KROLLER-MULLER, Helene Emma Laura Juliane

(1869–1939)

   Born into a family of merchants, in 1888 Helene Muller married Dr. Anthony George Kroller (1862–1941) who was associated with the firm of Wilhelm H. Muller and Co., ship brokers at Rotterdam. The family lived in Scheveningen (near The Hague), and she became interested in modern art. Her wealth enabled her to build up a large and fine collection of paintings, drawings, and ob jets d’art. The painter and critic Hendricus Petrus Bremmer (1871–1956) was her advisor. In the woods of the Veluwe (now the national park known as the Hoge Veluwe near Otterlo), they designed a new residence, built by architect Hendrik Berlage in 1920, and a museum, built by Belgian architect Henry van de Velde in 1938. Later on, a sculpture garden was laid out in which was rebuilt the Riet veldpavilion (1965). The collection, which is now the property of the Dutch state, includes hundreds of paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, and others. Kroller Muller published a highly personal book on modern art in German: Die Entwicklung der modernen Malerei: Ein Wegweiser fur Laien (1925).