraham Calissendorff’s (1854-1898) commanding church interior hangs here and is popularly termed 'The Night Watch of Rijswijk'.Various interiors and still lifes by Rijswijk artists, such as Willem Carel Nakken (1835-1926) and Wijnand Bastiaan van Horssen (1863-1931), complete the picture of painters who were working in Rijswijk around the turn of the century.

In the large room on the first floor objects relating to the Treaty of Rijswijk are exhibited. The negotiations for this settlement, signed in 1697, took place in Huis ter Nieuwburg (House at Nieuwburg), one of the palaces of the stadholder Frederik Hendrik. The collection includes engravings, medals and treaty documents commemorating this event that took place in 1697. The House at Nieuwburg was also a favourite subject for artists in the 17th century. Two views of the palace by Anthonie Jansz van der Croos (c.1606-c.1664) are owned by the museum and the only known 17th century view of Rijswijk by Jacob van der Croos (c.1630-p.1683) can also be seen here. However more views of Rijswijk and its environs from the 18th and 19th centuries have survived andworks by Jan te Compe (1713-1761), Bartholomeus van Hove (1790-1880) and Charles Rochussen (1814-1894), among others, give a picture of the then still rurally situated village of Rijswijk with the surrounding country estates.
In the two smaller upper rooms works by artists who were members of the Verenigde Rijswijkse Kunstenaars (United Rijswijk Artists), such as Carel Nakken (1835-1926), Frits Mondriaan 1853-1932), Pieter de Regt (1877-1960), Otto Kriens (1873-1930) and Wijnand Bastiaan van Horssen (1863-1931), are exhibited.
Contemporary artists are represented by Hermanus Berserik, Kees Andreaand Karel Delfos. The museum also possesses a number of paper works of art by Peter Gentenaar and Patricia Gentenaar-Torley.

The Museum Rijswijk organizes about 10 temporary exhibitions annually. Highlights in the exhibition programming are the biannual exhibitions devoted to the painters of the Haagse School (the Hague School) or its contemporaries and the Holland Papier Biënnale (Holland Paper Biennial), which gives an insight into the developments in the field of modern (inter)national paper art.