Editing Helene Kröller-Müller (section)

== Life and career ==
Helene Emma Laura Juliane Müller was born in {{Interlanguage link multi|Essen-Horst|de}}, [[Essen]], into a wealthy industrialist family. Her father, Wilhelm Müller, owned Wm. H. Müller & Co., a prosperous supplier of raw materials to the mining and steel industries.<ref name="Levine">Joshua Levine (21 May 2009), [https://www.forbes.com/forbes-life-magazine/2009/0608/art-van-gogh-museums-vision-quest.html The Vision Quest of Helene Kroller-Muller] ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine.</ref> 

She studied under painter [[Henk Bremmer]] in 1906–1907. As she was one of the wealthiest women in the Netherlands at the time, Bremmer recommended that she form an art collection. In 1907, she began her collection with the painting ''Train in a Landscape'' by [[Paul Gabriel|Paul Gabriël]]. Subsequently, Helene Kröller-Müller became an avid [[art|art collector]], and one of the first people to recognise the genius of [[Vincent van Gogh]]. She eventually amassed more than 90 van Gogh paintings and 185 drawings, one of the world's largest collections of the artist's work, second only to the [[Van Gogh Museum]] in Amsterdam. She also bought more than 400 works by Dutch artist [[Bart van der Leck]], but his popularity did not take off like van Gogh's.<ref name="Farr">Sheila Farr (23 May 2004) [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2001933669_vangogh23.html How a museum founder helped turn van Gogh into an international icon] ''[[The Seattle Times]]''.</ref>

[[File:Georges Seurat, 1889-90, Le Chahut, oil on canvas, 170 x 141 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum.jpeg|thumb|200px|[[Georges Seurat]], 1889–90, ''[[Le Chahut]]'', oil on canvas, 171.5 x 140.5 cm (66 7/8 x 54 3/4 in), [[Kröller-Müller Museum]], [[Otterlo]], Netherlands]]
Kröller-Müller also collected works by modern artists, such as [[Picasso]], [[Georges Braque]], [[Jean Metzinger]], [[Albert Gleizes]], [[Fernand Léger]], [[Diego Rivera]], [[Juan Gris]], [[Piet Mondrian]], [[Gino Severini]], [[Joseph Csaky]], [[Auguste Herbin]], [[Georges Valmier]], [[María Blanchard]], [[Léopold Survage]] and [[Tobeen]]. However, Bremmer advised her not to buy ''[[A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte]]'' by [[Georges Seurat]], which turned out to be an important icon of 20th-century art. She did purchase however ''Le Chahut'' by Seurat, another icon in the history of [[modern art]].<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/catalogusvandesc00kr#page/n225/mode/2up Catalogus van de schilderijen verzameling van Mevrouw H. Kröller-Müller, Samensteller H.P. Bremmer, Published 1921 in 'S-Gravenhage (in Dutch)]</ref> Also, she steered away from artists of her native Germany, whose work she found "insufficiently authoritative."<ref name="Farr" />

On a trip to [[Florence]] in June 1910, she conceived the idea of creating a museum-house.<ref name="Levine" /> From 1913 onwards parts of her collection were open to the public; until the mid-1930s her exhibition hall in The Hague was one of the very rare places where one could see more than a few works of modern art.<ref>[http://www.rug.nl/let/onderzoek/onderzoekcentra/biografieinstituut/medewerkers/rovers_ext Helene Kröller-Müller and the breakthrough of modern art] [[University of Groningen]] – Institute of Biography.</ref> In 1928, Anton and Helene created the Kröller-Müller Foundation to protect the collection and the estates. In 1935, they donated to the Dutch people their entire collection totaling approximately 12,000 objects, on condition that a large museum be built in the gardens of her park.<ref>Alan Riding (12 March 2003), [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/12/arts/glimpses-into-van-gogh-s-imagination-two-dutch-museums-offer-fresh-angles.html Glimpses Into van Gogh's Imagination; Two Dutch Museums Offer Fresh Angles on a Favorite Son] ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> Held in the care of the Dutch government, the [[Kröller-Müller Museum]] was opened in 1938.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller|url=https://krollermuller.nl/en/timeline/rijksmuseum-kroller-muller|access-date=5 July 2021|website=krollermuller.nl|language=en}}</ref>

The [[Kröller-Müller Museum]] is nestled in their 75-acre (300,000 m<sup>2</sup>) forested country estate, today the largest national park in the Netherlands, the [[Hoge Veluwe National Park]] near the town of [[Otterlo]] and the city of [[Arnhem]].  A lavish art gallery was planned near their iconic lakeside [[Jachthuis Sint Hubertus]] hunting lodge and landscape statue of their close personal friend, the South African Boer General [[Christiaan de Wet|Christian de Wet]] on the estate.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Art, architecture, and nature — Park Hoge Veluwe|url = https://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en/discover-the-park/art-and-architecture/art-architecture-and-nature|website = www.hogeveluwe.nl|access-date = 25 August 2015}}</ref> Due to threat of war the plans were never implemented in their lifetime but once the war was over a large forest sculpture garden and understated open exhibition extension was opened, housing statues by [[Auguste Rodin|Rodin]] and the second largest collection of [[Vincent van Gogh|van Gogh]] paintings in the world, including the famous [[Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)|Sunflowers]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolfe |first=Shira |date=26 December 2019 |title=Kröller-Müller Museum |url=https://magazine.artland.com/kroller-muller-museum/ |access-date=16 September 2022 |website=Artland Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>