
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
Compositie met raster 6: ruit, compositie met kleurenPiet Mondrian, 1919
Composition no.XIPiet Mondrian, 1913
Composition with color planes and gray lines 3Piet Mondrian, 1918
Deathbed portrait of Aristide 'Atiti' Suhas, died 5 March 1892, 1.5 years oldPaul Gauguin, 1892
Don Quixote and the Dead MuleHonoré Daumier, 1850
Farm in Duivendrecht at eveningPiet Mondrian, 1916
Farmstead on the Gein screened by tall trees: ultramarine sky with yellow ray of sunsetPiet Mondrian, 1907
Fishermen (Var)Henri-Edmond Cross, 1898
Flowers and blue vaseJames Ensor, 1909
Flowers in a Blue VaseVincent van Gogh, 1887
Mlle S. MantheyPaul Gauguin, 1884
Pierrot's despairJames Ensor, 1910
Ponte San Trovaso (Venice)Henri-Edmond Cross, 1902
Portrait of a ManÉdouard Manet, 1860
Portrait of Madame Jolicler, nee Lydie ChenozGustave Courbet
Portrieux, the lighthousePaul Signac, 1888
Soissons Seen from Mr. Henry's FactoryJean-Baptiste Camille Corot, 1833
Still life with a cabbageJames Ensor, 1921
Still Life with Blue JarJames Ensor, 1890
Tableau no 1Piet Mondrian, 1913
The BrickfieldAlfred Sisley, 1880
The edge of the forest (III)Paul Gauguin, 1885
The FightJames Ensor, 1925
The Rainbow, PontoiseCamille Pissarro, 1877
The Studio BoatClaude Monet, 1874