The Kroller-Muller Museum is one of the finest museums in the Netherlands with a wide cross-section of modern European art from Impressionism to Cubism and beyond. It is located in the middle of the Hoge Veluwe National Park. Helene Kroller-Muller began to collect art almost a hundred years ago. She was attracted to the avant-garde art of her own time. She assembled a collection that provided a comprehensive picture of developments in the visual arts over the last 150 years. It is the Van Gogh collection that makes the museum world class. Helene reserved a special place within her collection for Vincent, collecting 180 drawings and 87 paintings by the Dutch master. A pretty good investment for 600 guilders a painting! They always intended to donate the collection to the Dutch people; we are lucky they did!
We saw an amazing collection of Van Gogh's works. His brushstrokes and colors were amazing. It is so nice being right next to the painting and seeing the texture. Most paintings were behind glass but there really was no glare, so you could study the painting without dancing around the light. What a tortured (internally) life he had. The Potato Eaters is outstanding and dark - a rough, unsentimental painting of labourers from around his parent's home in Brabant. From February 1886 to early 1888, van Gogh lived in Paris, where he came into contact with the Impressionists, whose works convinced him of the importance of color. His penetrating Self-portrait is an example of his work from this period. The move to Arles in 1888 spurred Van Gogh to a frenzy of activity, inspired by the colours and light of the Mediterranean. The Haystacks in Provence is from this period. Mary and John decided Jim's drab office (here) needed a little color, so they got him a poster of this night scene.
I enjoyed seeing paintings by Charley Toorop and her father Jan Toorop, as well as Herpin. We also saw works by Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Mondrian, and Cezanne. I liked the Neo-Impressionists (pointillists) - Seurat, Signac, and Van Rijsselberghe.
Many museums have buggies (strollers) that you can borrow for little ones, so Eliot and Miles traded off riding. We had 2 but the one squeaked so bad that we had to make one boy get out! Squeaks and art museums just don't work. Eliot enjoyed looking at the art and finding surprises in various pieces. He enjoyed learning the names of the ones he liked. When Miles was done looking at art, I gave him an upside view of the museum. Anything to keep him occupied, even if only for 5 minutes!
posted by Whitney @ 9:40 AM
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