Educational Media Reviews Online

In the midst of a national park in the Netherlands sits the Kröller-Müller Museum, housing a modern art collection featuring Monet, Seurat, Picasso, and Mondrian, but with a special focus on Vincent Van Gogh. Helena Kröller-Müller, the museum's founder, had a particular affinity for Van Gogh and wanted to showcase the work of a man she thought was a genius, but who had not attained, in the early 20th century, the reputation he has now. She wanted the museum to be in the country, on land her family owned, and for there to be a special wing devoted to Van Gogh. The wife of a Dutch industrialist and one of the wealthiest women in the country at the time, she planned to finance the building herself. A decline in the family fortune after World War I meant she could not provide the funding for completion, but fortunately the Dutch government stepped in, and she was able to see the realization of her dreams when the museum opened in 1938, the year before her death.

The video Van Gogh: Of Wheat Fields and Clouded Skies takes advantage of the museum's holdings on Van Gogh (88 paintings and 180 drawings) to bring a close-up perspective on the artist's work. Viewers can clearly see the heavy application of paint and vigorous brush strokes used to give depth to the paintings. And we get to see also many of the drawings Van Gogh made. These works have been overshadowed by the paintings and the distinctive use of color the artist is known for, but looking at these drawings, we can see Van Gogh was a highly skilled draftsman.

The video provides excerpts from Van Gogh's letters, read in English voiceovers, and commentary by Leo Jansen, who edited the letters for publication. Curators and art historians also discuss Van Gogh's life and work.

The life of the lesser-known Helene Kröller-Müller is also explored in comments by her biographer, Eva Rovers. Rovers had access to Kröller-Müller's letters and reads from them. Those featured discuss her deep appreciation of Van Gogh and her trip to Florence. We are able to see in the video the actual places she visited as we hear voiceovers of comments on the trip from her letters.

Italian actress and director Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi appears on camera and serves as narrator in the original Italian version of the video. For the English-language version, her words, as with others speaking in Italian or Dutch, are translated as English voiceovers.

This video can be enjoyed by public library patrons interested in art as well as college students studying Van Gogh. The broad selection of the artist's works seen, with the advantage of being able to see them close-up, as well as the insightful letter excerpts and commentary, makes this video highly recommended.

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