1. Kröller-Müller Museum, photo: Marion Gemmeke
The Kröller-Müller Museum, a museum made accessible to all due to Helene Müller
While traveling in the Netherlands during the month of April, I had the chance to visit the incredible collection and architecture of the Kröller-Müller Museum, which is located in a national park.
Helene wish to the art of her time, and beyond
Helene Müller was born on 11 February 1869 in Horst (near Essen), Germany, and she was the third child of Emilie Neese and the wealthy industrialist Wilhelm Müller. Thus, growing in a wealthy family, who were famous for its business of iron and coal company Wm H. Müller & Co, she didn't have a family attracted to art, which is quite surprising for the bourgeoisie of the time.
During her years at the "Höhere Töchterschule" in Düsseldorf, she became fascinated with writers and philosophers such as Lessing, Goethe, Schiller and Spinoza. At the age of 19, she married the Dutchman Anton Kröller, a man she became acquainted with when he decided to work for her father’s company.
Thus, the couple decided to move to Rotterdam, and Anton became in charge of the branch of Müller & Co, and when Helene's father dies he becomes director of the entire company at the age of 27.
At the age of 33, the family business grows because Müller & Co takes over the Nederlandse Stoomboot Maatschappij (Dutch Steamship Company), which operates regular services from Rotterdam and Amsterdam to London.
The collection: Helene and her advisor H.P.Bremmer
2. Kröller-Müller Museum, photo: Marion Gemmeke
In 1905, Helene came in contact with modern art through art pedagogue H.P. Bremmer, and under his direction he will begin the collection of modern work for Helene, thus purchasing important works by Vincent van Gogh, such as in 1908 "Edge of a wood" at a high cost.
But due to the incredible growth of his father family, they didn't had a lot of limits, and budget and money was not even a question to ask. This collection, which will develop in the coming years, will be exhibited in two villas on the waterfront in the Van Stolkpark, on the edge of Scheveningen. But, before the family can move into the new houses, the architect Leo Falkenburg is commissioned to renovate the offices at Lange Voorhout No. 3 and both the residences.
While the relation to H.P. Bremmer started out due to class she and her daughter took art appreciation classes, first in a group and then in private lessons at their house. He introduces her to modern art and opens her eyes to a personal, empathetic experience of art, and her first acquisition was "It comes from afar" by Paul Gabriël in 1907.
Beside her art collection, she also collected antique furniture, ceramics and Asian art for several years before turning her focus to modern paintings. Due to the advice of H.P. Bremmer, the collection started to focus on Vincent van Gogh and they bought numerous works in 1908-1910.
The museum's project and the growing collection
Between 1909 and 1917, the Kröllers decided to purchase several plots of land on the Veluwe, totalling 6500 hectares. At the time they loved horse riding and the outdoor life, but for Anton it's also important to save the architectures and the buildings in this estate, including the "De Harscamp" farm and estate and the former lease house "De Hofstede".
Under the supervision of the architect Leo Falkenburg, the couple refurbish "De Hofstede" as a modest country residence. But in June 1910, Helene got a revelation, while she was traveling in Italy with her daughter, they visited Milan, Rome and Florence, where the masters of the Renaissance make a particularly deep impression on her, as well as the impressive and different architectures she found in those cities.
After her trip, Helene has to undergo a life-threatening operation in 1911, and she decided to have a museum house built, which is intended to become a "house of culture" for her collection.
To realize this plan, the Kröllers buy a piece of land near Wassenaar which they call Ellenwoude estate. While the museum's project has dramatically changed her life, it will also change her habit of collector and she no longer guided by personal taste and collect only works of art that "can withstand the test of the future".
Thus, she focuses her collection from 1860 to today, taking in Impressionism, Pointillism and Cubism. To do so, she acquired with the help of H.P. Bremmer works by Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Jan Toorop, Odilon Redon and Honoré Daumier and many others.
Now, Helene wants to have her museum built on the Veluwe, to do so she asks H.P. Berlage and the new architect Henry van de Velde, to make designs for a very large museum. But due to financial difficulties at the company, neither are realized.
The war, the family business and the collection
Due to the war and numerous problems with the architecture project of Berlage, which envisions to create a huge building with a living area and exhibition spaces, where a dining room and a living room will be connected with the grand hall and the Van Gogh Gallery by a single door will never be realised, he decided on the 1st of September 1919 to terminate his contract with the company.
The successor will be the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde, which on the 1st of February 1920 receives a two-year contract as the Kröllers personal architect. A few months later, he presents the first drawings for the "Grand Museum", and a few months later construction begins at the foot of the Franse Berg in Hoenderloo.
But, as this project is entirely finance by the business of the family, which was in good shape during the First World War, when iron and coal was in high demand, the business is now stagnant, and under Anton’s direction, the company accumulates massive debts in a short period and thus experiences serious financial difficulties.
