Nuenen’s Vincent van Gogh museum has reopened after receiving a huge revamp.
Formerly the Vincentre, the newly renamed Van Gogh Village Museum is a much-expanded attraction with a new wing and a fully overhauled permanent exhibition space.
The museum tells the story of how the 30-year-old Vincent van Gogh settled in the town of Nuenen in 1883, and how it was here he first decided to devote himself to painting.
In just two years, he went on to paint almost a quarter of his entire life’s artistic output, drawing inspiration from nature and peasant life in the town.
It was also here he completed his first true masterpiece: The Potato Eaters (which is in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam).
The reopening follows six months of closure while the renovation work took place.
The new museum is now 2.5 times bigger, and another major addition is Vincent’s Lightlab, an interactive space where visitors can experiment with the effects of the colours and light featured in van Gogh’s paintings.
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Simone van der Heiden, Director of Van Gogh Village Museum said visitors will “actually get to know him as a person and why he made all those works."
The new attraction was officially given royal approval, when on May 16 it was inaugurated by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
The opening of Van Gogh Village Museum is the first in a series of special events in 2023 which will mark the 140th anniversary of the artist settling in the region.
The provinces of Drenthe and North Brabant will host a programme called Rural Van Gogh that will celebrate his love of nature and the countryside, and his connection with the area.
One of the other highlights of this exciting season is the opening of the exhibition Travelling with Vincent - Van Gogh in Drenthe at the Drents Museum in the provincial capital of Assen. The show examines the three months van Gogh spent in Drenthe, which became decisive for his development as a person and as an artist. A highlight is Landscape with a Farm — which van Gogh completed in 1883 — and which has never been seen in public in the past 40 years.
The next major milestone will be the opening of the renovated Van Gogh Huis (Van Gogh House) in Nieuw-Amsterdam, Drenthe in the summer.
— Read more: 4 must-see exhibitions in the Netherlands in 2023