
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
Head of a ManVincent van Gogh, 1885
Head of a Man with a PipeVincent van Gogh, 1885
Head of a WomanVincent van Gogh, 1885
Head of a WomanVincent van Gogh, 1885
Head of a WomanVincent van Gogh, 1885
Head of a WomanVincent van Gogh, 1885
Head of a Woman (KM 111.262)Vincent van Gogh, 1885
Interior of a restaurantVincent van Gogh, 1887
In the CaféPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1877
Landscape with three trees and housesVincent van Gogh, 1890
La Partie de cartesFernand Léger, 1917
"Les Alpilles", mountain-landscape at Saint-RémyVincent van Gogh, 1889
Les Peiroulets RavineVincent van Gogh, 1889
Little Arlesienne, TheVincent van Gogh, 1890
Man at TableVincent van Gogh, 1885
Nudes in the forestFernand Léger, 1910
Nude Woman RecliningVincent van Gogh, 1887
Olive Grove with Picking FiguresVincent van Gogh, 1889
Pasture in BloomVincent van Gogh, 1887
Peasants Planting PotatoesVincent van Gogh, 1884
Peasant Woman with White CapVincent van Gogh, 1885
Port-en-Bessin, The ValleyPaul Signac, 1884
Portrait of Guurtje Van de StadtClaude Monet, 1871
Portrieux, The jetty, grey weatherPaul Signac, 1888
Road leading to the lakePaul Cézanne, 1880