The beginnings of the Van Gogh Museum
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Everyone is now able to see an impressive number of works by Van Gogh together in a single museum, and that is largely thanks to one person: the artist’s nephew, who was also called Vincent van Gogh.
At the age of 21, nephew Vincent gained access to his share of a unique inheritance: his uncle’s artworks. He was sure about one thing: he did not want to follow in his mother’s footsteps in devoting his life to art, as she had done.
And yet he was the person who, more than 60 years later, ultimately became the driving force behind the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Why did he want a museum for Van Gogh’s art?
Jo van Gogh-Bonger with her son Vincent, 1890
Vincent van Gogh in 1962. Photo: Kees Scherer, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Vincent was the son of Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. He grew up without any siblings, surrounded by his uncle’s art. The two Vincents met each other a few times, but nephew Vincent mostly knew his uncle from stories. He was still a baby when the artist died. Not long after, his father Theo also passed away.
The young Vincent and his mother Jo suddenly became the owners of hundreds of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, drawings and letters. Jo dedicated the rest of her life to promoting his art. Vincent could have followed in her footsteps, but he yearned to set his own course.
About himself and his friends, he said: ‘We didn’t want to be dealing constantly with aesthetics. We preferred to engage with more concrete matters and to work in society.’
Johan Cohen Gosschalk, Portrait of Vincent van Gogh, 1907-1908, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Vincent decided to follow his heart and study mechanical engineering. He forged out a successful career, first as an engineer, and later as the head of his own management consultancy firm. He is therefore sometimes called ‘the engineer’, to avoid confusion with his famous uncle.
The engineer never lost sight of the collection. One of his favourite works, Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, even hung in his student room in Delft.
Vincent van Gogh, Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888
Vincent’s mother Jo died in 1925, when he was 35. Complete responsibility for the collection passed to him. And that was quite something, as by then his uncle’s work had become a lot more well known. He soon decided that no more artworks were to be sold. He thought that everything that the family still owned should stay together.
It’s hard to imagine now, but famous works like Almond Blossom and Sunflowers just hung on the walls of his home in Laren. But most of the works were stored in the special paintings room. Vincent’s wife Josina thought it was a shame that so many works remained hidden from view. In the late 1930s, the engineer fortunately loaned a large part of the collection to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Much of the collection was still at the Stedelijk when World War II started.
Engineer Vincent van Gogh and his second wife Nel van Gogh-van der Groot in their house in Laren, 1949. Photo: Peter Pollack, collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
When the German army invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, people were afraid that the Nazi's would confiscate various art collections. The Van Gogh collection thankfully made it through World War II unscathed. Most of the artworks were moved to a bunker in Castricum. But Vincent had to cope with a great personal loss. His oldest son Theo was an active member of the resistance. As the war came to an end, Theo was arrested and executed by the occupying forces.
The art bunker in April 1940. Photo: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Inside the underground vault in the dunes near Castricum. Various works by Vincent van Gogh can be seen. Photo: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
After the war, Vincent made a conscious decision to publicise the collection. He was now 55, and had earned his stripes in his professional field. It was time to shift his focus towards the collection. But new challenges were on the horizon. Vincent realised that the collection would be broken up in the event of his death. The works would be divided amongst his three children. And they would probably need to sell pieces from the collection in order to pay the inheritance tax. After all, the artworks were now worth much more.
To keep the collection together, Vincent established a foundation in 1949. The entire collection was transferred to this foundation. Vincent even tried to expand the family collection by acquiring works that had changed hands during Van Gogh’s lifetime. Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, for example. His niece owned this painting, but agreed to sell it to Vincent. And Garden of the Asylum, which Van Gogh had left with Dr Gachet in Auvers. Dr Gachet’s son gifted the painting to the Foundation.
Vincent van Gogh, Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, 1884
Vincent van Gogh, Garden of the Asylum, 1889
Van Gogh's work was by now known and beloved around the world. Shouldn't there be a permanent place where everyone could see his work? In 1962, the engineer made a groundbreaking decision. He concluded a unique agreement with the Dutch state whereby he transferred the entire collection - over 200 paintings, five hundred drawings, eight hundred letters plus other art that the family had collected over the years - to the newly established Vincent van Gogh Foundation.
Instead of selling the paintings to the highest bidder, the family chose that everyone should be able to enjoy this treasure. It was a visionary decision that arose from the conviction that preserving this "most precious collection of works by Vincent van Gogh" for the Netherlands was so important that the financial consequences were considered of secondary importance.
In exchange for this priceless gift, the Dutch state committed to building a permanent museum and took responsibility for maintaining this museum. The state would treat the collection "as if it were state property": permanently, publicly accessible and preserved in optimal condition. Vincent himself, his children and a representative of the minister for arts and culture took seats on the board of the new foundation.
This agreement was revolutionary because it recognized that preserving this cultural heritage was a shared responsibility between the family and Dutch society. Vincent, who already foresaw what could happen in the future - "you never know what politics or the government will do in the future" - deliberately chose this special construction in which the foundation became owner of the works and the state guaranteed permanent housing.
Vincent had clear ideas about what kind of museum this should be. A lively place, where art was not only preserved, but where there was also space for exhibitions, lectures and receptions. Education and development were important. The guiding principle for exhibitions should be that even the public without extensive art knowledge would have an enjoyable and inspiring museum visit. All very common for a museum now, but revolutionary at the time.
Vincent van Gogh on the Van Gogh Museum construction site, 1970
Construction of the Van Gogh Museum. Photo: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The workshop in the Van Gogh Museum
Inside the Van Gogh Museum, 1973. Photo: Jan en Fridtjof Versnel
The culmination of years of planning, designing and building came on 2 June 1973, when the museum finally opened. Sceptics wondered whether there would be sufficient interest in a museum dedicated to just one artist. But less than two months later, 100.000 people had already visited the museum.
The fond wish of ‘nephew Vincent’ had been fulfilled: the collection remained safely together, and was accessible to everyone. As it still is today.
Engineer Vincent died on 28 January 1978, but he could be found at the museum nearly every day until a month before his death.
Vincent van Gogh at the information desk in the Van Gogh Museum, c. 1976. Photo: Thijs Quispel, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
