
The story
To reach this museum you cross a national park, often on one of the free white bicycles, riding through the heath and pine of the Hoge Veluwe. The forest was once the private estate of Anton and Helene Kröller-Müller, and the art inside is Helene's life's work. Between 1908 and 1929 she bought on an extraordinary scale, convinced that Vincent van Gogh was a great modern master before most of the world agreed, and she gathered nearly 90 of his paintings and more than 180 drawings.
That makes it the largest Van Gogh holding after the Van Gogh Museum, and here his work hangs in daylight and quiet, from sombre early Dutch heads to the blazing Café Terrace at Night, painted in Arles. Helene gave her collection and the estate to the Dutch state, and the museum, designed by the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde, opened in 1938, low and horizontal so the rooms open onto the woods.
The other half of a visit is outside. The sculpture garden, laid out from 1961, spreads over around 30 hectares of lawn and forest and is one of the largest in Europe, with works by Rodin, Barbara Hepworth, Jean Dubuffet and Claes Oldenburg set among the trees. A giant trowel driven into the grass and a mirrored maze turn the walk between them into part of the art.
Collection
60 works
Café Terrace at NightVincent van Gogh, 1888
At Eternity's GateVincent van Gogh, 1890
Road with Cypress and StarVincent van Gogh, 1890
Le ChahutGeorges Seurat, 1889
Girl in a WoodVincent van Gogh, 1882
Still Life with Straw HatVincent van Gogh, 1885
A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-PaulVincent van Gogh, 1889
Cart with Red and White OxVincent van Gogh, 1884
The CyclopsOdilon Redon, 1914
A Lane in the Public Garden at ArlesVincent van Gogh, 1888
Avenue of Poplars at SunsetVincent van Gogh, 1884
Composition 10 in Black and WhitePiet Mondrian, 1915
Willows at SunsetVincent van Gogh, 1888
Corner of the harbour, HonfleurGeorges Seurat, 1886
Cypresses with two figuresVincent van Gogh, 1889
Portrait of Paul-Eugène Milliet, Second Lieutenant of the ZouavesVincent van Gogh, 1888
Still life with a plate of onionsVincent van Gogh, 1889
Sunday at Port-en-BessinGeorges Seurat, 1888
The Gravelines Channel, towards the seaGeorges Seurat, 1890
The Sower (Sower at Sunset)Vincent van Gogh, 1888
View to Saintes-Maries-de-la-MerVincent van Gogh, 1888
BreakfastPaul Signac, 1886
Flowering meadow with trees and dandelionsVincent van Gogh, 1890
Flowering peach treeVincent van Gogh, 1888
Joseph RoulinVincent van Gogh, 1889