
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
Olive GroveVincent van Gogh, 1889
The ClownPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1868
The Good SamaritanVincent van Gogh, 1890
Weaver at the LoomVincent van Gogh, 1884
Autumn Landscape with Four TreesVincent van Gogh, 1885
Blossoming chestnut treesVincent van Gogh, 1890
Composition in line, second statePiet Mondrian, 1916
Edge of a WoodVincent van Gogh, 1882
Enclosed Wheat Field with Rising SunVincent van Gogh, 1889
End of the pier, HonfleurGeorges Seurat, 1886
Fisherman's Wife on the BeachVincent van Gogh, 1882
Gordina de Groot, Head (F 141, JH 783)Vincent van Gogh, 1885
Haystacks in ProvenceVincent van Gogh, 1888
Head of a Peasant WomanVincent van Gogh, 1885
Landscape with wheat sheaves and rising moonVincent van Gogh, 1889
Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, TheVincent van Gogh, 1888
Le Moulin de la GaletteVincent van Gogh, 1886
Les Alyscamps: Falling Autumn LeavesVincent van Gogh, 1888
Pine Trees against a Red Sky with Setting SunVincent van Gogh, 1889
Portrait of a manVincent van Gogh, 1888
Still Life: Bottle, Lemons and OrangesVincent van Gogh, 1888
Still Life with a Basket of Apples and Two PumpkinsVincent van Gogh, 1885
Still life with a Bearded-Man JarVincent van Gogh, 1885
Still Life with JarsVincent van Gogh, 1884
Still Life with Plaster Statuette, a Rose and Two NovelsVincent van Gogh, 1887