Michael Anderson in National Park De Hoge Veluwe, Holland

A few years back while touring the Netherlands with fellow artist Michael Anderson (aka Manderson) he suggested that we visit the Kroller-Muller Museum. I had never heard of it, but I’ve never turned down a museum.

The Kroller-Muller is located near Otterlo in the middle of the National Park de Hoge Veluwe, a 5,500 hectare area created in the last Ice Age with alternating woodlands, prairie, and sand dunes. Crazy rich Helene Kroller-Muller was one of the first major collectors to recognize Vincent van Gogh’s genius. In 1909 her husband Anton Kroller created the park and in 1935 she donated her whole collection to the country, thus establishing a museum in her name as the park’s centerpiece. This collection is considered the largest assemblage of Vincent van Gogh paintings aside from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Getting to Otterlo in the freezing wind and intermittent sleet is no simple task. On top of it all, I was afflicted by a most gruesome malady with flu-like symptoms, possibly walking pneumonia. Manderson and I took two connecting commuter trains from Amsterdam to a city called Apledoorn. “Apledoorn” must be Dutch for “dreary hell-hole” because I’ve never seen a greyer, more dismal city in all my life.

Oh, and there is not a Walgreen’s or CVS on every corner in Holland. With time before catching the bus for the Park de Hoge Veluwe we walked around Apledoorn looking for food and medicine. We found a small general store and I raided the shelves. I was lucky to find two Snickers and a small package of herbal lozenges. But I would have given a testicle for a pack of Halls Mentho-lyptus. That kind of thing just does not exist in that part of the world.

It’s me at the approach to the Kroller-Muller Museum with Joep van Lieshout’s “Mobile Home for Kroller-Muller” in the background.

This wasn’t a designated bus for the museum complex; rather it was public transportation filled with the work weary.  The bus dropped us at the gates of the park with a long cold trek to the museum ahead. On the way we ducked off the path to puff some of that fancy legal Dutch weed. But with my pestilent lungs it was impossible to inhale enough to get high—it only made me cough more.

Once we made it to the museum, I knew it was worth the so-far seemingly miserable journey.

The breathtaking accumulation of 19^th and early 20^th Century art, surrounded by sculpture gardens, is housed in a 1938 building by Henry van de Velde. Houston philanthropist Dominique de Menil must have drawn great inspiration from this museum complex for her own museum. The building is sleek and incorporates natural light and courtyards throughout. A haven to perfection, it is serene and spacious without intimidation.

In the main pavilion near the lobby is a café. Not only sick but also starving, I had a glass of red wine and a brie sandwich before eyeballing even one painting. The food was fresh and brilliantly simplistic.  So delicious…

The Clown by Auguste Renoir, 1868, Kroller-Muller Museum

Some art critics have said that the quality of the collection of paintings by van Gogh surpass even the Van Gogh Museum; that is arguable. But the gallery walls exhibit masterpiece after masterpiece–and I’m talking major masterpieces– by such greats as Georges Seurat, Auguste Renoir, Paul Gaugin, Claude Monet, Piet Mondriaan, Auguste Rodin, Paul Cezanne, Constantin Brancusi, and Pablo Picasso. “The Clown” by Auguste Renoir is a massive oil on canvas that rendered me speechless. Renoir has never been my favorite but I’d never seen one like that before.  It was my favorite painting that day, and has undoubtedly been the most memorable.

At any other time of year a guest might rent a bike and tour the park, perhaps smoke a joint on a bench or even picnic in a meadow. But by the time I finished the museum tour I dreaded the converse journey. I could feel myself seriously crashing. Seeing another attraction is one thing; seeing another day was of more concern to me. So as the natural light faded beyond the leafless trees, Manderson and I braved the bitter wind toward the gates to await a bus to Apledoorn.

Kroller-Muller Museum