Visitors entering the exhibition space of “Searching for Meaning” at the Kröller-Müller Museum are enveloped in a world of subtle immersion—soft, muted lighting, warm beige hues and the faint scent of spruce from the wooden frames of the room dividers create an atmosphere of quiet anticipation. If it feels as though you are stepping into a stranger’s intimate inner sanctum, it’s because you are. Before you are treasures amassed by Helene Kröller-Müller, one of the first women to put together a major art collection and one of the first collectors to recognize the genius of Vincent van Gogh.
Immediately before you is the artist’s still-life Basket of Lemons and Bottle (Arles, 1888), captivating in shades of yellow splashed across the tablecloth, basket and lemons that create a striking monochrome study. To the painting’s immediate left, a wooden head of Christ from France, enclosed in a glass dome, rests atop a wooden pedestal in a surprising pairing that evokes thoughts of a deconstructed Last Supper.
“In a way, it can be seen as a self-portrait of Helene Kröller-Müller, reflecting how she viewed art collecting and her passion for art,” observes curator Renske Cohen Tervaert, inviting visitors to reflect on the collector’s emotional and spiritual connection by sitting with the works she gathered, guided by her life motto Spiritus et Materia Unum—spirit and matter are one.
The exhibition’s three-layered narrative weaves together Kröller-Müller’s search for meaning, her vision for her collection and the featured artists’ spiritual quests—all enriched by a contemporary perspective from Dutch philosopher De Zanne van Brederode.
There are paintings by van Gogh, Johan Thorn Prikker, Jan Toorop, Odilon Redon and others, along with sculptures by Wilhelmina Drupsteen, Jean Arp and James Lee Byars. One canvas that made Kröller-Müller particularly happy is a never-before-shown portrait of St. Catherine, acquired in 1912. This 15th-century painting by Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino features a close-up of the saint, a revered figure known for her wisdom and martyrdom. Her soft facial features contrast with the bright red accents of her jewelry and dress. Kröller-Müller didn’t see the saint depicted but rather a “trusted friend,” one she struggled to find.
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Understanding the life of the woman who championed this art collection and the museum that houses it is essential to fully appreciating its impact. Wilhelm Strohmayer (1874-1936), a German pioneer of child and adolescent psychiatry, described Kröller-Müller in a 1923 letter to his wife thusly: “It is not just the intellectual superiority, but even more so the roundness of her character, at the center of which a great kindness and warm conviction shines.”
For Helene Kröller-Müller, collecting art offered purpose
Born in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Kröller-Müller was raised in a wealthy Lutheran family headed by industrialist Wilhelm Müller. During her youth, she experienced a dynamic society marked by industrial growth, social activism and political upheaval. Despite increasing demands from young middle- and upper-class women for access to higher education, Kröller-Müller ‘s father’s resistance to it kept her from pursuing formal university studies. Instead, she immersed herself in literature, particularly the works of German Sturm und Drang writers like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who championed emotion, individuality, freedom, and the power of nature.
At 18, Kröller-Müller married Dutch entrepreneur Anton Kröller, whom her father had selected. A year later, after his sudden death, she took over as director of Wm. H. Müller & Co., relocating its headquarters to The Hague and expanding operations across four continents. The company’s success positioned the Kröller family and their four children among the wealthiest and most influential in the Netherlands. But Kröller-Müller found motherhood and family life unfulfilling. In 1912, she wrote, “I was a nanny, housekeeper and lady all at once. Yet beneath it all lay something stronger—an idealism, a better version of myself that I could trace back to my childhood, which at the time could not yet find its way.”
A pivotal moment for Kröller-Müller came in 1905 when, through her daughter, she met the painter and art educator Henk Bremmer and enrolled in his course on Practical Aesthetics and Art Appreciation. This experience opened the door for her to engage with an evolving European art world that was shifting away from traditional academic forms and embracing radical, experimental movements.
The changing times, which influenced the direction of her art collection, gave rise to Symbolism, a movement focused on inner moods and mysticism, represented by artists like Odilon Redon; this period also marked the transition to Post-Impressionism, characterized by bold colors and emotional depth, as seen in the works of van Gogh, Cézanne and Gauguin. Later movements like Dada and Surrealism explored the subconscious, dreams and the irrational.
After surviving a life-threatening illness in 1911, Kröller-Müller found a renewed sense of purpose that propelled her to collect art with serious intent. Guided by Bremmer, her collection of over 12,000 pieces became more than just a display of acquisitions—it evolved into a personal statement, engaging in a broader conversation about identity and spirituality.
Bremmer also introduced her to the then-relatively unknown work of Vincent van Gogh, whom she would come to think of as “one of the great spirits of modern art.” Kröller-Müller found comfort in his work, as his religious struggle resonated with her.
“If you can place yourself in the mind of someone who was able to see lemons and interpret them for us in such a way, then you will enjoy art because from it you feel that, despite everything, there is something in the world that we are always seeking and for which we should always have respect,” she wrote in 1909 of Basket of Lemons and Bottle.
Beyond this personal connection, she also recognized that his art would enhance her reputation as a forward-thinking and insightful collector. During one trip to Paris in the spring of 1912, Kröller-Müller purchased fifteen paintings by van Gogh. Among these were iconic works like La Berceuse, Olive Grove, and Portrait of Joseph-Michel Ginoux, which complemented existing masterpieces in her collection such as Four Sunflowers Gone to Seed and The Sower.
Helene Kröller-Müller’s success in securing these and other works significantly enriched her already impressive collection, solidifying her legacy as one of van Gogh’s greatest patrons. But it was her desire to understand the soul that fueled much of her passion for collecting and perhaps also her desire to share that collection with the world—a legacy she lived to see, as the Kröller-Müller Museum opened the year before she died.
“Searching For Meaning” at the Kröller-Müller Museum runs through May 11, 2025.