The Road Goes Ever On: Kroller Muller Museum 1

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Kroller Muller Museum 1

Ohne die Umlaute. We have seen our share of great "individual" museums--collections of one person or perhaps a family, then donated to the state or otherwise made public: the Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, the Wallace Collection in London, the Rockox House or the Mayer van der Bergh in Antwerp. The Kroller Muller, near Otterlo, Netherlands, certainly ranks with these, particularly for its post-Impressionist works.

Helena Kroller-Muller, daughter of a wealthy German industrialist and married to an equally wealthy Dutch industrialist, was perhaps the first female art collector of means--incredible means--and she used her wealth to amass one of Europe's great collections. Some 12,000 items. She and her husband Anton Kroller donated it all eventually to the Netherlands in 1935. Part of the donation was the land they had purchased, some thousands of acres, to become a national park, housing the collection and museum. It is all now in the Hoge Veluwe National Park, near Otterlo. She was perhaps the first collector to realize the importance of Van Gogh, and the Kroller Muller contains more works by Vincent than any other museum...except the one in Amsterdam. If you love Van Gogh, you have to see this place! First, I'll post a few non-Vincent pix, then will post a selection of the incredible Van Goghs in this collection.

It is first of all a national park, in Netherlands, and here is one lot of the 1700
free bicycles (each with a kiddie seat) provided for visitors (we tried: Vicki
gave up, unscathed; I persisted, not unscathed)(my Mal de Debarquement issues)

Entrance to museum

Characteristically unpretentious

We always head for the gift-store first; I was comforted by
the presence of Unemployed Philosophers' Guild dolls--but
there was no Vincent with the removable velcro ear!