Vincent van Gogh is known all over the world. Few people know that he also stayed in Drenthe, for a period of three months, in the southeastern part of the province.
Five paintings, around fifteen drawings and a series of beautiful letters to his brother Theo were preserved from the period during which he stayed in Drenthe. We take you to the places that inspired him.
"I breathed the heathland air for a month. I absolutely needed that. I sat down by a peat fire made by peasants, with a cradle beside it. I speak calmly, I think calmly now." - Vincent van Gogh about his stay in Drenthe
On 11 September 1883, Van Gogh got off the train in Hoogeveen. Exactly 140 years later, on 11 September 2023, the exhibition Traveling with Vincent will launch. Never before has his time in Drenthe been the subject of a major exhibition. A must-see for all his admirers.
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Get to know Van Gogh's primal landscape by bicycle! Follow three different routes, see what Vincent saw and what inspiration he found. The routes will take you past viewing panels with listening stories and large murals.
Discover the routes
You can explore Drenthe on foot just like Vincent did. We have created four special walking routes. They take you past places where Vincent left his footprints 140 years ago.
Discover the routes
In 1883, Vincent van Gogh decided to leave for Drenthe. He was penniless, and the relationship with his fiancée Sien had just gone on the rocks. That also meant that he had said goodbye to Sien's little daughter and son, to whom he had become very much attached. The painter Anthon van Rappard, who was still a good friend of his at the time, had already been in Drenthe in 1882 and had made a number of exquisite paintings there. Van Gogh was inspired by those paintings. Moreover, it seemed to him that life in the countryside of Drenthe would be cheaper than in The Hague. And thus on 11 September, he got on the last train from The Hague to Drenthe with a broken heart.
Nieuw-Amsterdam is home to the Van Gogh Huis Drenthe, the place where Vincent stayed for two months. The only publicly accessible house in the Netherlands where he lived and worked. His room looks the same as it did back then. With this new exhibition, Vincent van Gogh’s time in Drenthe and the search for himself as an artist come back to life.
Visit the Van Gogh House
If you didn’t already know about Vincent van Gogh’s link to Drenthe, you sure will now. Artists have painted a mural of Vincent van Gogh’s portrait on the side wall of a building in the centre of Hoogeveen. A former grain silo in Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord also features several murals by the artists, including Vincent’s watercolour of the drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam.
In Drenthe, Van Gogh focussed on painting landscapes and figures. Not only did he see the beauty of the peat landscape of Drenthe, but he particularly had an eye for the common people and the hard life of the agricultural workers. This can clearly be seen in the paintings 'Peasant Burning Weeds' and 'The Peat Barge'.
More art of Van Gogh in Drenthe
"How I wish that we could walk together and paint together here. I believe that the country would win you over and persuade you." - Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo about Drenthe"
