A tour to the Kröller Müller museum A tour to the Kröller Müller museum The first major, visionary collector of Van Gogh paintings is Helene Müller, born 1869, who married the wealthy industrialist, mr Kröller and thus, by Dutch custom, was named ms. Kröller-Müller. As the couple were incredibly wealthy they bought a vast hunting area and built themselves a luxurious villa-cum-hunting lodge and made detailed plans for a major museum on their property in order to house the modern art collection amassed by Helene. With almost unlimited funds, an impeccable taste and mr Bremmer as the main art advisor next to her, she had started to buy works by Juan Gris, Piet Mondian and many other names of artists now internationally famous. Those works of art were still affordable in those days.
Then the economic crash of 1933 came and their business capital evaporated. With foresight, the Dutch state took over the land and the art collections and supported the construction of the small museum to house the grand collection, and opened up the museum and wildlife park to the public as a celebration of the interplay between Nature & Art. Subsequent directors added new wings and designed a vast sculpture park which is almost unequaled in the world. A visit to the park is a treat. One needs a car to get there, out in the middle of nowhere.
As an art historian based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, I can pick you up in and outside of Amsterdam for a personalized guided tour by car. My private car is a small Toyota Starlet.
Photo to the right: the author, al fresco, in the sculpture garden at the Kröller Müller National Park, in front of the Forbidden Stairway. Photo by Jim Kaplan, 2007. Some questions immediately pop up. What is this Forbidden Starway? Why is it there in the first place? Why does it have no hand rails? Who fell down the stairs and with what consequence? Does the project and its closure for safety reasons express thoughts about mankind? What would you have done if you were the director of this park?
New: Images and the opening a series of markers located using a divining rod, landscape art. Underground Watercourse
I am an art historian involved in programmes with CNN, BBC2, BBC3 and the national TV networks of The Netherlands, Denmark and Japan. I have written a book on Van Gogh and I am very successful in providing hundreds of lectures and guided tours. Meetings and teaching on all knowledge levels are possible, for lay persons who hardly ever have visited museums to seasoned professionals in the museum and art world.
When riding through the landscape of the provinces of Holland, Utrecht and Gelderland I can inform you about the countryside, discussing the country's history, the Ice age remnants, agricultural projects, religion, polders, and farm culture. In doing so, we may touch many bases - spanning not only landscaping and architecture but also the nation's history and current social issues. Travellers from the USA usually bring up the assassination of Theo Van Gogh the film maker and its consequences.
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My husband and I travel the world to stay alive -- to see with new eyes and stretch our minds. We love museums and fine food, sometimes stopping at out of the way Michelin-starred restaurants. With Drs. Kees Kaldenbach we had the best of both worlds. During the day we took a car trip to the Kröller-Möller sculpture garden and fine art museum, where we would certainly have missed the hidden staircase leading into the astonishing Jean Dubuffet's Jardin d'Email without him. Inside the museum, he gave us a humanities course on Impressionist painting, our favorite kind of art. Later that day we drove to a picture-perfect village between Utrecht and Amsterdam, boasting a fine restaurant with one Michelin star, and there the three of us enjoyed an exquisite meal to end a perfect day.
To fully enjoy Holland, you need a guide like Drs. Kaldenbach.Ambassador
Julia Chang Bloch
President
US-China Education Trust
Washington, DC , USA======== end ========
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Starting at your hotel I will take you on a wonderful car tour of your choice. My guided itinerary offers you accessable informative conversation in English, Dutch, or German (my French and Italian are more limited).
You may also arrange this VIP treatment for business contacts or friends. Our cultural tour organisation office will take care of a unique and memorable experience.
Drs. Kees Kaldenbach is your private "scholar-lecturer on culture tours" *.
*Martha Gellhorn, Travels with Myself and another, p. 182.
Please contact me for time and fees of the tailor-made tour you ar interested in.
Photo by Dick Martin
Endorsements
The Rijksmuseum has done me the honor of linking the main Rijksmuseum site to my website.
I conduct Rembrandt walks in Amsterdam for the Netherlands Bureau of Tourism, London and New York City offices. Their clients include important journalists.
The travel site www.luxurytraveler.com has devoted a main feature to my tours and walks.
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About Drs. Kees Kaldenbach:Read a biography.
Drs. Kees Kaldenbach has been featured in television and radio documentaries, including BBC2 TV, NTV Japan, Danish TV and Radio Netherlands World Service. In July 2004 he was interviewed about Delft artists by Tetsuya Tsuruhara for the leading Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun. In 2004 and 2005 he acted in an advisory role to additional BBC teams. Kaldenbach has written extensively on Vermeer and 17th century Delft, on Vincent van Gogh and on other art history topics.
Drs. Kaldenbach is chairman of the Circle of Academic Tour Guides of the Netherlands and Flanders (CATON)
Drs. Kees Kaldenbach is your private "scholar-lecturer on culture tours".
Further information is available on his encyclopedic web site: www.johannesvermeer.info
Contact
information:
Drs. Kees Kaldenbach , kalden@xs4all.nl
Haarlemmermeerstraat 83 hs
1058 JS Amsterdam
The Netherlands
telephone 020 - 669 8119 (from abroad NL +20 - 669 8119)
cell phone 06 - 2868 9775 (from abroad NL +6 - 2868 9775)
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Open seven days a week.
Member of the VVV Tourist information and the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel).
Email responses and bookings to art historian Drs. Kees Kaldenbach.
This page forms part of the 2000+ item Vermeer web site at www.xs4all.nl/~kalden
Launched April 15, 2006. Updated Feb 23, 2011.
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