It was the young museum's first exhibition space for paintings and could be entered through the Oval Room, which was itself located behind the Fundatiehuis, the former home of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst.

[1] The lack of light quickly made viewing the paintings there unpopular and it was used mostly for lectures and experiments.

According to the archives, the expansion was done by the foundation's own building crew that was on hand for day-to-day improvements.

An impression of the original windows can be seen in a charcoal sketch by Johan Conrad Greive in 1862.

One of the first large canvases to be purchased (1825) was Storm at sea, by the marine painter Johannes Christiaan Schotel.