Van Gogh in Drenthe: the Forgotten Chapter

From 11 September 2023 to 7 January 2024, the Drents Museum presents the first exhibition focusing on Vincent van Gogh’s short stay in Drenthe in the autumn of 1883.

Source: Drents Museum – Image: Vincent van Gogh, “The Peat Barge”, 1883, oil on canvas on panel, 37 x 55.5 cm, Drents Museum

“The pictures Van Gogh painted in Drenthe are, however, tautological. Melancholy becomes the predominant element, enveloping the paintings in the abstraction of a personal atmosphere. The motifs Van Gogh deals with here have no life of their own, they abandon themselves to a sadness cut off from the world (…) Van Gogh does not need a virginity cut off from the world to feel lonely. And the romantic emotional emphasis does not do him much good either. These two things he learned during the three months in Drenthe“.

Ingo F. Walther, “Van Gogh. The complete oeuvre – painting”.

A week after the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam closed the exhibition “Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise. His Last Months”, which focused on the brief but very famous last stage of Vincent van Gogh’s career, the Drents Museum presents an exhibition focusing on another brief stage of the painter’s career, in this case much less known and studied: Van Gogh’s stay in Drenthe, between September and December 1883.

On the exhibition website, the Drents Museum explains that “Penniless and heartbroken, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) boarded the last train from The Hague to Drenthe on Tuesday 11 September 1883. He stayed several weeks in Hoogeveen and then moved to Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord. He also made a day trip to Zweeloo. He only knew Drenthe from other people’s stories. What he would find there was something he could only fantasise about. Although he was not the first artist to set foot in this ‘wild’ and remote province, his choice to travel to Drenthe in autumn instead of summer was remarkable. Even more remarkable was that he did not go to the idyllic sandy villages, but had lost his heart to the peat bogs of south-east Drenthe.”

About the Drents Museum

Founded in 1854, the Drents Museum focuses primarily on the art and history of the province of Drenthe, including the “Pesse Canoe”, considered the oldest known ship in the world. It also has a good selection of Northern European realist art.