
L'histoire
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 œuvres
OliveraieVincent van Gogh, 1889
Le ClownPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1868
Le Bon Samaritain (d'après Delacroix)Vincent van Gogh, 1890
Tisserand au métier à tisserVincent van Gogh, 1884
Paysage d'automne avec quatre arbresVincent van Gogh, 1885
Marronniers en fleursVincent van Gogh, 1890
Composition en ligne, deuxième étatPiet Mondrian, 1916
Lisière d'un boisVincent van Gogh, 1882
Champ de blé clos, soleil levantVincent van Gogh, 1889
Bout de la jetée à HonfleurGeorges Seurat, 1886
Femme de pêcheur sur la plageVincent van Gogh, 1882
Gordina de Groot, tête (F 141, JH 783)Vincent van Gogh, 1885
Meules en ProvenceVincent van Gogh, 1888
Tête de paysanneVincent van Gogh, 1885
Paysage avec gerbes de blé et lune montanteVincent van Gogh, 1889
Le Pont de Langlois à Arles avec des lessiveusesVincent van Gogh, 1888
Le Moulin de la GaletteVincent van Gogh, 1886
Les Alyscamps : la chute des feuilles d'automneVincent van Gogh, 1888
Pins au coucher du soleil (ciel rouge)Vincent van Gogh, 1889
Portrait d'un hommeVincent van Gogh, 1888
Nature morte : bouteille, citrons et orangesVincent van Gogh, 1888
Nature morte au panier de pommes et deux citrouillesVincent van Gogh, 1885
Nature morte à la cruche à barbeVincent van Gogh, 1885
Nature morte aux potsVincent van Gogh, 1884
Nature morte avec statuette en plâtre, une rose et deux romansVincent van Gogh, 1887