Until October 30, the exhibition ‘Closer to Vincent – Everyday objects in Vincent van Gogh’s work’ exhibits objects that Van Gogh depicted in his paintings and that come from the family residence, from the collection of the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. In the village a walk, marked by signs, compares the painter’s paintings with places and monuments and among these we also find the Protestant church where his father preached and next to this building the small cemetery with the tomb of the little brother of the same name who died as a newborn. At the age of 13, Vincent van Gogh arrived in Tilburg, it was 1866 and began his higher education at the prestigious ‘Rijks Hogere Burger School’. It was the only school of this type in North Brabant and Vincent moved to a boarding house on St. Annaplein Square to attend it, which remains as it was in the painter’s time and where two monuments remember him. Here the route can be done on foot or by bicycle.
Etten-Leur
But it is in the village of Etten-Leur that Van Gogh decides to become an artist: the Van Gogh family lived here for seven years and the creation of his first studio in 1881 at the age of 28 represented a real turning point in the life of the ‘artist. The story is explained in an articulate way in the Church that Van Gogh attended. Vincent often traveled long distances around Etten-Leur and the new 14km route is a walk in the beautiful Brabantian nature. After Helvoirt we find the famous Nuenen where the painter painted his first famous masterpiece: ‘The Potato Eaters’. To join these places there is also a perfect cycle path dedicated to Van Gogh and made up of 10 rings of different kilometers, through the Brabant landscape which with its nature made of poplar groves, streams, woods, fields and marshes was often described by the painter in the letters. intended for his brother Theo. It is in this town that the first walking route dedicated to the artist starts. This new walk is 10 kilometers long and crosses the National Park that proudly bears his name: the landscapes have remained unchanged since they represented the usual path of the young painter.
Nuenen
Nuenen has in fact played an important role in the life of Vincent van Gogh who lived there between 1883 and 1885, drawing inspiration from both the landscapes and the industriousness of his peasant population. To follow the route, simply follow the signs with sound explanations or pick up a map in the Vincentre Museum or follow the route online. Four more have been added to this walk in the Van Gogh National Park in the course of this year in the towns just mentioned. The walking route along the Van Gogh monuments starting in the center of Nuenen can be 7, 10 or 18 kilometers long. Among the various places linked to the life of Van Gogh, we also find the De Roosdonck windmill and the Nuenens Broek nature reserve, the hamlet of Het Laar and the water mills of Collse and Opwettense i.e. the Opwettense Watermolen, painted by Van Gogh and with inside today one of the best restaurants in the area. The other routes are equally interesting in particular the 11-kilometer one that leads to the Vogelenzang windmill, another place described by Van Gogh in two of his works.
Noordbrabants Museum di Bosco Ducale
Not to be missed is a visit to the Noordbrabants Museum in Bosco Ducale, the only museum in the southern Netherlands that houses original works by Vincent van Gogh. In the room dedicated to him, the origins of the artist and his great fascination for peasant life. The Noordbrabants Museum has a new and extensive permanent presentation of Van Gogh in Brabant: paintings, letters, photos, animations and other objects tell of his beginnings as an artist and the connection with his beloved Brabant. Five of the twelve works on display are owned by the museum, the rest come from other museums or from private collections. The new presentation examines Van Gogh’s development as a painter and highlights the most important themes of his Brabant period.
It is possible to combine art and design in Brabant: it is no coincidence that the Dutch Design Week is organized in Eindhoven, one of the most important design events in Europe (this year scheduled from 22 to 30 October) and was therefore called Daan Roosegaarde artsta e designer to underline this union. Close to Eindhoven, just outside Nuenen you will come across Daan Roosengaarde’s unique fluorescent cycle path inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s work ‘The Starry Night’ and the result of the collaboration between a specially developed innovative technology and the ingenious work of the designer and artist . The path lights up with thousands of glittering stones in swirling celestial curves: the result is a play of light and poetry that Roosegaarde comments as follows: “I wanted a place that people experience as special, a technology that creates an experience, this is what techno-poetry represents for me ”.