October 27 Rhine River Germany

Our bus drove through many kilometers of forest in full fall glory to the Kroller Muller Museum. Our guide Tosca Van Diest greeted us and helped us adjust our radio headsets, then led our group of twenty to a quiet “cabinet” in the modern building where she explained the history of this museum. Helene Kroller Muller was the German wife of a Dutch tycoon. Her husband died shortly after their marriage. Starting in 1907, she devoted herself to art education and collection of modern paintings, drawings and sculptures, especially the works of van Gogh. She willed her art collection and land to the Dutch people; creating a stunning museum and the largest national park in the Netherlands.

Tall and slender, with straight blondish hair and no nonsense attire, Tosca immediately captured our attention. “She’s good,” we signaled to each other. Her English was charming and easy to understand. She cut to the chase and brought us right to the heart of the collection, the van Goghs. She pointed out the dark, brownish Dutch tones and the problems Vincent tried to solve in his early paintings. She showed us the unusual light source in one of the three versions of The Potato Eaters, his first masterpiece. She briskly led us through Vincent’s ten years of lesser known drawings and paintings.

I thought I knew quite a bit about van Gogh, but in one intense hour, Tosca gave me new insight. We are all familiar with van Gogh’s great works, but I loved a chance to look more closely at pieces I didn’t know existed. And in this uncrowded museum, I could get within a few inches to observe the brushstrokes or pastel and pencil marks.

Tosca concluded with this 1887 painting Four Sunflowers Gone to Seed, that was Helene’s favorite.

The light in the foreground is unusual, as are the toned down blues, oranges and golds.

Then Tosca put on her black trench coat and led us out into the sculpture garden, explaining the concept of uniting art, architecture and nature that the museum strives for. I almost had to run to keep up with her; she was late and she had so much more to show us. An unusual day for late October, the sun shone on the green lawns and autumn leaves as she led us through the carefully placed sculptures.

Tosca particularly loved a floating sculpture that moved around its own pond. In the right light the ripples are also reflected on the white surface. Next weekend they will take it out for the winter.

We had perfectly fine docent tours in the Uffizi and Rijksmuseum, but Tosca was a rock star. Her passionate 75 minute tour set us up to continue on our own for another hour. We ran out of time and we had just scratched the surface. We wondered if we could ever come back to this park, ride bikes on the paths and dig deeper into this gem of a museum.

PS. We are underway, cruising up the Rhine. Last night, the gentle rumbling of the ship gave me the best sleep of the whole trip.