Het Noordbrabants Museum is an art museum in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

Collection

Works from before 1925

The Noordbrabants Museum has ambitions to play a part on the national level. The permanent collection however, focuses on artifacts and artists with ties to the province. As regards the most famous North Brabant artists (Bosch, Van Gogh and the Brueghels), the museum was established too late to have a good collection of their work.

• Some works from the school of Hieronymus Bosch, but not a single work by Bosch himself. The collection gives an impression of the work the city’s most famous son.
• A handful of paintings and many etchings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1530 – 1569), born in North Brabant, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, born in Brabant, and Jan (I) Brueghel.
• Multiple paintings by David Teniers the Younger (born in Antwerp, Brabant), almost all on permanent loan from others.
• Early works by Vincent van Gogh.

Early works by Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert, North Brabant. For a provincial museum this could be reason enough to collect his work. A somewhat more relevant reason to focus on Van Gogh, is that from December 1883 till November 1885 Van Gogh worked in North Brabant. In Nuenen he worked on his Peasant Character Studies. The museum owns some of these. In Nuenen he also made the The Potato Eaters, which is owned by the Van Gogh Museum.

Apart from the Potato Eaters, these works are not the works that Van Gogh is most famous for. However, collecting the Nuenen works is in line with the focus and financial possibilities of the museum. A less obvious reason to want to have these works in North Brabant, is that many of the ‘Nuenen’ paintings depict objects that still exists in the North Brabant Landscape. The watermill at ‘t Coll is a fine example. It is open for visitors, and Van Gogh’s painting of the mill is in the museum. Many other objects painted by Van Gogh can still be seen in Nuenen and surroundings. The Watermill at Gennep is another example.

In January 2020 the museum bought ‘head of a woman’ (Dutch: Kop van een Vrouw) for 1.6 million Euro. It is probably a pre-study for The Potato Eaters.

By 2020 the museum’s Van Gogh collection gives a good overview of the works that Vincent made in North Brabant. It consists of 13 works by Van Gogh. Five owned by the museum and eight others on permanent loan from other institutions. In March 2021 the museum wants to open the permanent exposition ‘Van Gogh in Brabant’.

Works created after 1925

The museum has a good collection of works from artists who lived in 1925 or later. Here the focus is also on artists with ties to the province.

Curator

The curator is Charles de Mooij.