
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
Snow at Berchem-Sainte-AgatheWilliam Degouve de Nuncques, 1912
Squatting WomanAuguste Rodin, 1882
Still LifePieter van den Bosch, 1655
Still Life in a CupboardAnonymous, 1538
Still life (primroses, pears and pomegranates)Henri Fantin-Latour, 1866
Still Life with BottlesFloris Verster, 1892
Still Life with LampJuan Gris, 1919
Still Life with Oil LampJuan Gris, 1912
The Blind HouseWilliam Degouve de Nuncques, 1892
The BrideJan Thorn Prikker, 1892
The Connoisseur of Prints (Dr. Aegidius Timmermann)Jan Toorop, 1900
The Nets, HonfleurFélix Vallotton, 1912
The 'Per-Kiridy' at high tide, 1889Théo van Rysselberghe, 1889
The SeaJan Toorop, 1899
The SeductionJan Toorop, 1886
The SmokerJan Steen, 1660
The Thames near LondonWillem Witsen, 1900
The Three BridesJan Toorop, 1893
Transport of colonial soldiersIsaac Israëls, 1883
Two Apples in LeavesCharley Toorop, 1939
Two Boys (Eddy and John Fernhout)Charley Toorop, 1922
Two ChildrenCharley Toorop, 1915