
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
284 works
Pegasus and the HydraOdilon Redon, 1907
Pipe and Fruit-Dish with GrapesJuan Gris, 1918
Pipe, Bowl and SpoonJuan Gris, 1920
Playing Cards and SiphonJuan Gris, 1916
Portrait of a GirlTheo van Doesburg, 1915
Portrait of Annie AllebéAugust Allebé, 1856
Portrait of a WomanAdolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli, 1871
Portrait of Constantin MeunierThéo van Rysselberghe, 1900
Portrait of Eva Callimachi-CatargiHenri Fantin-Latour, 1881
Portrait of Hendrika Troussard-Maris, sister of the painterMatthijs Maris, 1872
Portrait of H.P. BremmerBertha van Hasselt, 1921
Portrait of John the Steadfast, Elector of SaxonyLucas Cranach the Elder, 1526
Portrait of Joseph Antoine MonticelliAdolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli
Portrait of Margaretha von Mochau, Wife of Gerhard von WesterburgBartholomaeus Bruyn the Elder, 1524
Portrait of the Painter Lambertus LourijsenJan Toorop, 1911
Poultry near the ruins of a millAdolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli, 1872
Reclining NudeLeo Gestel, 1909
Reclining NudeIsaac Israëls, 1917
Sailing ships off the port of DordrechtJohan Jongkind, 1870
SeascapeTheo van Doesburg
Self-Portrait against PaletteCharley Toorop, 1934
Shell Fisherman on the BeachJan Toorop, 1891
Siphon and FruitdishJuan Gris, 1920
SkatersJan Toorop, 1885