Helene Kröller-Müller (1869-1939) was one of the most important private collectors in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. From 5 October 2024 to 11 May 2025, the Kröller-Müller Museum will be showing the exhibition Searching for Meaning with around 60 works by around 30 artists, including Vincent van Gogh, Johan Thorn Prikker, Jan Toorop, William Degouve de Nuncques, Odilon Redon, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Jan Sluyters, Charley Toorop and Piet Mondriaan, as well as sculptures by artists such as John Rädecker and Johan Coenraad Altorf.
Image above: Vincent van Gogh “Olivenhain”, Juni 1889, © Kröller-Müller Museum
In the exhibition, visitors can retrace Helene Kröller-Müller’s path and her encounters with artists and movements, philosophy and spirituality. Her aim was to turn the museum into a centre of spiritual life amidst the tranquillity of nature. Searching for Meaning is an exhibition that invites contemporary reflection on life and art. It offers a unique insight into the personality of the museum’s founder.
About Helene Kröller-Müller
As one of the wealthiest women in the Netherlands, Helene Kröller-Müller (1869-1939) became one of the most important private collectors in Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
Over the course of her life, she collected around 12,000 works of art, including 270 works by Vincent van Gogh – almost 90 paintings and more than 180 drawings, only the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam owns more. She was one of the first to acquire works by Mondrian, Picasso, Seurat and many other avant-garde artists of the early 20th century.
For a woman of her time, it was extraordinary to collect so many important works of art. She also followed the advice of art educator Henk Bremmer, with whom she shared the idea that “true” art conveys a mystical and spiritual experience. Thanks to Bremmer’s definition of art, Helene learnt to appreciate the work of Vincent van Gogh, who was relatively unknown at the time. She was convinced that this artist was “one of the great minds of modern art” and that his work would usher in a new development in art. In 1908, she bought her first Van Gogh: Edge of a Forest.
Helene, who was married to the Dutch businessman Anton Kröller and came from a very wealthy German family herself, soon dreamed of making her collection accessible to everyone and she asked Henry van de Velde to build the “House of Culture”. In 1938, the Kröller-Müller Museum was opened in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Central Holland.
The story of Helene Kröller-Müller and her search for meaning has never been told in an exhibition before. This exhibition offers a unique insight into the personality of the museum’s founder, who was one of the most innovative visionaries of a modern, international world.
WHEN?
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 5. October 2024 to Sunday, 11 May 2025
Opening times:
Tuesday to Sunday and holidays from 10 am – 5 pm
Monday from 12 pm to 5 pm
WHERE?
Kröller-Müller Museum
Houtkampweg 6
6731 AW Otterlo
Netherlands
COST?
Normal price: 13 EUR
Reduced: 6,50 EUR