And in 1922, the family had to halt the construction of the museum and Helene informs Bremmer that no more works of art can be purchased. But Helene decided to refocus her energy on a "culture park" where you will be able to a garden full of works of arts, which the public will be available to enjoy.
Helene's legacy
During all of those project phase, Helene decided to protect her collection and she transfers all the art to a Foundation. And she persuades the government to financially support the construction of the "grand museum", and in exchange she will donates her collection to the State.
And as the financial difficulties progress, she transferred everything to the Kröller-Müller Foundation, which is established on 14 March 1928. In the will of the foundation it is stated: "The creation and maintenance of a monument, which gives an idea of the spiritual direction of the present time, to the benefit and enjoyment of the community".
A few years later, the company is slowly going back to it's original level, but the "Villa Groot Haesebroek" is demolished due to its poor condition, Henry van de Velde is asked to make a design to replace it. And Helene have to terminate the contract with H.P. Bremmer, and to slow down her purchase.
But in 1933, the offices of Müller & Co at Lange Voorhout are also forced to close, and the art collection is transferred to the villa in Wassenaar. But the couple do not give up their dream, and they plan to donate the property of the Kröller-Müller Foundation – the collection and the building designs of Henry van de Velde – to the State in exchange for the construction of the "Grand Museum" designed by Van de Velde in Hoenderloo. The stage is happy to give 8 hundred thousand guilders for the purchase, and on 26 April 1935, the Kröller-Müller Foundation donates its collection to the Dutch State, which promises to "house the collection in a new museum to be built on the Hoge Veluwe".
But, the government decided to only contribute 10,000 guilders per year to the operation of the museum thus questioning the important to create the museum. But due to the wish of the foundation, the Dutch State agrees to the construction of a smaller museum, also designed by Henry van de Velde.
A far smaller and less expensive museum is built on commission from the Kröller-Müller Foundation. Because there is still hope for the realization of the "Grand Museum", it is referred to as the "transitional museum". The design will be made out of bricks and on 18 May 1937, the first ground is broken. A year later, a sober but elegant museum is completed.
The museum and its different evolutions over the years
During the first years of operation, Helene Kröller-Müller was the director of the museum, and she was able to strictly supervise the arrangement of the rooms in the transitional museum. She decided to reserves the central aisle for the paintings of Van Gogh, and the cabinets on either side for an overview of the important movements before and after him.
And after her installations, the museum is officially opened by Minister Slotemaker de Bruïne on 13 July 1938. Former minister Henri Marchant takes the floor as chairman of the De Hoge Veluwe National Park Foundation. But as the war is approaching, the collection is rapidly moved into the storage for a few years.
The following director Bram Hammacher (1947-1963) will continue the legacy of the couple, and he decided to purchase early modern works and to continue the project of Helene to create a sculpture garden, from Rodin to the present day. He asked the artist Marta Pan in 1961 to create the first plan of this garden, which will define the appearance of the sculpture garden for years to come.
That is why the acquisitions are now focused on the old masters of modern sculpture, but at the same time in the younger generations, he acquired works from Jacob Epstein, Otto Freundlich, Jean Arp, Henry Moore, Marta Pan, Hans Aeschbacher, etc. Most of the works which will be purchased will be commissions by the museum to the artist, thus strengthening the link between Helene's wish, the importance of contemporary artists and the foundation of the museum.
Hammacher places over 40 sculptures in the sculpture garden, on carefully designed brick pedestals that are smoothed over with cement or covered with grass. Some works, such as those of Rodin and Epstein, are placed on a block of Maulbronn sandstone.
The sculpture garden opened on 3 June 1961 in the presence of an international group of artists, critics, curators and museum directors.
Over the years, the whole museum needed a renovation and an extension for the collection, the offices and the exhibitions. Thus, the renovation of the old museum building by Henry van de Velde begins in January 1971. On the other side of the building, work begins on a new main entrance, a hall with a cloakroom and a glass corridor connecting to the existing museum.
While the museum was closed, the sculpture garden is still accessible to the public. And during the work, the collection is made accessible to the public as much as possible, and the Van Gogh's are on loan to Russia, where the exhibition "Van Gogh to Picasso" attracts a huge audience.
The reopening of the museum took place on 10 February 1972. The renovation of the museum is complete, and the first section of the Quist wing is operational. Five years later, the Quist wing is opened on the 11 June 1977. The space is clearly dedicated to the exhibition of the museum, and according to the director of the time (while speaking about the space) "the most diverse works of art […] come into their own there, scale and climate are automatically conducive to an informal, contrasting, but flowingly coherent presentation".
Now a new generation of curators, directors, art educators and museum's professional are in the museum. And maybe a new page new to be written.
Informations about the collection
Place: Kröller-Müller Museum
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum
Kröller-Müller Museum
Houtkampweg 6
6731 AW Otterlo
Phone: +41 58 466 77 40
Fax: +41 58 466 77 44
Mail: sor@bak.admin.ch